March-"In Like A Lion, Out Like A Lamb"-BALONEY!

Look closely and you might be able to see the white caps on the waves. The wind was angry and the rain joined the party.

Visit 1066, Saturday 1 April 17, 9:00-11:50AM, 6.5 miles.
Temps in the low 40's with raw, high wind from the north, and a steady, light rain.

I was joined this week by David Ross of Wallingford. David was the person responsible for the calling cards I found on the trail in February. David had the courage and strength of character to offer to help me as a way of apologizing for his faux pas. Little did he know I was testing his sincerity by deliberately choosing weather only the hardcore would brave to do such work. I'm evil like that, minus the Snidely Whiplash moustache to twirl.

Dave acquitted himself admirably.

As a gesture of my gratitude, here's a plug for his church.

We walked the road from the park all the way to Castle Craig. We didn't travel far before I had to hand Dave the manly tools of destruction so he could reach some stubborn litter.

After Dave gave the brush a cheap haircut, we proceeded on, picking up more trash and quickly filled a bag sufficient to leave at the water treatment plant.

Up the road, we reached the construction site where I road repairs began last week. While walking up the road toward the site, we encountered a "park regular" who normally has little nice to say. However today he was ecstatic over the quality of the work performed by the contractor hired to repair the road damage. I would have to concur; the rocks enmeshed in the gabion closely match those of the surrounding terrain and the guardrail, while not true to the original, is easy on the eyes. I think had they used coreten it would have added a nice rustic, finish that would have lent an old, weathered look to fit in with the local aesthetic, but you can't have everything.

Here's what a coreten guardrail looks like:

Here's the finished road repair, minus the asphalt. The gabion is directly under the guardrail. The happy park regular was told the City of Meriden will perform the paving at a later date.

David and I trudged on through the wind and rain, up the road toward Castle Craig. As we gained altitude, the wind cranked up and froze the rain on the branches, quickly changing the atmosphere as the wind broke pieces of ice off the trees. Neither of us had hard hats...

We reached Castle Craig but due to the nasty conditions, we weren't going to stop for the view. We hiked the trail down where we encountered some new graffiti.

Coincidentally, I had a can of spray paint in my backpack and contracted David to cover up the art.

We were almost back at the parking lot when we reached the reason I carried the can of spray paint this week.

 

I first encountered "JK"'s tag in July 2016. I'm sure this was done at the same time, but I kept overlooking it. It's tough to find quality volunteers...

The rain had some mercy on us and lightened up just as we finished our work and dropped off our trash for the week.