Following the Evidence

Despite the high temps and humidity, it was a good degree cooler and drier on the shaded trails.

Bugs weren't an issue either.

Visit #1259, Saturday 18 July 20, 6:40-9:50AM, 5.1 miles, 7.2lbs. of litter.

Temps in the 70's and climbing to 90 today, very high humidity.

Last week I found graffiti on the Halfway House which needed attention, and the trail leading directly up to Castle Craig was narrowed and overgrown, so today I would trim it back.

In the past I've commented on the number of empty water bottles I find on the trails. In fact, I once devoted an entire blog post to the issue.

With the ongoing Covid-19 work and school restrictions, I noticed a significant increase in the number of discarded water bottles on the trail.  This week I decided to photograph every bottle I found. You count 'em; see if the number makes an impression on you. It's been like this every week since the Covid-19 shutdown began and people started flocking to Hubbard Park to alleviate stay-at-home pressures. And I don't cover every trail each time I hike, so I'm sure there are more bottles out there.

People actually pay upwards of $1/bottle for this stuff, when my faucet mounted water filter will provide the same great tasting water at roughly 1.33 cents per bottle. And don't forget the 5 cents they tossed away with the bottle. Am I missing something?

Now that we have THAT out of the way...

Hiking up toward the Halfway House, I found a newly fallen tree on the trail behind the water tank.

I'll remove it from the trail next week.

Before I began work on the graffiti at the Halfway House, I found Painted Rock #25.

To reach the graffiti, I had to stand on the stone wall. I used brown spray paint to cover it, although I apparently forgot to take an After photo here.

Now, this second piece of graffiti at the Halfway House was higher up, and difficult for me to reach. After thinking about it for a couple days, I came up with a home brew solution.

But before I show my solution, a little background on this graffiti tag.

It first appeared on my radar in May 2020. Earlier this week, I noticed the same tag elsewhere in Meriden, on West Main Street roughly adjacent to each other.

So they are a versatile graffiti artist (I use that term VERY loosely); they work in both spray paint and crayon/grease pencil/whatever. I was concerned the spray paint would not adhere to whatever was used at the Halfway House. And I had to be able to reach it.

I took a length of wood and glued a sponge to it.

I then glued a piece of 100 grit sandpaper to the sponge.

With this widget I was able to sand the markings prior to paint. Done.

I used the rest of my can of spray paint covering over various other eyesores on the Halfway House, including graffiti Cat #7, first appearing in November 2016.

Just prior to turning onto the trail to take me to Castle Craig, I found Painted Rocks #26 and 27.

On the reverse side of the rock on the right, I found this message:

The author obviously knows me and has a (rock) chip on their shoulder. I can rock that. I must be popular. Here's what Dirty Harry would say to me:

Heading up the steep trail to Castle Craig, I noticed last week the trail needed some attention. I spent some time with hedge clippers and loppers trimming the brush. I couldn't capture the results well on camera, so you'll have to go there and see for yourself.

Reaching Castle Craig, I performed a cursory cleaning of the area, and the parking lot. My reward was finding this full can of Sprite! Yeah, it was bulging and dented but it was still sealed.

I hiked the trails down, collecting litter and cataloging all the water bottles. I was getting hotter and steamier as I walked, and I was glad to finish the day under somewhat sane temperatures.

I dropped off my trash for the week...

...then went home and popped open a cold one. Ahhh...