Geek!

 Yeah, I might as well admit it.

Visit #1480, Sunday 26 May 24, 6:50-9:50AM, 5.2 miles, 4.0 lbs. of litter.

Temps in the 60s, rising to the 80s, sunny and dry.

I work in the communications industry, and part of my job has me listening to police/fire/emergency services frequencies among other transmissions. I use a handheld scanner to troubleshoot, and have been using mine a lot lately at work. I don't normally listen when I'm not working but I'll admit it's fun when I do.

I got the bright idea to bring my scanner along with me today to see what the reception would be like in a high location such as Castle Craig.

I walked around Merimere Reservoir and hiked the Blue Trail up along the ridgeline.

Good thing I took this route; I found more than one tree down across the trail. I shall return next week to remove them on a Power Tool Weekend®.

Reaching Castle Craig I promptly put the scanner to work and was surprised at the coverage.

Danbury, East Hartford; I was also able to hear Manchester and Waterbury all in under five minutes of listening. If you're a scanner geek, that's impressive!

While at Castle Craig I did clean up the parking lot but quite frankly, I was impressed on how clean it was considering it was the weekend. Unfortunately a passing runner informed me West Peak wasn't so clean. Alas I only had so much gas in my legs and West Peak was beyond my schedule today so I had to ignore the siren call.

Among today's finds were a thin balaclava. This isn't going to Goodwill; I lost my thin balaclava and claim this as my replacement.

Adding evidence to my assertion that people who leave graffiti likely flunked their spelling classes was this find today:

Hiking back to the parking lot, I stopped at the kiosk at the dirt parking area in the northwest corner of Mirror Lake. While I noticed some new flyers announcing cool summer concerts on the Meriden Green, I also noticed some new graffiti on it.

The cover is acrylic/plexiglass so using most removers is a no-no. The Goof-Off I had with me warns against usage on plexiglass but I decided to test on just a corner. It seemed okay so I gambled and went to town on both halves of the kiosk, wiping off the remover immediately. I think I dodged a bullet this time. If you have a better solution that doesn't attack plexiglass, let me know.

Now it's time to enjoy the remainder of the Memorial Day Weekend holiday. I hope you enjoy it, too.

A Knotty Situation

 Today I learned WD-40 is a great lube for dry, balky zippers. I also learned today's backpack load weighed 24 lbs.!

Visit #1479, Sunday 19 May 24, 6:00-9:15AM. 6.0 miles, 15.6 lbs. of litter.

Temps in the high 50s/low 60s, cloudy and breezy.

I was hoping to start Sunday's hike at early dawn so as to not draw attention to someone who may appear to be wielding boltcutters on the fence surrounding the I-691 walkbridge. I got lazy and started too late.

Fortunately, my time spent cutting off the padlock I found last week was maybe fifteen seconds.

I moved on, stalking for Hubbard Park's serial graffiti vandal, covering over or removing whatever new items I might find.

In an unusual discovery, I found these, I guess you might call them "prayer notes" on the trails. Here are two of them. The handwriting is difficult to read so I'll give you a partial interpretation.

"This is for another day of rain."

"This is for the food I eat."

"This is for my semi health."
And so on.

I continue to find piles of broken glass deliberately placed in the center of the trails. This is not good for

people who hike with their dogs.

I moved on to West Peak.

I was recently contacted by a park goer who informed me of some camp chairs up beyond West Peak. I went in search of them, hiking a good distance beyond the radio towers. I had given up on finding them when on the return trip toward West Peak I found them!

I guess I'm an S.O.B.

Carrying them back to the park was going to take some doing, but I had a solution to ease the work.

I carry two, five foot pieces of rope for just such situations. I also carry a basic knowledge of knots.

Using each piece, I tied the chairs together using a Running Bowline knot at each end.

Then I tied the loose ends of each rope together using a Double Sheet Bend. A "bend" is the process of tying two pieces of rope together. There are several different types of bends that can be learned.

All in all, I created a sling, which I, wait for it-slung over my shoulder for the long hike down the road from West Peak, past Merimere Reservoir, and back to the park.

Mother Nature on Mothers' Day

 "Change is the handmaiden Nature requires to do her miracles with."

-Mark Twain.

Visit # 1478, Sunday 12 May 24, 6:20-8:50AM, 4.8 miles, 1.0 lbs. of litter.

Temps in the low 50s, cloudy with possible showers later today.

The trails are constantly changing, whether eroding from rain runoff or from dying, falling trees.

This week I would seek the latter.

Enroute to those trees, on walkbridge over I-691, I found some new graffiti which I stopped to remove.

Tools out, and some scrubbing...

Further along the bridge I found this:

Last December I reported finding a rash of padlocks on the bridge. Turns out it's a thing, called Love Locks. I'll return next week to remove this one.

Onward to the fallen trees which I discovered last week, all on the same trail.

Here you can see some of my prior trail clearing work in the background.

Done trying to tame Mother Nature for the day, I walked back to the park.

Along the way I found illegal fishing season in Merimere Reservoir is open for the year.

Cloudy skies tell me Mother Nature will soon be sending showers down on Mothers' Day.

Can't Catch A Break

 

Despite rescheduling the Daffodil Festival this year in an attempt to avoid early spring rains, Mother Nature cut it no slack on Sunday.

Visit #1477, Sunday 5 May 24, 8:25-10:10AM, 4.2 miles, 1.0 lbs. of litter.

Temps in the 50s, cloudy with showers threatening all day.

With the Daffodil Festival in full swing this weekend I could forget about easy access to Hubbard Park.

I entered through the north end of Merimere Reservoir and hiked a couple trails; one parallels the road up to East/West Peak, and the other parallels down.

The trail up was clear of fallen trees. Reaching the road I followed it toward the trail which leads down. 

It turned out to be a good choice of route today as the trail down has several fallen trees across it, which I plan to remove next week.

Below you can see where some mountain bikers with no skills 😉 had to build a stone ramp over a fallen tree.

Let's hope for drier weather next weekend.