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Sunday, November 19, 2023

Surprises

 

A pleasant fall day for a hike, whether five miles or nine.

Visit #1452, Sunday 19 November 23, 7:30-10:25AM, 5.1 miles, 1.2 lbs. of litter.

Temps in the 40s rising to the low 50s, sunny and calm.

Today, the Meriden Parks and Recreation Department was hosting a hike (The date was changed to Sunday the 19th due to Saturday's weather). I had no plans to attend although the lure of pizza was difficult to resist. Instead I started early and planned to be done before I might cross paths with the hikers.


Instead, I was caught in the act of my roadside trimming by Kathy Matula, Recreation Director for the Meriden Parks Department, and Dave Cooley as they were driving by in a city van posting directional signs for the hikers. Boy, was I surprised!

I finished an hour of trimming then hiked toward Castle Craig. Enroute I came upon my first Find of the Week.


I passed by this spot enroute to my trimming so it must have been lost between 8:00 and 8:15. The Cosworth embroidery reminds me of the Cosworth Vega, Chevrolet's mid-1970's attempt at a sports car, and the font is similar but I can't tell whether the hat is related. I'll wash the hat, drop it off at Goodwill, and always wonder whether the owner's name was Cosworth.

Just a bunch of feet away from the hat was one of the directional signs placed by Kathy and Dave.


I continued walking up the road you see and came upon Find of the Week #2.



Surprise- it's a dead black snake, roughly five feet long, using my pole saw for comparison. I imagine the snake had a late night on the town and couldn't find his way back to the den or his wife locked him out, and he froze to death.

(Aside-I rode my bike up to Castle Craig yesterday and the snake wasn't there at three-ish Saturday afternoon.)

Well, what's a guy with a sick sense of humor to do with a dead snake? How about give the hikers something to talk about?

Surprise! Unless he comes back to life or sobers up, he should be a topic of conversation among the hikers!

Happy Thanksgiving!



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