Multiplicity

Visit #1078, Monday 29 May 17 (Memorial Day), 1:50-3:00PM, 3.2 miles.
Temps in the mid-60's, cloudy with drizzle.

Visit #1079, Tuesday 30 May 17, 6:30-6:45PM, mileage n/a.
Temps in the 60's, cloudy with intermittent light drizzle.

Visit #none, Friday 2 June 17, 6:40-6:45PM, mileage n/a.
Temps in the low 70's, sunny.

Visit #1080, Saturday 3 June 17, 11:10AM-12:50PM, 3.8 miles.
Temps in the mid 60's, partly sunny.

Visit #1081, Sunday 4 June 17, 7:15-8:00AM, mileage n/a.
Temps in the low 60's, sunny.

Whew; that's a lot of time in Hubbard Park in the last week! I wouldn't do it unless I could combine it with a bike ride, which is what I did on Tuesday and Friday.

After last week's trail search and destroy mission was left incomplete, I just had to return to the renegade trail and find where the trail ended. The light rain kept away people and the bugs, and made for a quiet hike.

 I picked up the trail, continued on from where I left off, and found another ramp the mountain bikers were building.

Only the sharpened eyes of a veteran mountain biker like myself would spot this as a construction. I dismantled it.

The trail eventually disappeared into nothingness, which must mean it was a work-in-progress. Even in the middle of nowhere I managed to find some litter, which I brought back to my car.

During the walk back to my car, I spotted some new graffiti on the railing on the spillway at the north end of Merimere Reservoir. The thought of hiking all the way to the north end of Hubbard Park for five minute's work removing it did not turn me on. But if I combined that with a bike ride I would be thrilled, which is what I did on Tuesday.

Armed with a small but lethal palm-sized piece of sandpaper, I scrubbed it all away.

I only noticed on a subsequent, undocumented mountain bike ride through Hubbard Park later last week that I'd missed other graffiti on the same railing. So that meant another return trip to Hubbard Park, which I did by bike on Friday.

More sandpaper...making a cameo appearance in the right of the photo:

At this point, I was tired of missing all the graffiti so I performed an inspection of the railing on the opposite side of the road. Good thing...

One has to wonder if that's a misspelling of "runner".  No need to worry about it anymore, however.

While I'm doing my thing, this guy was doing his illegal fishing thing in Merimere Reservoir

Alas, after all my graffiti eradication this past week, you would think I wouldn't find any more this weekend. Wrong.

On Saturday I didn't have much planned so I scoured the trails below Castle Craig for litter.

Enroute from the park to the trails, I came upon the recent work of Len, our Hubbard Park vandal.

I rode those trails on my undocumented mountain bike ride through Hubbard Park on Thursday and that wood wasn't there, and I know Len's work like nobody else. The long tree I previously cut up in April of this year. I don't believe the tree rolled across the trail by itself.

The most exciting thing I found on Saturday was Condom #6 of 2017.

I returned to the parking lot and dropped off my bag of trash for the week.

It was while returning to the parking lot and checking out something not documented, that I found our local graffiti vandal(s) "JK" and "Bomb" (I'm beginning to suspect they're the same person) are desperately trying for some sort of immortality as I found their tags on the BACKSIDE of the I-691 bridge supports. Why they would tag a location no one would see is beyond me.

This is roughly the 11th time since 2015 that I've encountered their tags. I returned early Sunday morning armed to the teeth to remove their memorial from even where the public won't see it.

My senses started tingling, and I suspected if I looked behind the OTHER bridge supports, I would find more. Gee; how did I know...

You can see my previous paint job to the right.

"CPR" must have joined "JK" in Hubbard Park as I found both of them on West Peak last week.

I used up the rest of the paint in my tray which is why the covered spot is so large.

And "JK" went bye-bye as well.

Sunday morning's work didn't involve a lot of distance. I finished painting and walked around the retention ponds and back to the park, picking up litter along the way. When I reached the gate across the road, which wasn't opened yet, I found this:

Looks like "Bomb" made a sticker or something similar from a piece of U.S. Postal material.

I actually plan of heading to Hubbard Park today on my bike; that would make it almost daily this past week. I never get tired of it, though.

Snakes

Overcast skies dominated the holiday weekend, but the temps were decent.

Visit #1076, Saturday 27 May 17, 9:00AM-12:00PM, 6.2 miles.
Temps in the low 70's, cloudy.

Visit #1077, Sunday 28 May 17, 10:30AM-12:30PM, mileage n/a.
Temps in the low 70's, cloudy.

Thanks to David Ross who proved he's a glutton for punishment or merely missing a few common sense brain cells for his return engagement assisting me on Saturday. Most people would stay away-far away...

After posting a couple weeks ago about discovering some renegade mountain bike stunts, and my effort to remove them, I received an e-mail from a Hubbard Park frequenter informing me of an illicit mountain bike trail being constructed elsewhere in the park. My goal on Saturday was to find and eradicate it.

Dave and I walked west, and over I-691, where we encountered a sign some "snake" had fixed to the fencing so westbound drivers could be entertained.

I know you're dying to find out what it said.

While I commend the person for their effort taking the time to construct the sign and carry it all the way out to Hubbard Park, and while I may even agree with the message, I don't condone it as it's an eyesore. It had to go.

Dave and I continued to pick up litter and trim the trail as we made our way to West Peak, where we cleaned up the surrounding area. Unfortunately, while doing so I discovered the frequent Hubbard Park graffiti slithering snakes "JK" and "Bomb" (I refuse to call them "artists") have taken to the rocks at West Peak. Both have appeared several times in Hubbard Park. They need help.

I filed everything under my To-Do list, and moved on.

Dave and I cleaned up the West Peak parking lot, then hiked down a trail in search of the renegade mountain bike trail. We never found it.

At the end of the trail we walked the road back to the park. Enroute, at the north end of Merimere Reservoir, we saw some REAL snakes.

Actually, there were two Northern Water Snakes. See if you can spot both in the photo below. They're in the middle, and at the bottom end of the branch.

Back at the park, we dropped off our haul of litter for the day.

Since Dave and I failed in our Saturday mission to find the mountain bike trail, and I had the West Peak graffiti on my plate, I decided to use the long holiday weekend to return to West Peak and address both tasks.

I drove up to West Peak and armed with the perfect tool kit, went to town covering the graffiti on the rocks, something I'd done once before.

I put the paint away and went in search of the trail made by those other snakes. Fortunately, I'd been in contact with the person who first informed me of the trail. Armed with a more detailed description, I quickly located the trail and proceeded to block it with brush, as well as dismantle the rock landings they built.

After. Looks quite different, no? Note my trail dismantling tool in the foreground; compact and effective.

It actually paid to walk this trail because I found some trash on it, which I picked up on the way out.

And when I was done I surprised myself and did something I never do during my weekly forays in Hubbard Park-I returned to West Peak and sat down to enjoy the few. I took off my backpack and used it for a pillow and took a short, light snooze.

While relaxing, I watched some turkey vultures taking advantage of the thermal updrafts. Fortunately,  they didn't have any ketchup, otherwise I might have been lunch.