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.