How Far is Far?

2016 comes to a close; time to put away the tree! This is the Christmas tree at Echo Point, near the north end of Merimere Reservoir.

Visit #1053, Saturday 31 December 16, 9:15-11:45AM, 5.1 miles.
Temps in the low 40's, mostly sunny, but clouding skies later on.

Thanks to Paul Bernier, who joined me this week in keeping the trails clean.

First, some stats for 2016:

87 bags of trash collected.

253 miles hiked.

I was asked by a friend and reader of this blog, what the distance was from the parking lot to Castle Craig via the trails, and back to the park via the road. I thought I'd oblige him and track it this week using my pedometer. Subtract a smidgen for the wandering necessary to pick up litter; the distance of today's route was 5.1 miles. Actually, this was a good, general purpose exercise as I'm often asked this question, as well as the distances to various other landmarks in Hubbard Park. I'll have to make a note of the rest for future use, as I'm often asked such questions by other hikers.

So now that you know today's route, know that it was mostly uneventful.

We barely reached the water treatment plant and collected enough, heavy litter to warrant dropping of the first bag at the water treatment plant.

We reached Castle Craig and walked down the road. Icy patches here and there prompted us to walk in the gutter until the road leveled out at the bottom.

Despite last week's rain, Merimere Reservoir still shows some of the lowest levels in fifty years.

Despite cleaning the road as recently as December 3rd, we still managed to return to the parking lot with 2 more bags of trash.

I look forward to whatever interesting things Hubbard Park will offer up in 2017!