This Week In Hubbard Park: Labor Day Weekend, Where My Labor Gets No Respect

Might as well start off with a little "No Respect" humor, from the king himself.

Visit #1325, Saturday 4 September 21, 7:20AM-12:20PM, 6.8 miles, 1.7lbs. of litter.

Temps in the low 70's, sunny and dry.

Visit #1326, Sunday 5 September 21, 7:20-8:20AM, 1.0miles, 12.4lbs. of litter.

Temps in the 60's, cloudy with mosquitoes, arrrgh!

Saturday I parked outside the north end of Hubbard Park and planned a long hiking route, to finish clearing the trails of fallen trees and branches from Tropical Storm Henri. Little did I know, my day would be much longer than I expected.

But first, an alert hiker found this note in Hubbard Park last week, obviously addressed to me.

Forget the grammar and spelling errors; apparently some people think I should to do all the work, in ALL of Meriden's parks, while they do nothing. I tell ya' I don't get no respect at all!

Anyway, I crossed the north end of Merimere Reservoir and picked up the Blue Trail along the ridge line, removing any fallen trees and branches with my chainsaw. The weather was absolutely spectacular.

You can see there wasn't much need for my chainsaw on the Blue Trail; most of my work was limited to my loppers.

I reached the Orange Trail leading down from Castle Craig. At the bottom I found this note.

I reached the next objective on my planned route, a fallen tree on the Main Trail, courtesy of Henri.

It was while cleaning this up that a hiker came along and informed me of a very large tree that had fallen across the trail adjacent to the entrance to the I-691 walkbridge. I had been there last week cleaning up after Henri and it wasn't there then. My curiosity piqued, I decided to hike away from my planned route and check things out.

Boy, the remnants of Hurricane Ida were no slouch in the fallen tree department!

This tree was BIG. The best I could do for now was to clear a modest path for hikers. The 16" bar on my chainsaw wasn't enough to tackle this job so I would have to return at some point with a longer bar.

I turned around and resumed my original plans to clear the final trail from Tropical Storm Henri damage.

Here's the first tree, which I found on my recon bike ride roughly a week ago to assess storm damage.

I finished this trail and was out of water, food, and enthusiasm. I called it a day.

But that large tree, on such a heavily traveled trail, was on my mind. I was thinking it wouldn't take long to remove it if properly equipped and with it being Labor Day Weekend, the trail would likely see considerable usage so should be presentable if possible. So early Sunday morning I parked in the SMALL dirt parking area across from Belmont Avenue and walked the hundred yards or so to the tree.

Working with safety first in mind, and with the proper tools, the tree dropped with no harm to your dear author.

The series of cuts resulted in cookie-cutter pieces.

Once safely on the ground, I cleaned up the trail as best as one could considering the damage.

Who is responsible for the fence and whether it will be repaired is a question I don't have the answer to.

After I was done here, I returned to the parking area across from Belmont Avenue and did the right thing, picking up litter (including a two-piece artificial Christmas tree complete with lights!), and trimming away brush from the gate so it would look presentable.

While doing so, a party of two cars arrived. This parking area will REASONABLY accommodate two cars and I was already there. The driver of one car asked if I could move my car over so he could fit his in. I told him I would be done in fifteen minutes and if he waited I would be leaving after I finished my work.

He responded by saying, "You can fit four cars in this spot." Whereupon I suggested he COULD PARK IN HUBBARD PARK INSTEAD. After all, I'm doing ACTUAL WORK TO KEEP THE TRAILS CLEAN, and HE'S JUST HIKING, so where he parks shouldn't matter and he should be considerate and show his appreciation of my labor by parking elsewhere this time. Yet he was determined to park as close to the trailhead as possible.

Instead of waiting or parking in Hubbard Park, this is how close he parked to me. One wonders how he managed to get out of his car.