Ahead of the Crowd

 

Participants in the 53rd Bernie Jurale Memorial Tradition Run were greeted Sunday with comfortably cool, very calm conditions, and a clean road to Castle Craig.

Visit #1407, Sunday 22 January 23, 7:05-9:30AM, 5.2 miles, 18.7lbs. of litter.

Temps in the low 30s, overcast, calm, and seasonably comfortable.

I chose to start today well ahead of the arrival of any participants in the Bernie Jurale Tradition Run, and I hiked the event route to Castle Craig to ensure things looked purty by picking up any litter along the way.

Along the road I noticed a considerable number of trees have recently been removed as I kept seeing piles of wood chips, and piled logs.

I concluded it must be the work of the Meriden Water Department and not the Parks Department because the work stopped at the bottom of the road climb up to the peaks/entrance gate to the Maloney Canal.

At Echo Point, I found the holiday wreath, which was put up sometime in early December along with the nearby Christmas Tree decorations, had yet to be removed, but the tree decorations were gone.

I wasn't waiting any longer and took care of the former.

...while the road to Castle Craig awaited the runners, walkers, and probably some pets.

Last week's rain is bringing back satisfactory water levels to Merimere Reservoir.

We're supposed to get more rain tonight. Cloudy skies over Meriden predict the future.

I cleaned up area surrounding Castle Craig then hiked down and over I-691.

Enroute I visited a dead end trail where last week I found a bed sheet fabricated into a hammock.

I cut the bed sheet free and stuffed it in my bag of trash.

Also last week, as I returned to the parking lot, I noticed someone had hung a presumably forgotten jacket on the bronze statue of Noah, at the Adventure Hollow Playground. At that time I decided to leave it to see if it would be claimed. I returned this week to find the jacket still there. I removed the jacket and took it home for cleaning, then I'll take it to Goodwill.

Good thing I arrived early this morning for when I finished my hike, the parking lot was full of cars as people continued to arrive for the Tradition Run, due to start roughly thirty minutes later. Any event that has lasted 53 years is certain to have a following. Here's to the next 53 years!