Daylight Trail Standard Time

 Visit #1450, Sunday 5 November 23, 7:20-9:00AM, 3.3 miles, 4.1 lbs. of litter.

Temps in the 40s, sunny and rising to the low 60s.

Caution: Disturbing graphic content. Reader discretion is advised.

During last week's rain soaked hike, I found some graffiti in the form of stickers on a guardrail at the north end of Merimere Reservoir. On Saturday I returned via mountain bike to remove them. 

During that prior week's hike, I performed a brief test and determined it would take extra tools and effort so on Saturday I packed accordingly.

The thermos contains the secret sauce; the gloves protect my hands from the secret sauce.

1. Apply the sauce to a rag.

2. Place the rag on the sticker.

3. Wait one minute.

4. Scrape.

The chisel was the right tool to remove the stickers as the adhesive was very aggressive. the blade scraper wasn't cutting it.

Roughly fifteen minutes to complete the job.

Afterward I took a bike ride up to Castle Craig, and was disappointed to have cars passing me on the way up.

You see, the road is listed as being closed for the winter beginning November 1st and myself, like many other park goers I know, look forward to enjoying a car-free road for at least a portion of the year.

I don't know why the road was open and I imagine many others were disappointed as well.

I left Castle Craig I and pedaled around the reservoir to pick up the trails to the wooden walkbridge on the west side of the park. I wasn't sure whether I spied a fallen tree from a distance last week and wanted to verify what I saw so I might know whether to pack the chainsaw for Sunday's hike.

Yeah, I'd have to pack the chainsaw.

So Sunday morning I loaded up and hiked in over the I-691 walkbridge.

On the bridge I stopped to remove some new graffiti I found. It was easier than removing the stickers Saturday.

Just beyond that was someone's leftover Halloween candy. Looks like they visited the cheap houses.

Then, a most unusual find.

I wouldn't consider pickles trail food but I guess different strokes for different folks.

Also on the walkbridge I found a refrigerator magnet.

Now here's something I wouldn't throw away. I collect them, and put them where else, but on my refrigerator! I should get a life...

Now let's get to work on that fallen tree.

With that literally out of the way, I hiked on.

Passing the Halfway House, I spied someone (thing) that forgot to set their clock back.

Or maybe they're a third shift worker on overtime.

Now here comes the squeamish part.

Hiking back to the park on the Soap Box Derby track I saw a blanket and a couple garbage bags underneath the overpass and thought they were just litter. I picked up the blanket and found THIS.

Someone had dumped a dog, now deceased. No telling whether it was alive when it was dumped there, but the body was cold now.

I picked up the blanket and bags and left the corpse with really no idea what to do.

But luck was on my side. As I was driving out of the park I saw a parks department employee in a golf cart picking up litter. I stopped him and informed him of my finding and asked if he would help me remove it. Brandon/Brendan/Brandan (sp?) checked with his boss who told him to remove it, vs. contacting the local animal control officer. We placed the body in a large garbage bag and he disposed of it.

Relaying the story to someone else on Sunday, they suggested perhaps the dog was microchipped and was dumped instead of being properly euthanized for fear of the owner being reported. We'll never know.

How sad.