Solo Act

 After last week's Three Peaks Challenge (with all those people!) I was ready to get back to a crowd of one.

Visit #1562, Saturday 15 November 25, 7:25-10:00AM, 5.3 miles, 4.0 lbs. of litter.

Starting temps below freezing, warming up to 40 by hike's end, sunny.

As I left the parking lot at the start of my hike, I was passed by three vehicles, all heading to the parks maintenance building. It took me a while to figure out what was going on. Then I got the hint.

The parks department is getting ready for the festival of lights in Hubbard Park, and they are going  to be oh so busy to be ready by Thanksgiving.

Rounding the north end of Merimere Reservoir I picked up a trail I had not been on in at least over a month. I expected to find some fallen trees so I needed to take inventory. I was not disappointed.

I'm still with a borrowed chainsaw while mine is in the hospital. I'll return next week with the loaner and remove these two.

I reached the road at the top and began to take the Blue Trail down but was interrupted by some graffiti which needed my attention. I was more than happy to oblige.

Today I continued to find and remove those foam stars which someone has a serial addiction to plastering all around Hubbard Park's trails.

At the Beehive Fountain, I discovered someone's attempt to replace and repair a missing stone. This is a good deed.

But on the backside of the fountain, I found their discarded cup of mortar, lid, and vinyl gloves. This is a bad deed, and cancels out their good deed plus some.

Down near the I-691 walkbridge, are the remains of a Volkswagen which I'd guess has been there since the 1960s. Through time it has become mostly covered in rocks and dirt.

I discovered a small body panel had freed itself from the debris so I picked it up and carried it back to the park.

On the trail back to the park one of my detractors, likely the person with the foam stars, wrote my name on a log I'd recently cut and removed from the trail. From their note I found last month, it was to be expected.

I don't imagine we can blame Marta Kwiczor, who ordered this sheet music, for dumping it on the trail. Likely was one of her Washington Middle School students.

If you ask me, it's still too early for Christmas music, but go tell that to the stores!

I stopped at the dirt parking lot adjacent to Mirror Lake to perform a little cleanup picked up some interesting finds -

Someone lost their cellphone and it appears to have been run over by a car. Expensive.

I also found this carabiner -

What makes this interesting is I JUST BOUGHT A CARABINER LAST WEEK for my truck! Had I found this a week ago I could have saved six bucks.

Lastly, I found a winter headband, good for the upcoming cold weather. Off to Goodwill it will go.