Might Be Coming Back Into Sight--

After months of up and down with back pain, I am now hopeful that I can avoid surgery and do longer and longer walks and hikes again.

Today: A milestone. I walked the one-mile loop from my house, through the northwest corner gate, all the way down to the next gate, and back home again, with two of the Household Beasts. I believe that it has been at least four months since I've been able to do that. Yahoo! (Last time I tried, about 10 days ago, we walked a speck into the park, then I had to turn around and go back.)

I didn't take my trash bag, so didn't watch for Naughty Neighbor droppings, but with occasional glances, it looks pretty clean.

I also didn't take my camera, so didn't capture the pastel colors of the sunset over the park this evening. Hope that you saw it!

Instead--in honor of the occasion--here's my favorite moody photo of the park back on a rainy day (remember those?) about a month after the park opened, with one yellow flower brightening the scene.

Life got in the way

In case anyone's looking here--

I started this with high expectations, since Martial Cottle is right around the corner.

Then Stuff Happened.

There was the unexpected bathroom remodel plus lots of other house prep for the changing of the renter; that went on for more than a  couple of weeks.

Then I added a dog to the household, and he's a bit of a handful, makes it challenging to take all 3 dogs on a walk. So I'm either walking all three and managing him, or walking just him and training him, instead of even looking for--let alone picking up--trash or others' poops.

The old dogs and the new yellow dog in the park

Then one of the dogs got sick. Then I got sick. Everyone's pretty much better now, and I need to get moving again.

I have walked through the park with the dogs several times. One day I even picked up:

• Three cigarette butts
• One piece of gum

Since I started this blog, all the grasses and flowers have grown up, which I suspect hides a lot of what I used to easily see along the walks.

And I have taken a few photos; here ya go.

Sunset April 16

After the rain, west side, April 1.

I love using puddles for reflections; brings the sky down to earth!

Morning March 31

Sunset March 26 looking east

Sunset March 19 looking west 

Wednesday Patrol and feelin' good

Can you believe this weather? Forgot to take my camera today, too bad, as there was some work being done on the bed of the Cottle River and other random fun things. Maybe tomorrow if I have time.

Old dog feeling pretty good today, so we covered the whole west side and south side between about 9 and 9:30 this morning, and picked up:

• Cigarette butts: 2
• Water bottle caps: 2
• Dog poops: 5, all of them along the south side, not the west side
• 3 candy wrappers
• 3 pieces of broken glass in random places (so they might be old, just washed clean by the recent rains)
• A dozen other small bits and scraps--cough drop wrapper, crumbled up receipt, another ribbon from the opening ceremonies, crumpled aluminum foil, 2 straws, I don't remember everything

Clearly, someone(s) else are also picking up trash & poop regularly. Thanks again to whomever it is.

But also, since I just heard that there's an estimate of over 600 people every day using the trail, and a majority of them with dogs, this is actually a pretty trivial amount of litter. But, still--come on, folks, scoop the poop! Put those wrappers and bottle caps in your pocket until you reach a trash can!

And, wow, was it a beautiful day to be in the park.

Not Patrolling Much

In the last week, I've been out in the park almost every day, but just for a short, slow walk along the west side. My old dog has heart problems, and they seem to be suddenly worse this week. Tika has had ups and downs in the 16 months since we discovered the congestive heart failure, so I'm hoping that this is just another brief down. 

She used to be untiring; could "hike" 10 miles with me, which meant that she ran back and forth and acted as scout the entire time, so probably more like 15 or 20 miles for her, and then still wanted to play when she got home. She used to fly over jumps and through tunnels competing with me in dog agility at a phenomenal speed with great joy.  So this is hard for both of us to take. Yet, going for a walk is still her favorite thing in the world, even on days when she doesn't want to eat or play. She usually likes attention, so when people ask whether they can pet my dog(s), I say yes.

But, this week in particular, she doesn't seem to have the energy to walk very far or very fast, and she's coughing a lot, so I'm concentrating more on her than on patrolling for the leavings of naughty neighbors.

I have picked up a couple of dog poops, a few cigarette butts, and maybe a half dozen random bits and scraps.  I've thanked a couple of people whom I've seen picking up their dogs' messes. I've smiled and said hello to bike riders, kids, walkers, joggers, families, other dog folks. 

Because any day is a beautiful day to be out in our park.

Monday Morning Patrol --Butts!-- plus mountain views

The Patrol skipped several days of picking up--the wind and rain seemed to wash everything clean.

Today, we patrolled the north side. Picked up:

• 12 cigarette butts (really, people? this is trash, too)
• 4 water bottle caps (see previous comment)
• Many small shards of broken glass--this is new, as there were no mud splatters. But someone had previously picked up most of the larger pieces, thanks whoever you were
• 4 random things
• 1 doggie poop

But still--it's a beautiful day to be in the park!

Looking down the yet-to-be-opened entrance midway along the northern side, towards the visitor center and the Santa Cruz Range

Mount Umunhum and its tower seen through the big oak on the north side

Monday Morning Sunrise looking southeast across the park

Sunday Sunset looking northeast