Puerto Rican Festival Weekend

 The geese are chillin', waiting for the party to begin.

Visit #1435, Sunday 6 August 23, 6:35-8:25AM, 3.5 miles, 10.0 lbs. of litter.

Temps in the high 60s, sunny with moderate humidity.

Second week in a row with wonderful summer weather. I could get used to this!

Recommendations for parking at this weekend's Puerto Rican Festival in Hubbard Park were:

"The parking lot at Hubbard Park, at 999 West Main St., is mainly for performers and food vendors. If there’s extra space, the public can park at the lot until full. A free shuttle will be available from noon to 8 p.m. and will provide transportation from Lincoln Middle School, at 164 Centennial Ave., to the festival."

With that knowledge, I wasn't going to fight for a parking space for my weekly activities or take a shuttle bus, so I started early.

From the parks department truck parked at the water treatment plant, it looks like no one will be visiting Castle Craig or West Peak today. But it will be a perfect day to walk the road up to the peaks, unencumbered by vehicles.

Soon to be upstaged for my Find of the Week, I found a leash-without the dog attached.

Near the south end of Merimere Reservoir, I found this memorial card.

I redacted their identity from the card as a courtesy. This is the second time I've found a memorial card for this person, having found the first card back in May This time, I followed the QR code on the back side to a web site and contacted the source, asking them to not leave these cards in Hubbard park as they are the equivalent "of graffiti or litter." I tried to be diplomatic about the issue. We'll see if this creates a kerfuffle.

While weeding in my yard on Saturday, I remembered I wanted to spray some weeds on the walkbridge over I-691. So I packed up the unused weed killer and when I reached the walkbridge, sprayed both ends until I emptied the sprayer.

Reaching the south end of the bridge, I found this cat face cutout. It was the second one I found today. The other one I found at the Halfway House. I'm always finding strange stuff.

But the strangest thing I found today, and my Find of the Week, was a car battery, found at the parking area at the northwest corner of Mirror Lake.

I wasn't going to lug this brute far, so I placed it next to a No Parking sign believing the parks department will shake their heads (as I did when I found it) then remove it.

If you went to the Puerto Rican Festival this weekend I hope you had fun, and brought some Beano.

I know I'd need it!

I'll be home chillin' like a goose.

Fever Broke

 After a week of heat wave conditions, the weather turned glorious, ushered in by a late Saturday thunderstorm. I couldn't help but think of Todd Rundgren's song, "Fever Broke" because that's how the change in weather felt to me. Go ahead and give it a listen while you read on.

As I hiked around Merimere Reservoir, I kept an eye out for graffiti on the spillway and found some, which I removed in less time than it took to photograph.

It was my brass brush which did the lickety-split.

Up at West Peak I continued my roadside trimming project. This week I began to trim the perimeter of the West Peak parking lot. I did this once before, in 2015. At that time, I wasn't aware of such a thing as a pole saw, so I used my loppers and a step ladder. It wasn't as efficient and the reach wasn't as great. Now that I have a pole saw I will give the parking area a proper, enduring haircut in the next two weeks or so.

I stopped after one hour and hiked back to the park, enjoying the change in weather all the way.

A Summer One-Eighty

 What a pleasant morning, and what a difference a week makes, weather-wise.

Visit #1433, Sunday 23 July 23, 5:45-7:35AM, 3.3 miles, 4.5 lbs. of litter.

Temps in the low 60s, sunny and dry.

The last two weeks have been rough with either steamy, high temperatures and sun or steamy high temperatures and rain. Sunday morning greeted me with late August conditons; sunny, cool, and dry, with a slight breeze, Ahhh, relief!

I had to hike early for I was to meet a subcontractor at my house early Sunday morning for renovation work, which is why I struck out to Hubbard Park before the sun rose.

I can almost umderstand how people can forget a clothing item and leave it in the park, but a bicycle?

Trust me; this early in the morning there was no one around that could claim it was theirs.

Walking up the road toward Merimere Reservoir, I decided some roadside trimming was in order.

Not quite visible in the Before/After photos, although you can see the cut foliage on the ground in the second pic.

I performed much more trimming today, especially thorn bushes.

Even after reaching the walkbridge over I-691, I saw the sun hadn't quite risen enough to brighten Meriden.

On the far side of the walkbridge I found some graffiti on the bollards. I spent more time getting the sandpaper out of my backpack than I did actually sanding the graffiti.

Trying to fill out my "two hour minimum" in the park I spent some time cleaning up around a picnic table where it was obvious to me a birthday party was recently held. That's where most of this week's litter came from.

A Wet One Indeed

 

It's late morning and the parking lot at Hubbard Park was empty, except for me. Where were all the fun hogs?!

Visit #1432, Sunday 16 July 23, 11:00AM-12:20PM, 3.7 miles, 2.0 lbs. of litter.

Temps in the low 80s, very humid and raining. A tornado warning was in effect.

This rain wasn't going to let up all day. It was so warm a rain coat was not needed even if you were soaking wet. Ask me how I know.

Even I have my limits; today was no day for long hikes or tree trimming. I hiked a short loop.

Crossing over I-691 it was plainly obvious it was a wet day.

The trails were not any different.

The Halfway House was good shelter from the storm.

And to keep things interesting, for me at least, was a Find of the Week, a hefty steel chisel.

There are some days even I wish for winter. This was one of them.

In The Thick Of Things

 Visit #1431, Saturday 8 July 23, 6:45-9:00AM, 2.3 miles, 11.5 lbs. of litter.

Temps in the 70s rising to 90, breaking sun and very humid.

There was no avoiding the humidity this week and Saturday morning was no exception, even though I made an attempt by starting before 7AM.

According to the standard definition of a "heat wave" we were experiencing one, but I never heard it mentioned in weather reports or saw it in print.

Why, it was so humid that in my heatwave induced delirium I forgot to take a photo of my tree trimming this week, so you'll just have to believe me.

I continued trimming the roadside on my way to West Peak. After an hour of that, I walked the short distance to the West Peak parking lot and cleaned up the area.

Done with that, I took in the early morning views from West Peak. The sun just started to break through the morning haze when I finished.

Enjoy.

I Wasn't Thinking...

 

...because if I WAS thinking, I would have hiked on Saturday and avoided the rain.

Visit #1430, Sunday 2 July 23, 6:45-9:10AM, 5.1 miles, 8.0lbs. of litter.

Temps in the 60s/low 70s, cloudy, humid, with light intermittent rain.

I had listened to the weekend forecast but didn't pay it much heed. I woke up early enough Saturday to get a hike in but I wimped out due to the humidity.

I got what I deserved.

The rain wasn't that bad; only at one point did I have to don my raincoat, and only for five minutes or so.

This week I walked the road around Merimere Reservoir and up to Castle Craig. With Meriden's fireworks scheduled for Monday evening, I thought the road would be closed to traffic as the fireworks were set up and I would stop to see how the work was progressing.

But I later learned the fireworks would not be set up until Monday. No big deal; the road needed some love anyway.

I reached Castle Craig with heavy cloud cover reducing visibility to near zero.

No, really; Hubbard Park is down there somewhere.

As I was picking up litter in the area, I noticed this new display.

Two signs accompanied the flags, explaining their purpose. I presume this was left over from Memorial Day, although I didn't count one flag per soldier.

It was then I noticed the flag was at half staff. At first I thought it was in conjunction with the above display. I later learned it was instead in honor of former governor Lowell Weicker Jr. who passed away last week. It's nice that Meriden pays attention to these protocols.

It continued to shower after I left Castle Craig, passing by the south end of the reservoir, and returning to the parking lot.

Try and keep all your fingers through this July 4th.

Graffiti Roundup

 

Sunday morning's humidity was so thick you could SEE it, and barely see the Halfway House.

Visit #1428x, Thursday 22 June 23, 6:00-700PM. Mileage n/a.

Visit #1429, Sunday 25 June 23, 7:00-9:25AM, 4.7 miles, 7.1 lbs. of litter.

Temps in the mid-70s, cloudy with brutal humidity.

In last week's blog post I reported finding more graffiti than I had time to address.

I had originally planned on cleaning all of it up in one day. But I suspected I might find more in places I had not been last week. Also, I had another issue to address. So on Thursday I rode my bike up to East/West Peak to see, and do, what I could.

During last week's roadside trimming I forgot to bring spray paint to mark the road where I left off.

So part of my ride up to West Peak was to do so.

"X" marks the spot. I use letters versus numbers so as not to confuse other road users it's a measurement of some sort.

As you can see from the one pannier on my bike, I was carrying equipment to tackle at least one piece of graffiti left over from last week. I left West Peak and rode over to the walkbridge over I-691.

I brushed off any debris and applied Goo Gone. The crappy brown stuff did not remove with a brushing.

I used a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser for scrubbing. I could probably gotten away with a Scotchbrite pad.

A few minutes of work, and I finished off the area with some household cleaner.

While I was on the walkbridge I thought I'd check the rest of the walkbridge in case there was new graffiti or something I missed last week. There was.

This cleaned quickly; I was in a groove!

Cleaning the walkbridge on Thursday would save me some time on Sunday morning.

So on Sunday I quickly proceeded to the other location of graffiti I spied last week, the water treatment plant building.

While I started with the Goo Gone again, this was not cleaning off as fast as I would like.

So I brought my Atomic Graffiti Remover (in the blue can) and finished the job. It will evaporate and leave no trace.

I would have gotten things cleaner, quicker, and with more excitement, had I used Brighto! Alas, it hasn't been sold since 1937. (The youtube video is blocked; click on the "Brighto" link to view.)

I hiked over to West Peak and cleaned up some minor graffiti. It was a foggy, humid, non-view.

I retuned to the car and wondered, which Stooge do I most resemble?!