The Weather Arrival of Spring

Spring finally arrives.

Visit #1249, Saturday 30 May 20, 10:40AM-1:00PM, 3.9 miles, 7.2lbs. of litter.

Temps in the high 70's, sunny with dropping humidity.

Visit #1250, Sunday 31 May 20, 5:40-6:20AM, mileage and litter n/a.

Temps in the 50's, sunny, dry, and calm.

Recent cloudy, humid, rainy days gave way throughout Saturday as warm, much drier air visited Meriden. It was time to pounce on the trails.

I hiked a counterclockwise route up to Castle Craig, encountering this new graffiti soon after I began.

I've seen this tag all over Connecticut, on I-91 from Hartford to New Haven. Fortunately, today I carried a way to deal with it.

 I had forgotten I had this product. When I rediscovered it, I was looking to use it on graffiti elsewhere in the park, which you'll later see. But since it was in my backpack on Saturday and I needed a large amount of remover, I put it to use.

It worked quickly and efficiently, using a plastic brush. I imagine the dark spot will disappear as the solvent evaporates, which it appears to do but slowly.

Up the Main Trail, below where Paul and I removed a fallen tree last week, sticky fingers got their hands on one of the cut logs and rolled it down the trail. I wondered how long it would take before this happened. In the photo, the tree is just beyond your view.

At the Halfway House someone made a "Halfway Effort" to bag some trash,.

Throughout the hike, I kept finding more pieces from our park's "rock artist".

A fan of J.Geils, perhaps?

I guess they couldn't spell "abandoned" correctly due to rock-space limitations. Or was it artistic license?

I reached Castle Craig, cleaned up the surrounding area, then followed the road to trails, over I-691, and back to the park. Several times during my hike I encountered people who were amazed at the amount of litter I collected. I prefer not drawing attention to myself so I usually do my thing early in the morning. However, I can see some benefit to working later in the day if people see me picking up trash. Perhaps it will enlighten or inspire them.

Also during my hike, I came upon Season of the Missing Glove #18.

I returned to the park and dropped off my litter for the day.

But that Goof-Off Graffiti Remover I carried with me was not put to its intended use. To do so, I would return to Hubbard Park very early Sunday morning.

(A note about the Goof-Off Graffiti Remover: I tried to link to the product, but it seems it's a discontinued product. Looks like this will be my last bottle. 😞)

I parked outside the north end of Hubbard Park and walked toward Merimere Reservoir.

I recently spotted this new graffiti. That gray spot above my backpack is graffiti I painted over some time in the past.

 Here I applied the Goof-Off and used both a plastic bristle and wire bristle brush. It worked okay and time spent was not too long. I'll return later to check on it after it evaporates to inspect.

The other piece of graffiti was a bit further along the north end of the reservoir.

After trying the Goof-Off on the previous piece, I decided to compare it against lacquer thinner.

 Lacquer thinner was more expensive and clearly not as effective as it is on smooth surfaces, despite scrubbing here. No matter; in anticipation of such a result, I brought the big guns.

 Paint is clearly the quickest and most effective for dealing with graffiti on pavement. I'm always learning.

Done with my early morning task, I paused to enjoy the sun as it walks up the hills surrounding Merimere Reservoir.

The Wet and the Dead

The rain was coming after me.

Visit #1248, Saturday 23 May 20, 7:30AM-12:40PM, 8.4 miles, 20.4lbs. of litter.
Temps in the high 60's, showers developing.

Visit #1248x, Sunday 24 May 20, 6:30-7:30AM, mileage and litter n/a.

I called up reliable pal Paul Bernier to assist me in removing a fallen tree across a trail which I discovered last week.

We started early, hoping to avoid the forecasted rain.

Here's my assistant, resting after some heavy lifting.

With Paul's assistance, the job went MUCH quicker than had I done it all myself. We were finished in under 30 minutes.

Afterward, Paul and I parted ways. I hiked some trails up to West Peak, then returned to the park via the road, picking up litter along the way. Unfortunately, my luck didn't hold out, and it started to rain.

The rain didn't seem to bother this guy.

Nearing the gate, I found yet another of what's becoming the ubiquitous painted rocks.

Upon reaching the dumpster to drop off my collected litter for the day, both my camera and my weight scale were dead so I couldn't document my work. 😞

I decided to return to the park early Sunday morning with working equipment.

First I took a hike, and when I arrived at the Halfway House I found someone had ripped off one of the boards surrounding the support posts, and the board split in half along its length. I knew I had to fix it before the board went missing or was broken further.

I returned to the park, pulled my trash bag out of the dumpster and weighed it, along with litter collected on Sunday.

Later Sunday afternoon, I returned yet again armed with the tools make repairs at the Halfway House.

First, I had to remove all the brads originally used to install the board.

Then I used screws I had on-hand at home to secure the board. In the photo, you can see where the board was split along its length.

I had performed similar repairs in September 2010 and they've avoided sticky fingers since then so I don't see why this will fare any worse.

Happy Memorial Day.

Following The Art Trail

The trail pops with color after Friday night's rain.

Visit #1247, Saturday 16 May 20, 6:00-8:30AM, 5.4 miles, 15.3lbs. of litter.
Temps in the high 50's, sunny.

After finding a number of "artisan" rocks and cute signs last week on the trails on the south side if I-691, I suspected I might find more if I ventured farther out onto the trails.

So on last Tuesday I rode my mountain bike on those trails to see if I'd find anything.

I encountered an art show.

Here's the mountain bike view.

I also found "Colorado'd" Tree, Hubbard Park version,  #19. Sorry for the blurry photo. Someone has to be pretty cruel to damage trees like this one.

I had a busy schedule on Saturday so I started my hike very early. Call me Cruella de Vil, but I removed all the painted rocks and signs to retain a clean, woodsy nature of the trails.

I reached the Colorado'd tree and used a limbing saw to remove it.

Further along the main trail, between the Halfway House and Merimere Reservoir, I found a fallen tree  just a tad too large for my limbing saw. That means next weekend will be a Power Tool Weekend®!

Face masks continue to be a frequent find. I picked up at least half a dozen on Saturday.




I returned to the park with my trash. My Find of the Week was the metal front panel from a very old TV set. As I said last week, someone is finding this junk off-trail and placing it were I will likely find it.

Here's a parting suggestion: Early morning at Merimere Reservoir is the ideal place to pitch a chair and read the newspaper...

The Covid Crawl

...not Covid-19. From a rock I found in Hubbard Park on Saturday.

Saturday 9 May 20, 8:30-10:40AM, 4.4 miles, 24.0 lbs. of litter.

Temps in the low 40's with a high, chilly wind, sunny.

I was on a short leash, so I stuck to the trails on the south side of I-691 this Saturday.

That wasn't the only painted rock I found on Saturday. This one reminds me of Maine and L.L. Bean for some reason.

I also found some unusual trash left trailside where it was likely not dumped, but fished out of the woods by someone.

What you have is a piece of a child's toy, a child-sized pool table, and a muffle housing. One hand was full with a trash bag and I had to think of a way to carry all this back to the park.

I tied everything together with rope I carry for just such uses. I added a car part to the collection, which made the rope a necessity.

It's been said, "If you don't know how to tie a knot, tie a lot." I TIED A KNOT; in fact a couple knots-a bowline, and a half-hitch with a bight. It's secure, and pulling on the end of the bight undoes the rope.

But that's not all. Here again, far from where it would likely be dumped, I found a car tire. I rolled the tire and carried everything else all the way back to the park and to the dumpster at the Parks and Rec garage, where I dropped it off with my first bag of trash.

While on the trails, I found a new addition to some of the existing trail markers. No telling what it means. I wonder if our park rock-painter installed it.

I allotted myself another hour to clean up inside the park proper. I wanted to see how much Covid-related litter I'd find, if any. It was sort of a look into society at this point in time.

Of course, after picking up all this Covid-related litter, one wonders whether I'll contract the virus from any of it... stay tuned for that.

It didn't matter that the Hubbard Park pool is closed; this robin found their own pool to bathe in. Resourceful bugger.

I managed to clean up roughly half of the park before I ran out of time. The playscape, bandshell, pavilion, and brook areas, or roughly the eastern portion park.

Until next week...cough cough hack...