Visit #1626, Sunday 1 November 26, 7:10-9:05 a.m., 5.5 miles, 5.4 lbs. of litter.
Temps in the 30s, rising to near 60, sunny.
This post contains adult language. Parental discretion is advised.
As I was driving down East Main Street early this morning enroute to Hubbard Park, in the vicinity of city hall, I can usually see one of the illuminated klieg lights that have perturbed me as of late.
However on this particular early morning, before the rising sun could reach Castle Craig, I could NOT see the klieg light. Hmmm; I wonder if...
So as part of today's hike I stopped at Castle Craig and, at 8:05 a.m. the klieg lights were off, AND A NEW PHOTOCELL WAS INSTALLED!
Compare the old, cloudy one to the new one:
Regardless of this morning's switch to Daylight Standard Time, there is certainly a difference in the performance of the circuit. My hat's off to the Meriden Parks Department for addressing this issue! I may have to trip up to Castle Craig in the early morning to test its performance but I'm confident we're cooking with gas now.
I started my hike up the road around Merimere Reservoir and was surprised to find the signage announcing the road was closed for the season beginning November first, to be already up. Talk about being on time! I was impressed. Bonus; hikers and walkers get to enjoy the road unencumbered by cars.
So, as I was walking on the road I was slowly catching up to a man. He was holding a coffee cup in a manner which told me he was done drinking from it, and his body language as well as his walking style alerted my
Spidey senses (Both Peter Parker aka Spiderman, and I share the same first name which could be more than coincidental). I suspected he was looking for a place to turn that cup into litter.
I followed him for a few hundred yards while carrying the bag of litter I had collected so far.
Sure enough, as he reached the metal guardrail near the north end of the reservoir, he began to place the cup on the ground, discretely hidden.
At that point I opened my mouth.
I hollered,"NO! NO! DON'T EVEN THINK OF IT!"
So what does this character do - he sees my trash bag and hands the cup to me as if I'm his personal garbage man, to which I replied, "YOU CARRIED IT IN; YOU CARRY IT OUT. DON'T PULL THAT SHIT!"
He never said a word to me; he just wore a Harpo Marx grin on his face as if he didn't understand me.
He walked on carrying the cup but I didn't follow him up the road so I'll never know if he ditched it elsewhere.
I followed the Blue Trail up along the western edge of the reservoir, which was a good choice of route today as I found a fallen tree that I was able to remove with the tools on hand.
I may have to give this the attention I gave the last piece.
Heading back toward the park I chose to check on an illegal trail where our park's persistent vandal likes to post things on trees. I wasn't disappointed.
If I recall, the REAL Spiderman was never called an asshole by the Green Goblin, Sandman, or any other villian. So why me?!😉
No matter; it is a good time to introduce you to a new addition to my trail toolkit, and introduce it to Hubbard Park.
Called a "cats paw" it is the perfect tool for this kind of work. Works like a champ.
Elsewhere on this particular trail, I found this note tucked in to a tree.
It was not worth salvaging but I was able to read it.
What is says is, "Who ever is hunting here I'm going to catch you on my camera."
Another note I found, left by the same person, was this:
I have found many of these before. They give thanks for this and that, and pray for other things.
This one starts out, as most do, with " Good morning universe. Thank you for another great week this year..." See if you can decipher the rest.
Be careful hiking; the leaves are slippery and I took a tumble as well as a couple stumbles today.
