Storm Henri Leaves A Surprise

 Visit #1324, Sunday 29 August 21, 8:00AM-12:50PM, 6.9 miles, 21.9lbs. of litter.

Temps in the 70's, cloudy but pleasant.

Hurricane Henri was dowgraded to a tropical storm by the time it reached Connecticut. I agreed, because while it rained a reasonable amount, the wind wasn't impressive.

While not impressive, it turned out to have dropped a good number of trees in Hubbard Park.

I originally planned on painting over graffiti this week but changed my priorities due to Henri.

Earlier in the week, on Thursday, I took a mountain bike ride in Hubbard Park to see if there was any storm damage, and there was. I wouldn't be able to address all of it in one week, maybe three. I would start close to the park proper and work the most used trails.

Starting behind the water tank, I found this fallen tree on my Thursday mountain bike ride. Not exactly something I could bunny-hop on my bike.

On Sunday I came equipped for anything, including an extra chainsaw bar and chain, just in case the bar got stuck. Fortunately, that didn't happen.

Further up the trail, near the Merimere Reservoir end-

Safety was the operative word when dealing with this tree, which was still attached to the trunk about fifteen feet above ground. I would have to "walk" the tree across the trail as I cut it.

And just when I thought there were no more large trees, I found this beast on the steep trail up to Castle Craig. The chainsaw should give you a sense of the relative size of this tree.

In the photo above, I had already dropped a good section of it. The oak was truly dense, and I had to cut the tree into manageable pieces in order to remove it from the trail, using up precious fuel.

One passing hiker was skeptical I would succeed. Hah!

I couldn't spend any time cleaning up around Castle Craig; The large trees I encountered consumed a lot of time.

Taking a trail down toward Merimere Reservoir, I removed another tree, reported to me earlier in the week by an alert hiker.

At the bottom of the trail, I pointed myself back up the road toward East and West Peak, picking up litter I spied on that mountain bike ride earlier in the week.

Along the way I found these two soaked to the bone books. I've found abandoned books before; I wonder if they came from the Little Library adjacent to the playscape?

Adding two waterlogged books to my bag made it very heavy. Then I found this cardboard box and packaging from a five cubic foot freezer, all too large to fit in a trash bag, so I left it roadside, intending to retrieve the items with my car. When I returned with my car, I was surprised to discover a good samaritan had already taken them.

I did retrieve a second bag, which I left further up the road but forgot to document. I'm sure you're disappointed...

I hiked the trails down toward I-691, finding my last chainsaw candidate for the day.

I was pleased I didn't run out of fuel.  Hubbard Park hikers; please be patient as it will take at least a couple more weeks to clear the remaining trees from the trails.