Mother Nature on Mothers' Day

 "Change is the handmaiden Nature requires to do her miracles with."

-Mark Twain.

Visit # 1478, Sunday 12 May 24, 6:20-8:50AM, 4.8 miles, 1.0 lbs. of litter.

Temps in the low 50s, cloudy with possible showers later today.

The trails are constantly changing, whether eroding from rain runoff or from dying, falling trees.

This week I would seek the latter.

Enroute to those trees, on walkbridge over I-691, I found some new graffiti which I stopped to remove.

Tools out, and some scrubbing...

Further along the bridge I found this:

Last December I reported finding a rash of padlocks on the bridge. Turns out it's a thing, called Love Locks. I'll return next week to remove this one.

Onward to the fallen trees which I discovered last week, all on the same trail.

Here you can see some of my prior trail clearing work in the background.

Done trying to tame Mother Nature for the day, I walked back to the park.

Along the way I found illegal fishing season in Merimere Reservoir is open for the year.

Cloudy skies tell me Mother Nature will soon be sending showers down on Mothers' Day.

Can't Catch A Break

 

Despite rescheduling the Daffodil Festival this year in an attempt to avoid early spring rains, Mother Nature cut it no slack on Sunday.

Visit #1477, Sunday 5 May 24, 8:25-10:10AM, 4.2 miles, 1.0 lbs. of litter.

Temps in the 50s, cloudy with showers threatening all day.

With the Daffodil Festival in full swing this weekend I could forget about easy access to Hubbard Park.

I entered through the north end of Merimere Reservoir and hiked a couple trails; one parallels the road up to East/West Peak, and the other parallels down.

The trail up was clear of fallen trees. Reaching the road I followed it toward the trail which leads down. 

It turned out to be a good choice of route today as the trail down has several fallen trees across it, which I plan to remove next week.

Below you can see where some mountain bikers with no skills 😉 had to build a stone ramp over a fallen tree.

Let's hope for drier weather next weekend.