What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

A rare view of Merimere Reservoir looking north from the western shore.

Visit #912, Saturday 15 November 14, 7:50-8:30AM, 1.3 miles.
Temps in the 30's, partly sunny.

Visit #913, Sunday 16 November 14, 7:10-9:30AM, 3.3 miles.
Temps in the 30's, mostly cloudy.

Visit #914, Sunday 16 November 14, 12:30-2:30PM, 3.4 miles.
Temps in the 40's, mostly cloudy.

This is the view that started it all:

See that white graffiti on the rock on the far western shore? I wanted it bad...

Several weeks ago I spied that paint all the way from the opposite side of Merimere Reservoir while walking the road north. Such an eyesore. It had to go. What could possibly go wrong?

I had also formed a mental checklist of graffiti I'd spied in various spots in the park and decided to focus on cleaning things up while picking up trash as well.

My tale of woe started Saturday morning. I was on-call.

I parked in the dirt lot at the northwest corner of Mirror Lake and started my walk, picking off graffiti as I went.

Gray spray paint said goodbye to Byron and Mary.

The flower.

I brought along a selection of earth tones. I probably should have used gray.

I reached the walkbridge over I-691.

Sandpaper took care of Alexia and Justin.

About this time, what could possibly go wrong, did. My work phone rang and I had to abandon my work for an after hours service call. The rock at Merimere Reservoir would have to wait.

Sunday morning rolled around and I decided I'd try to pick up where I left off.

Picking at this sticker on Saturday was painfully slow. Fortunately, I came up with a lickety split solution.

With my new technique I was a sticker removing fool.

60 grit sandpaper packed a powerful punch as well.

I was on a roll.

Crossing the walkbridge, I came upon a Find of the Week, an abandoned hoodie.

Say goodbye to Scott and Mariana too.

With all the small graffiti taken care of, I could now turn my attention to that rock on the western shore. With only distance between it and me, I hustled on the trails, picking up trash along the way.

Once on the western shore of a very low reservoir, I walked the western perimeter, eager to take my graffiti removing skills to that rock. What could possibly go wrong?

I never reached the rock.

My work phone rang AGAIN. This time I had to abandon my work to head to Clinton.

I dropped off the bag of trash I'd collected so far.

After completing that service call, I returned to Hubbard Park to put a period on my work.

I picked up where I left off on the western shore of the reservoir. I could smell blood. I reached the rock with the graffiti on it. What could possibly go wrong?

It wasn't graffiti.

It was bird poop. Lots of bird poop. Enough to appear to be paint, from across the entire width of Merimere Reservoir.

But to be sure, I had to see the other side of the rock up close. Which meant I would have to leap across the 4 foot gap between the shore and the rock, above. Then I would have to figure out how to get back to shore without swimming. What could possibly go wrong?

I didn't quite make it.

Afterward, I continued navigating the western shore, picking up trash, presumably from illegal fisherman, along the way. It was treacherous and slow.

Here's unique view of the spillway at the north end.

I reached the road and walked back to the park.

Just when I thought I'd never be able to outdo last week's Find of the Week, I surprised myself.

Wait for it.

Here it comes...

I swear I'm not making this up. The only things missing were the natives, some shrunken heads, and a boiling pot of oil. Give me time and I'm sure I find that stuff, too.

My bag of trash must have weighed 15lbs. by the time I reached the water treatment plant, so I decided to drop it off there.

Hopefully the masks are good juju and will ward off any evil spirits threatening the water. Either that or it will scare away the employees.

Trombones

Visit #910, Saturday 8 November 14, 10:00AM-1:05PM, 6.0 miles.
Temps in the low 50's, sunny.

Visit #911, Sunday 9 November 14, 12:45-1:30PM, 1.0 miles.
Temps in the mid-50's, sunny.

"What do you call a guy who knows how to play the trombone and doesn't?
A gentleman."

Thanks to Paul Bernier , no stranger to hard work, who assisted me in my weekly activities.

"What is the best kind of trombone?
A broken one." 

Paul called me early in the week to say another hemlock had fallen across a trail, a trail I'd just cleaned up last week. I packed up the chainsaw again and off we went.

"What do you call a trombonist with half a brain?
Gifted ."

We started at the park and walked the road to the south end of Merimere Reservoir.

"How do you save a trombonist from drowning?
Take your foot off their head."

We turned onto the trails and headed up to Castle Craig. While cleaning up the slope below the Castle, I found a Frisbee with this message on the underside:

So, nut that I am, I texted the number and had the following text conversation with Amiee Phommajack of New Haven CT:

Peter: I found the Frisbee. Is this the right phone number?

Amiee: Yes it is hahah

Peter: I wish I could say it was funny too, but it's not.

I pick up trash in Hubbard Park every week. I found your Frisbee among the discarded cans, bottles, and food wrappers on the slope below Castle Craig.

By throwing the Frisbee off from Castle Craig, all you were doing is littering. Not something to be proud of.

Amiee: lol man you should calm down it's not litter if it has a purpose other than trash

Judging by the lack of punctuation and the message, I'd say one of us failed to reap the benefits of America's educational system.

"What's the least used sentence in the English language?
Look at that trombone player's Cadillac!"

Once Paul and I reached Castle Craig, we cleaned up the parking lot and surrounding area. We also stopped to take a look at the flagpole, or rather FORMER flagpole.

Paul and I left our full trash bags at Castle Craig and opened a new pair. I'll contact the Meriden Parks Department to pick them up.

"What did the trombonist get on his I.Q. test?
Drool."

Pointing ourselves down the trail, we reached the fallen tree.

Out came the saw.

I removed another dead, standing hemlock as well.

With that taken care of, it was time for another trombone joke.

"You are driving down the street and your band director and a trombonist are crossing the street. Who do you run over first?
The band director; business before pleasure!"

This trail dropped us off at the northwest corner of Merimere Reservoir, which is at historically low levels. Word on the street is the city is making major repairs to Broad Brook Reservoir, Meriden's primary water source, so Merimere has been called to duty. P.S. Hallmere Reservoir is similarly parched.

Paul and I walked the road back to the park, picking up trash as we went along. Peering at the increasingly exposed shoreline, We spotted our Find of the Week.

Thus all the trombone jokes today!

By the way, the trombone was a "Super Artist" model made by the E.K. Blessing Co. of Elkhart Indiana, which has been in business since 1906. I couldn't find a serial number or date of manufacture, however.

We even found the sheet music holder for the trombone. I thought it would make a perfect roach clip.
I have such a potty mind!

Forgive the hairy knuckle; that's Paul's. I'm not that old yet!

Back at the park, we dropped off our last bags of trash and our Find of the Week.

One last trombone joke:

"How do you improve the sound of a trombone?
Run it over with your lawnmower." 

I returned to Hubbard Park early Sunday morning by mountain bike to perform some trail trimming not "on the books". After I was done and riding my mountain bike over the spillway at the north end of Merimere Reservoir, I ran into some park "regulars" walking their dogs. While we stopped to chat, one of the group remarked on some graffiti on the concrete. I'd previously painted over most of the graffiti but there were a few stragglers. I said nothing but vowed to myself to return the same day to finish my work and hopefully surprise him next time he walks over the bridge, which is usually daily. With the reservoir levels so low and with the moderate temperatures, I'd be foolish to not take advantage of the conditions. You can see the watermarks on the concrete.

Just past noon, I parked on the Berlin side of Hubbard Park and packed in my gear. Here are some "before" some "after" and some "in between" shots. In the end, I pretty much covered everything there is to see. This stuff had been lingering for years. I was glad to see it go.

It seemed that because the spillway is not filled with water as it usually is, people think it's okay to toss their trash into it. Since I was down in the pit I picked up all the trash when I finished painting.

Until next week, maintain.

MY (Half) Marathon-Almost

The Maloney Canal directs runoff from the mountain into the north end of Merimere Reservoir. This is a hiking trail on the berm of the canal. Looks cozy, doesn't it?

Visit #909, Sunday 2 November 14, 7:10AM-1:15PM, 12.7 miles!

Temps in the low 40's, cloudy with an unforgiving wind, gusting to +30mph.

A mountain bike ride through some of the trails in Hubbard Park early last week revealed some fallen trees which needed removing. There is also a trail contiguous to Hubbard Park which also suffered some damage from the high winds of late. I decided to tackle both trails at the same time with my chainsaw, on foot.

Little did I know, the New York City Marathon was being held on the same day. Although my distance was shy of a half marathon (13.1 miles) it was close enough for horseshoes and hand grenades and a reasonable feat considering I had my chainsaw with me.

I started at the playscape and walked the road toward the north end of Merimere Reservoir.

The water level is amazingly low.

What's also amazing is people even CONSIDER littering on what is one of Meriden's water sources.

At the north end of Merimere Reservoir I picked up the "Red Dot" trail, paralleling the road toward Castle Craig. Here was my first stretch of clearing fallen, bent, and broken trees and limbs.

What you see above is a just sampling of what I cleared.

At the top, I turned myself toward West Peak and picked up the Blue Trail, which heads north along a ridgeline and out of Hubbard Park into Southington. At the Southington end the trail performs a circuitous U-turn and points south back toward Hubbard Park.

Just shy of re-entering Hubbard Park and the uphill road toward Castle Craig/West Peak, I turned right and followed another trail that parallels the road and heads up toward the radio towers. It was on this trail I cleared more wood. After reaching my goal, the fallen tree below, I wanted to empty the fuel tank on my chainsaw so I spruced up the trail until the tank ran dry.

Along the way up, I spied a plastic bag discreetly tucked into the base of a fallen tree, slightly off the trail. Retreiving it, I could hear and feel cans inside but the bag was too heavy for all the cans to be empty. To satisfy my curiosity, I opened the bag for my Find of the Week:

Inside were four cans of Budweiser beer (double bagged, no less!) and two of the cans were unopened as if they were stashed there for future use. Sorry, but someone may be disappointed.

Reaching the road, I pointed myself down to the walkbridge over I-691 and back to the park, completing my near half-marathon. I probably felt better than anyone who completed the real deal in New York City today.

Don't forget to vote on Tuesday!