Halloween Edition, With Costume!

Leaves blanket the trails of Hubbard Park.

Visit #908, Saturday 25 October 14, 11:30AM-2:50PM, 7.0 miles.
Temps in the 60's, sunny and pleasant.

A big bucket of thanks to Paul Bernier, who joined me this week helping to keep Hubbard Park clean. With his help we really performed a top notch job.

I took advantage of Paul's presence this week and tackled what I know is the most frequently trashed area of Hubbard Park, the road to East and West Peak.

We barely walked a quarter mile before Paul chanced upon the Find of the Week.

What we have here are 2 wigs, a wrapper from a pack of Camel cigarettes, and a crack pipe. There was also one nylon stocking and a lot of lipstick smeared on napkins. If this was all part of a Halloween costume, then I can't figure who or what they were masquerading as.

I'll guess the collection didn't belong to a woman because I've never known a woman to smoke Camels. Any woman who smokes Camels is tougher than a three dollar steak and someone I wouldn't want to arm wrestle with, if I enjoy keeping my forearm intact.

But if it belonged to a man-2 wigs? Isn't one wig enough? Let's see...

One size fits all!

Alright, nothing to see here; move on people.

Traffic on the road was ridiculously heavy as everyone drove to Castle Craig to enjoy the autumn views. Considering how few people we met on the trails today, I wondered if anyone walks anymore.

Paul and I reached the fork to East Peak/West Peak and left our first pair of trash bags.

Enroute I found this Dunkin' Donuts coffee cup. After looking at the order, I could only imagine the cashier incredulously asking, "Would you like coffee with your cream and sugar?"

There was no way Paul and I wanted to head toward Castle Craig today and contend with the mob, so we pointed our trash bags toward West Peak instead. We cleaned up the parking lot and the surrounding area.

We found the remnants of what must have been some party-33 beer bottles and cans.

I also found this rare, sneaker edition Chia pet. It was never a best-seller...

The beer party put our bags over the limit so we left a second pair at the end of the West Peak parking lot.

Paul and I walked down to the trails below West Peak and Castle Craig, and down to Merimere Reservoir. The unusually low water level  exposed much of the shoreline. As we cleaned up the area around the south end of the reservoir, I unearthed this old fence post and left it in a spot for the Meriden Parks Department to hopefully cart away on Monday.

Back at the park, I found this abandoned sign. Either the Meriden Democrats are not environmentally conscious or some Republicans wanted to rain on the Democrats' picnic.

Paul and I deposited the last of our trash.

You've got maybe one more week of colorful foliage so don't say I didn't warn ya'; get out there!