Pounding the Pavement

 The fog over Merimere Reservoir starts to lift as the sun rises over Hubbard Park.

Visit #1496, Sunday 15 September 24, 6:30-8:55AM, 5.5 miles, 6.6 lbs. of litter.

Temps in the 60s, sunny, dry, with temps rising to the 80s.

I walked around the reservoir just as the sun was beginning to warm East Peak. I was heading up the road, to West Peak.

As I walked, I began to notice Percival Park Road (bet you didn't know the road to East and West Peaks had a name!) has taken a beating in the past few years and is need of repair. Take a look.

What brought this to my attention was watching some early morning cyclists riding down the road. While they exercised good judgment and moderated their speed, some may not be so wise and in for a mess of road rash or worse.

However, one benefit of this rough road is, it keeps down the speed of cars.

I don't expect the city of Meriden to jump right on repairing this road; they've got more important things to do such as their annual road paving schedule. Here's the schedule for the rest of September. And that's just a partial list as they've been hard at re-paving work in August as well.

All those potholes didn't bother a hiker like me. I cleaned up the parking lot at West Peak and continued on my way back to the park.

Crossing over I-691 and on the return trail prior to Sunday, I found this pair of birch trees sullied by pink paint.

There's a history to these trees: Some scofflaw would write something on these trees with magic marker.

I'd scrub it off, shave off the bark, or paint over it with white paint. They would repeat. I would repeat.

This started roughly in March 2022. The pink was the latest from them.

I came back last week and covered over the pink.

Of course that's not the end of it.

This morning I pass the trees and find this...

...which is kind of ironic since they want me to stop yet they paint on the tree.

What's worse is they litter, leaving their paint brush on the ground.

I soldiered on, policing the dirt parking area at the end of the trail.

Upon leaving I noticed the National Kidney Foundation was hosting a fund raising walk in the park.