Say Hello To My Little Friend(s)

(Caution: Graphic Content)

Not exactly like Tony Montana, but...

Visit #1307, Sunday 16 May 21, 6:50-9:45AM, 3.9 miles, 5.4 lbs. of litter.

Temps in the low 60's, partly sunny.

Hiking is making me soft. Not enough exertion, except maybe on the rare occasion when I'm pulling tires out of the dirt.

I needed to up my game. So say hello to my little friends:

My first outing tells me the weight is right, adding a little effort to my step.

But I didn't use them on Thursday, when I took a mountain bike ride through the park to address a couple punch list items so I could free up my route on the weekend.

Last week I spied some graffiti but the locations didn't fit the following week's agenda. So I combined a bike ride with a little park maintenance.

I packed my Camelbak for action.

First off was this power pole near the water treatment plant.

I tried "dry" methods i.e., a wire brush and sandpaper, before applying GooGone, which was eventually needed to finish the job.

 

Past the north end of Merimere Reservoir, removed from the road yet still on watershed land and near a trail, I found this repeat graffiti.

This is the 7th time I've found this tag.

While I brought lacquer thinner, it tends to remove EVERYTHING, including the sign paint. So I tried the GooGone first. The first application, with no wait time, worked incredibly well. I applied it a second time, waited 60 seconds, and the sign was perfect.

That done, I enjoyed a mountain bike ride on the trails around the Halfway House, where I was able to get ideas on what I wanted to do and where I wanted to hike with "my new friends" on Sunday.

So Sunday's hike lead me to this scarf, which I wash and deliver to Goodwill.

Are the pants in the crotch of the tree, or is the tree in the crotch of the pants? These will NOT be going to Goodwill, for I dreaded to look inside and see why they were abandoned.

I was going to trim this branch when I spied the homeowner. Sorry 'bout the blurry photo; as much as I tried, I couldn't get my camera to take a macro photo of the frog.

My work on Sunday paid off handsomely.

I dropped off my trash for the week, my legs still feeling fresh despite the ankle weights.

While the daffodils are past their bloom in Hubbard Park for the year, there's plenty of green to be had through the spring and summer. Get out there, with or without your "friends" and enjoy it.