Mucking About

 

Put on your muck boots boys and girls; it's gonna get mucky!

Visit #1298, Saturday 27 March 21, 6:40-9:30AM, 1.5 miles, 23.3 lbs. of litter.

Temps in the mid-40's, sunny and warming up to the 60's quickly.

Once or twice a year I try to clean up Crow Hollow Brook as it flows through Hubbard Park. This week was ripe for the deed, but first I had other tasks to attend to.

I was in the park early, heading up the road toward Castle Craig. A large tree branch had fallen on the trail and needed some chainsaw love.

I turned around and returned to the water tank, where last week I was unable to remove one piece of graffiti.

I brought the heavy artillery; lacquer thinner. Resistance if futile.

As I headed back toward the park, I noticed so much new graffiti on the guardrail that I had to address it while I had the all the tools such as rags, brushes, lacquer thinner, and Goo Gone to complete the job.

Goo Gone goes to work almost instantly, and works best on smooth surfaces such as this sign.

You've got to wonder what prompts these people to persist with their graffiti. I cleaned this guardrail of graffiti as recent as two weeks ago, yet the same tags keep reappearing.

It's still Season of the Missing Glove, 2020/21, and here's entry #15, a lucky pair.

Back at the parking lot I donned the muck boots and followed Crow Hollow Brook toward West Main Street, cleaning the banks and stepping in the water when necessary.

The daffodils are starting to conduct business.

After following the brook down to West Main Street and cleaning one bank, I about-faced and cleaned the opposite bank. It's easier to do this early in the season while the vegetation is not in full bloom, despite the cold water. It flows pretty strongly too, especially noticed when you're standing in it!

I dropped off my bag of trash and put the muck boots away until next time.

Ah, Warmth

 It may look chilly, but the sun's warmth was surely felt, and welcomed, this morning.

Visit #1297, Sunday 21 March 21, 6:45-10:00AM, 4.8 miles, 9.5 lbs. of litter.

Temps in the 30's, quickly rising to the low 60's, sunny.

Although not quite as early as last week, I got a pre-dawn start this morning so any spray paint I applied would be dry before being stepped on. It was chilly to start.

I was heading to the wooden walkbridge to apply a second coat of spray paint over graffiti I found recently. Just prior to reaching the walkbridge, I found this note:

This note is from a forlorn hiker, to all his former hiking companions in Hubbard Park. That's the background to this soap opera. And now a word from our sponsors...

At the walkbridge, I got to my early morning work.

Hopefully this will cover better and weather nicely. Otherwise, I have a Plan B.

Almost reaching the road near Castle Craig, I found this recently fallen branch, which I 'll remove in the near future.

Walking the road down toward the reservoir I found this graffiti whose color matches that found on the walkbridge over I-691 I found and covered recently. I may have to go on the hunt to see if I can find more. Fortunately I had the brown spray paint with me which was a good downpayment on covering this.

The walk down the road to the reservoir was quieter than quarantining alone, but more enjoyable.

Heading back toward the park, on the road around Merimere Reservoir, I found a painted rock perched in a nook. The author seems to think highly of themselves.

As I reached the south end of Merimere Reservoir, I found a remnant of winter.

Find of the Week, the murder weapon.

I then reached the location of my major project this weekend, the water tank. I reported this graffiti to the Meriden Water Department in December 2020. I received a terse reply from the department, so I didn't expect a timely response, if any at all. I'll cut them some slack, considering winter was setting in then. Nevertheless, it was time for it to go, and I wasn't going to wait for this to rise to the top of their To Do List.

My initial plan was to paint over it. Of course, that would require matching paint. I brought a selection to compare. Sherwin-Williams' "Bora Bora Shore" (SW9045) was the closest match in my eyes. Remember that dear reader, should you have need to paint over graffiti on the water tank.

But that was for the future. Today I was going to try something else.

I sprayed it on every instance on the water tank, reasoning by the time I squirted the last one (about 12 of them), the first one would be ready for scrubbing. Turns out this graffiti remover evaporates and gets sticky in about 10 minutes so when I returned to the first tag and started scrubbing, it needed another application to reactivate the liquid.

However, other than learning from my mistake, it worked surprisingly well. I needed more rags than I had with me.

One tag was quite resistant to the Goo Gone, yet appears to be applied with the same paint.

I shall return in the near future with lacquer thinner to further clean my work and eliminate this stubborn piece.

Lacquer thinner is so strong it's been approved by the Vatican to remove sins from the souls of Catholics. Other religions will have to rely on plain ol' forgiveness and hope the best.

I returned to the park and dropped off my snow saucer for the week.

Paint/Unpaint

Daylight Savings Time began this morning. I took advantage of the late sunrise.

Visit #1296, Sunday 14 March 21, 6:05-9:25AM, 4.5 miles, 12.6 lbs. of litter.

Temps in the high 30's, sunny.

On Saturday I took a bike ride to Hubbard Park to firm up my plans for Sunday's adventure. Traveling up West Main Street roughly 1/2 mile from the Hubbard Park entrance, I noticed this marker in Crow Hollow Brook, adjacent to the road:

I found a similar marker farther up West Main Street, back in May of 2019, so I thought the marker in the brook was a duplicate of the former. Yet as I rode the length of West Main Street past Hubbard Park, I could not find the original. One wonders whether this marker was moved and dumped in the brook.

I believe the "C" "H" stands for Crow Hollow, the name of the brook. What the "D" represents is beyond me. I wonder if it has historical significance?

Reaching the trails in Hubbard Park, I checked on some graffiti I painted over last week, on the wooden walkbridge. I was reasonably pleased with the faded result after weathering for a week, but I may spray it again next week, or try some sandpaper.

On Sunday, I took advantage of the late sunrise and entered the trails in the stealth of darkness to paint over graffiti on the bridge abutment of the walkbridge over I-691, graffiti which was plainly visible when driving east on the highway. I was concerned if I were to paint it in daylight some passerby on the highway would call the state police and then I'd have a lot of 'splainin' to do, Lucy!

I didn't take Before photos as it was dark, but these were the results:

It wasn't easy setting up and painting in the dark with only ambient light available, but I made a best effort.

It was barely cracking sunrise when I finished, and I walked over the bridge to paint over other graffiti which I addressed last week with a wire brush. It was easier to see what I was doing now.

Done with that painting, or so I thought, I returned to my car parked across from Belmont Avenue, picked up trash around the area, then drove to the park to drop off the litter, reduce my backpack load, and start a regular hike.

While on my clockwise loop, I found one of the many painted rocks which pop up from time to time. The intended recipient's name was written on the reverse side but to protect their identity I will not show it-strange goings-on in Hubbard Park, if you know where to look!

Reaching Merimere Reservoir, I followed the road back to the park, and kept finding graffiti on the guardrail which needed to be unpainted.

After I found the second scribble, I didn't put the sandpaper away and good thing too, for I found a third.

I found Season of the Missing Glove 2020/21 Entry #14.

Ah, but my greatest find of the day, and proving that picking up litter pays, literally-

Oh yeah, I'm rich!

I dropped off my second bag of trash for the day, and went home to do some more painting, this time on my condominium walls.