2021 Year End Tally

 It was a quieter than usual Sunday in Hubbard Park as people recovered from Christmas Day activities. Hangovers? Sore arms from opening presents? Who knows?

Visit #1343, Sunday 26 December 21, 7:55-10:55AM, 4.6 miles, 14.7lbs. of litter.

Temps in the 40's and sunny. Quite comfortable for a December morning. The days are getting longer, too!

I wanted to pick up where I left off, using my pole saw to trim overhanging branches on the road around Merimere Reservoir. The trip to the starting point was a bit dicey; light snow on Christmas Day turned to slush, which froze overnight. While temperatures were to rise well above freezing today, they first had to get there. The conditions were certainly questionable for the few runners I saw this morning. One passing runner equated it to a certain level on the Super Mario video game! I don't think the runner's name was Luigi...

I reached my starting point, roughly adjacent to the north end of Miner's Island, and picked up where I left off.

At the water treatment plant, I see the iron I left there TWO WEEKS AGO has still not been picked up by the water department. I actually saw the water department employee leave the site this morning and drive right by it...

I dropped off the pole saw at my car and continued on, hiking the trails on the south side of I-691.

Along the way I found Season of the Missing Glove 2021/22, Entry #1. Winter doesn't officially begin until I find my first lost glove!

Around this time a police officer stopped by and asked if I had seen a man wearing black pajama bottoms; they were looking for a missing Alzheimer's sufferer. I kept an eye out but didn't see anyone matching that description.

I returned to the parking lot and dropped off my last trash bag of the year.

And the 2021 year end tally is:

240.6 miles hiked; 694.0 lbs. of litter collected; chainsaw use, 44 times.

The Calm AFTER the Storm

 

Oh, there was a righteously chilly breeze out there Sunday.

Visit #1342, Sunday 19 December 21, 8:00-10:15AM, 5.1 miles, 13.9 lbs. of litter.

Temps in the low 40's, cloudy but clearing after Saturday's rain.

Saturday's rain wasn't exactly a storm; just daylong intermittent showers with a raw wind, the kind that makes you want to stay inside and drink tea. I stayed inside but I didn't drink tea; I drank a Moxie, because I'm that kind of a guy.

Fortunately the rain was being pushed out early Sunday morning as I started my hike. You could see it in the clouds and feel it in the wind. For sure it was chilly to start but once in the woods I could shed a fleece layer and feel comfortable.

I hiked up to Castle Craig, where there's a small ravine to the right of the Castle at which I wanted to pick up litter.

While I was doing my thing, I saw two guys leaving the area, both carrying Dunkin' Donuts cups. I reasoned that if they walked from the park up to Castle Craig with their cups, there either wasn't much coffee left in them of if there was, it wasn't warm any more. I wondered whether they would carry their cups back to the park or if I'd find them discarded somewhere.

Guess which happened.

The time stamps on the cups fit the timeline of when I saw them at the Castle. Kinda sad.

Anyway, I cleaned up around Castle Craig then walked the road down and back to the park.

The sun was struggling to break through the clouds at Merimere Reservoir. Eventually today, it would succeed.

A second Christmas Tree has been decorated at Echo Point.

Reaching the water treatment plant, I see the iron I left there last week has not been removed by the water department since I witnessed them tossing it aside. It would surely take them much less effort to remove that iron that it took me to carry it down from below Castle Craig, so what's the problem?!

We're charging head first into the week before Christmas, it'll be all elbow and kneepads at the malls this week and the Amazon drivers will be breaking every traffic law on the books trying to get all those last minute packages delivered. Be careful out there!

 

Heavy Lifting

 Visit #1341, Sunday 12 December 21, 7:30-9:55AM, 5.8 miles, 17.8lbs. of litter.

Temps in the low 40's, mostly sunny and very breezy.

A frosty December welcome to the incoming city councilors, who have been added to my e-mail distribution list!

Update: Last week I reported finding a wallet and my attempt to find the owner. We did correspond and I mailed the wallet out this past week, which he received and signed for yesterday.

Edwin sent me the video of his drone, which eventually led to him losing his wallet.

You can watch the video HERE.

This week I would return to the location to remove a tree fallen across the trail, and for something else.

Early Sunday morning I slung my chainsaw laden backpack on my shoulders and hiked up to just past the Halfway House to remove a tree bent over the trail.

I had been eyeballing this tree for a couple years as it bent lower and lower over the trail. This morning I finally did something about it.

Hiking up toward Castle Craig, I stopped at the fallen tree I found last week.

There's no need to step over it anymore!

Now the REAL heavy lifting would begin.

While crawling among the rocks last week, I found some wrought iron, likely from Castle Craig and certainly many decades old. I'd seen it on previous climbs on the talus slope but thought it too heavy to carry. Well, I stopped making excuses and bundled the three pieces up, added them to my backpack, and headed back to the park.

When I reached Merimere Reservoir, I had to take a break. If I had to guess, I'd say the iron added 30lbs. to my load. I'd love to know what its original purpose was and its age.

I had dreams of schlepping this all the way back to the park but the reality was, it was all to clumsy to carry. So I wimped out and dropped it off at the water treatment plant. Surely the weekend employee will pick it up when he stopped by Sunday morning...

...yet when I caught the employee's arrival later that morning, rather than throw it in his pickup, he tossed it aside and drove in the compound without a second thought. I'll be curious to see if it's gone next week.

I returned to my car and dropped off my chainsaw, then returned to the road around Merimere Reservoir for more litter pickup and another adventure.

For the past few years, there's a tree at Echo Point that gets decorated for Christmas. This year would be special because I heard there was an "ornament" with my name on it! Of course my ego had to go see if this was true.

I found the tree and the wreath.

And then there it was, an ornament with a personalized note to ME on the backside!

It makes me all warm and fuzzy to know someone's thinking of me during the holiday! (Yes; it's addressed to me. I know more than I'm revealing.)

With joy in my heart and a spring in my step after seeing the ornament, I turned around and headed back to the park. Along the way I came upon my Find of the Week.

I was going to wash this hat and take it to Goodwill, but when I traced the logo to a nationwide cannabis dispensary chain, I changed my mind.

I dropped off the last of my heavy lifting for the week, without a contact high.

Even A Blind Squirrel Eventually Finds A Nut

 The proverb in this week's title is brought to you from a yogi in the mountains of Middlefield Connecticut, pal Bob S. .

Visit #1340, Saturday 4 December 21, 12:40-3:30PM, 3.5 miles, 8.0lbs. of litter.

Once a year, when the snakes are gone and if the weather cooperates, I will try to clean the slope below Castle Craig (the Orange Trail) where unfortunately people toss their cans and bottles galore. It's very steep, loose, and clumsy work. That is what I did on Saturday.

On the lower slope of the trail, just as I was going to begin crawling around among the rocks, I found this newly fallen tree across the trail, which I'll remove next week as part of a Power Tool Weekend ®!

The photo above is when I was done picking up litter and heading back to the park.

It was while I was crawling around on the slope, far away from any trail, that I found my nut.

Well, it really wasn't my nut because I was able to track down the wallet's owner, a New York City resident no less. I'll let Edwin tell the story:

Good Morning Peter, I can't believe you found it! You won't believe the story but it is true.. and I can prove it! So last June, around the 20th I think, I went with a buddy to try out my semi new drone.. we found that Castle Craig in Meriden allows droning so we went up to the castle.. well to cut a long story short, it crashed against the tower at the top of the rock... Using the 'find my drone' feature on the app, i saw that the drone fell just below the tower but... i didn't realize what getting there would take. So, i pulled out google maps and saw the hiking trails in the area and saw that there was a trail parallel to the where the drone had fallen.. and so i started the hike. I wasn't ready, as i had just regular sneakers.. when i got somewhat close to the drone i could hear the beeping and realized it was super steep but i climbed up and found the broken drone. it was still filming too lol. well on the way down i had to sit on my butt and slide down the side of the mountain to the trail... i think it was somewhere around there that i might have dropped it. when i was sliding down i saw tons of rubbish and glass.. just made me sick to my stomach since i adore nature and hiking that i thought why would people throw so much trash there? Anyway... climbed up back to the car. drenched in sweat, it was humid that day and i was very dirty.. at the car, i realized the wallet was missing. not sure if i left it on the mountain or in the parking lot.. i looked and could not find it.. Here's the footage i recovered from the drone that day:  

I'll be sending the wallet and its contents home to Edwin as soon as I get his mailing address.

I tracked him down by comparing his driver's license photo with a photo he had posted on LinkedIn. I had to create an account just so I could contact him! I hope to cancel it before I get charged...

Just In Time For The Holiday

 

Just a few of the kajillion holiday light displays I saw while in Hubbard Park Saturday. Wrong time of day to enjoy the beauty of the lights, though!

Visit #1338, Saturday 27 November 21, 8:20-11:05AM, 2.4 miles, 33.0 lbs. of litter.

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

Visit #1339, Sunday 28 November 21, 7:15-9:40AM, 4.0 miles, 8.0 lbs. of litter.

Temps in the low 30's, cloudy with very light snow flurries.

I lost last week's Battle Royale with the Moderna Covid booster. Not only did I not visit Hubbard Park, I stayed home from work on Monday, hugging my couch. Fortunately, I recovered in time for the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, with which I planned a couple trips to the park.

The weather failed to cooperate on Black Friday, so Saturday it was.

Once a year I like to clean the slope behind the playscape, adjacent to I-691. This year it was a last minute decision but the weather was right and the ground was clear.

I made relatively quick progress so with plenty of time left on my hands, I traveled around the eastern parts of Hubbard Park and picked up litter there as well, which is how I took the opening photo.

I still had time to kill so I took it upon myself to trim the fence line adjacent to that I-691 slope. I only trimmed from the park's side of the fence, to improve clearances for parking. Here's a pair of Before/After shots that best illustrates what I did.

Sunday I called up the Special Projects Unit to continue trimming trees on the side of the road up to East and West Peak. Working north to south, I progressed to around Merimere Reservoir. If you look closely, you'll see I marked the letter "F" in red spray paint on the road to indicate where today's work stopped.

As I was walking back to the park and picking up litter, I came upon my Find of the Week, a boundary marker for Berlin/Meriden. Check out the date!

Now THAT is history. If only that marker could talk...

Repairs

 Here's a revelation: I didn't go to Hubbard Park this weekend! Read on and find out why.

In May of this year I received the first dose of the Moderna Covid-19 vaccine. No big deal; I felt "off" for a day or so but that was all.

However, when I received the second dose four weeks later, it absolutely crushed me. Aches, chills, fever; it was just like the flu. It was so bad I stayed home from work, underneath the covers, for two days.

The good thing was, when the symptoms cleared, they cleared within a matter of hours.

When I read in the Record Journal that the Spanish Community of Wallingford (SCOW) was hosting a free clinic Saturday, providing boosters and first/second shots of the various vaccines for the expanded range of eligible people, I jumped at the opportunity. Actually, I didn't jump; I rode my bike there.

What could possibly go wrong?

Well, within eight hours I was back under the covers, which is where I've been all day today and where I'll go when I'm done here while my body repairs itself.

But I feel it's a small price to pay not only for the good of myself but for others, too.

Fortunately, I still have news to report on Hubbard Park.

Along a certain road in Hubbard Park is what's called the Face Rock. Presumably a whimsical attraction created by Walter Hubbard, it had been in a state of disrepair for decades as the marble eyes were vandalized.

Local nature photographer, amateur geologist, and all around lover of Hubbard Park Bob Pagini had expressed to me the desire to repair the rock by restoring the missing eyes. But being a stickler for detail, Bob wanted EXACT replacements. That meant not just size, but color and pattern too.

His searches were coming up dry so when he told me of his plans I figured I could help.

I dived deep into the rabbit hole that is marble collecting, and it is a very deep hole indeed.

I found and contacted Robert Block, who is a published author on marble collecting. When I told him of Bob's plans, here was his reply:

"The marble remnants you show are from US machine made marbles, not German antique marbles. The colors and patterns of each company were unique since they were a trade secret. The remnants you show are in really bad shape so it is impossible to discern the pattern. The hue of blue however was only used by Akro Agate Company and Master Marble Company. Based on the remnants of pattern, it was likely Master. This would date the marbles to 1931-1941."

So it's quite possible the Face Rock, and/or its eyes, were created after the death of Walter Hubbard.

Mr. Block offered to supply me with a suitable pair of marbles but we fell out of touch.

Some time after, I learned there was going to be a marble collector's convention in October somewhere in eastern Massachussetts. I offered to drive Bob there on the hunt for those eyes.

But as luck would have it, I learned the convention was moved to; wait for it- MERIDEN! How easy is this going to be?

Needless to say, Robert Block was there as well as someone else I found through craigslist; David Lenz of Middletown. You know David is serious about marbles when he has a business card for Marbles Wanted! Both were organizers of the convention and they definitely knew their marbles.

Both were generous with their knowledge and offered to give us the marbles for free, which is remarkable because if I recall correctly, Mr. Lenz said these marbles cost $125! We did give them a token of appreciation, put the marbles in a Brinks truck, and drove them home under guard.

This past week Bob repaired the Face Rock to its former glory. Our thanks to Robert Block and David Lenz for their valuable help.

Here's the Face Rock after Bob prepped the holes for the repairs.

And here are the completed repairs.

If you don't know where the Face Rock is, make it a scavenger hunt and find it in Hubbard Park.

Eating A Sunshine Sandwich

 Many people were like me today, enjoying the meat of a Sunshine Sandwich in Hubbard Park on Saturday.

Visit #1337, Saturday 13 November 21, 9:20AM-1:10PM, 5.8 miles, 10.5 lbs. of litter.

Temps in the low 40's but quickly rising to the low 60's; sunny, but clouding up toward the afternoon.

Rain developed Friday after sundown but ended by Saturday morning bringing in a warm breeze and sunshine. The other slice of rainy bread would arrive late Saturday afternoon but in between was a perfectly comfortable day for outdoor activities, as you can see from the parking lot at Hubbard Park above.

We must have had some high winds during the week that I don't recall. The end result was downed branches in several places which, when I visited last week, were clear. I was able to remove everything without the use of tools.

On one trail, a log I'd previously cut from a downed tree had rolled into the trail. Using a web strap, I pulled it off the trail to a more permanent resting place.

I hiked the road down from East/West Peak, using my polesaw to trim overhanging branches.

Last week, I reported discovering the lock on the gate blocking access to the Maloney Canal had been cut. I also said I e-mailed the Meriden Water Department then advising them of the missing lock.

I'm pleased to say the water department replaced the lock this week, presumably because I alerted them to the condition.

But from the Glass Half Full/Half Empty Department: You would think after I e-mailed the director of the water department he would have at least replied that they would take care of the issue, and if he was in an unusually generous mood, maybe even a Thank You somewhere in there. Instead, nothing. Those annoying taxpayers; all they do is complain!

Also reported last week was finding Cat Graffiti #10. This week was number 11.

But I was duly equipped to handle this. I sprayed on my secret elixir, turned my back for mere seconds and when I turned around, it had done most of the work for me.

Next was something I didn't need to e-mail the water department nor the parks department. This annoying taxpayer took care of it.

There was quite a warm breeze from the south moving up Merimere Reservoir, creating choppy waves.

It was still sunny when I dropped off my trash for the week, but the afternoon quickly turned cloudy, then rainy, then thunderstorms (in November!), completing the Sunshine Sandwich Saturday.