Heralding Fall

 

 Sunday's cooler temps, after a week of frequent rain, subtly heralds the coming Fall.

Visit #1153, Sunday 19 August 18, 8:40-11:20AM.

Temps in the low 70's, cloudy, with a drying breeze.

The trails were soft, with a number of puddles, after a week of showers and rain. But the hiking was perfect with low humidity and a breeze to keep the mosquitoes in a holding pattern, unable to land and sip from their hosts.

I hiked up to the trail behind the water tank and found I have some future work to do; a tree has fallen across the trail.

At the end of the trail I turned right to check on the lock securing the gate at the south end of Merimere Reservoir. My inspection paid off, in the form of five pennies left on top.

After pocketing my windfall, I turned around and hiked the trails up to the Halfway House, picking up litter along the way.

Cloudy skies stayed with us all day, but at least the clouds looked nice.

I hiked the rest of the trails below the peaks, and trimmed back the foliage on one trail I don't visit often.

Then I pointed myself down and over I-691 via the walkbridge, where I found myself useful.

Since March 2017 visitors to Hubbard Park have been provided the occasional reminder of Donald Trump's dietary habits. Perhaps The Prez would consider this Fake News. Maybe this is the work of Melania!

I was already packing the tools to keep Don's secret.

First I applied Goof-Off and let it sit for a couple minutes, then I scrubbed with a toothbrush.

Not as effective as I'd hoped, but it was a start.

Learning from a past mistake (the fluid gums of the sandpaper), I wiped off the fluid before applying elbow grease and sandpaper.

But I wasn't done. Whoever has inside knowledge of Mr. Trump's eating habits is also a member of the Antifa movement.

I'm an equal-oppotunity graffiti eraser.

One last time for our Fake News, Antifa participant.

If I remove the graffiti, does that label me a Conservative?!

I schlepped back to the parking lot and dropped off my bag of litter for the day.

Next week: Power tools!

Sticky

"Sticky Icky Wicky Make Your Mind Go Tricky

Make A Kind Man Wanna Be Rough,

Sicky Icky Wicky Make Your Mind Go Thicky

Make The Gentle Wanna Be Tough,

Sticky Icky Wicky Make Your Mind Go Tricky

Make A Good Girl Wanna Be Bad,

Sicky Icky Wicky Make Your Mind Go Thicky

Drive Sane Folks Totally...Mad."

 "Oil"-Jeff Beck

(Foxwoods Casino, 23 July 2016)

Well; it wasn't the same kind of sticky in Hubbard Park on Sunday, but it made me think

of these lyrics!

Visit #1152, Sunday 12 August 18, 7:40-9:25AM. Temps in the 70's, overcast and very humid, with showers or thunderstorms possible all day.

If you were a mushroom, you were lovin' the weather. 

I walked west from the playscape, on the trails toward the I-691 walkbridge, trimming all the drooping branches and brush, heavy with the rain of the last week. Upon reaching the walkbridge, I did a little housekeeping, removing the leftover grommets and tyraps which secured the two American flags to the fence. Both flags have been removed, due to their state of disrepair.

At the same time, I made note of the progress of the weed killer I sprayed several weeks ago on the vines growing at both ends of the fence. I call it a success.

I marched onward to the trailhead at West Main Street across from Belmont Avenue, picking up litter along the way, then turned around and pointed myself back to the park.

Crossing a small walkbridge across from Mirror Lake, which I've done many times, I spied this painted rock for the first time. I've found similar rocks before at various places throughout the park.

I ended the day walking around the Soap Box Derby track and the retention ponds, picking up litter, then returned to the parking lot, the trails a little bit cleaner, and me a whole lot stickier.

If I didn't know better, I'd say this is what a happy mushroom looks like.

I Got Hosed

Merimere Reservoir was glass-smooth on Sunday, which was a change from Saturday's rain.

Visit #1151, Sunday 5 August 18, 8:05-9:25AM. Temps in the high 70's, sunny and muggy.

Last week I used my chainsaw to clear two fallen trees from a particular trail. A few days later, I receive a report from someone who was hiking that particular trail earlier this week, and they said there were two MORE trees down. I was surprised, and skeptical of their claim, but trusted them anyway. So, on Sunday I saddled up the chainsaw for the second consecutive week to perform trail maintenance.

But first I had to GET to Hubbard Park. I planned to start early and avoid the heat, but Amtrak had other plans, and they included hosing me. The railroad gate had just closed when I arrived at the Britannia Street crossing. It sure was taking a long time for the train to show up. So long, in fact, that cars started turning around, taking left turns on red, and any other imaginable action, because the train wasn't comin' and the gate wasn't liftin'.

    (From later on Sunday)

But I'm a most patient and trusting person, and only decided to find an altermative route after precisely 10 minutes of waiting. But I also took action; I spied the handy sign at the crossing and made a call to Amtrak to advise them of the stubborn gate.

I eventually reached the north end of Merimere Reservoir and picked up the same trail as last week.

Except I hiked the entire length of the trail and didn't find ANY fallen trees. I was hosed AGAIN!

At the end of the trail and picked up the road and hiked back to my van, picking up trash as I walked.

It turned out to be a short hike, but at least I avoided the rising heat and humidity of this Sunday.

Fun With Power Tools

On Friday I took a mountain bike ride up to West Peak to address some graffiti I could not tend to last week.

My wire brush wasn't working well on it, so I covered it with grey spray paint. I looks better than the photo implies.

On Sunday, I set out on my weekly activities in Hubbard Park to avoid the warm, humid weather, and to be home in time to watch the final stage of the 2018 Tour de France.

I had my chainsaw with me today to remove a couple trees which had fallen across various trails.

I quickly picked up enough litter that I decided to leave the bag at the water treatment plant.

Moseying up the trails, I came my Find of the Week.

This LED is smaller than your pinky finger, and it powered by a watch battery. I assume the metal tab is for a lanyard. I had no idea how to turn it off.

Further up the Yellow Trail I ran into my first objective.

Sadly, this fallen tree has a trail marker on it.

I moved on the Castle Craig and did something rare for me; I climbed the Castle, and took in the view of Hartford. Hartford can be seen in the left of the photo.

While cleaning up the Castle Craig parking lot, parks worker Rob Zebora stopped by, to raise the flag to full mast; it had been displayed at half mast because of the recent death of an enlisted Air Force sergeant.

Rob offered to take my trash bag from me, which was a no-brainer for me. Thanks, Rob!

As I left the Castle Craig parking lot, I spied a fallen branch on the roadside which was an eyesore, so I gave it some attention.

Shortly, I reached the trail where I had more tree clearing work.

I was surprised to find another fallen branch, which wasn't there a week ago.

Slightly further along this trail, I passed over power tools and took to a shovel to remove a berm created by mountain bikers. The berm is designed to enable mountain bikes to catch air.

The picture doesn't capture the profile of this berm, but the After photo shows.

I reached the end of the trail and walked the road around Merimere Reservoir back to the parking lot.

Enroute, I found somebody's discarded Suboxone packet.

Back at the parking lot, I dropped off my last bag of litter and dashed home to watch the Tour de France.

Proof of Concept

The parking lot at Castle Craig was teeming with visitors on Sunday, despite the cloudy, muggy weather.

Visit #1149, Sunday 22 July 18, 2:00-4:00PM.
Temps in the 80's, cloudy and very humid.

In last week's post I reported finding a large pile of trash at a trailhead adjacent to the road near West Peak. I had asked the Parks Department back in 2014 to place something at this trailhead to prevent people from driving down the trail in their cars seeking privacy. They positioned shortened telephone poles there but as I expected they eventually would be rolled away. Today I was going to test a concept I had to remedy this situation.

Since I was on-call, I drove up to the trailhead in question and found, as I did last week, a pile of trash at the exact same spot. Note the bag of trash hanging from the tree branch.

Here are the telephone poles, scattered about.

Here's how they were originally situated in 2014.

Here is my Proof of Concept solution.

I bought four pieces of 1/2" by 2ft. long rebar, and a blacksmith's hammer. I had sharpened one end of the rebar to a point, but still had to find locations free of rocks to drive the rebar deep enough into the dirt. After positioning the log, it took roughly 30 minutes to complete.

Here you see the first telephone pole in place. If it lasts 4 weeks, I'll do the same with another pole. I will space them such that a trespassing ATV will still be able to get by, but regular vehicles will be prohibited. If I try to exclude ATVs, they'll merely run over more vegetation. It's better to funnel them down a trodden path.

When I was done, I picked up the trash, then cleaned up the West Peak parking lot and surrounding area. I then drove to Castle Craig and did the same there. Since I had my company van with me, I took the trash bags home for disposal. I collected quite a lot of litter considering I covered so little ground-a productive day I'd say.

The temperatures as well as the humidity were surprisingly lower up at the peaks versus the lower elevations. Not a bad day to be lazing on the rocks of West Peak.