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 Patrol, More Dogs, and Thanks

North side (along Branham) will be closed tomorrow until 4:00.

The Patrol was indisposed this morning and couldn't get out until after 5:00.  Houses along the west side nicely shaded that stretch of trail, which is good for my old dog.

Lots of folks out strolling.  Dogs, too; here are four of them (two in the background).

Sometimes you hardly notice the mountains in the background, but if you take a photo from the right angle, you can really see how lovely they are from Cottle Park.

I have to say Thanks to whomever is cleaning up the trail after Naughty Neighbors. I expected all kinds of messes today, but almost nothing! Even if it's a Santa Clara County Parks job, I for one appreciate it. Because today I picked up only--

West side:

• 2 poops
• 3 cigarette butts
• 4 wrappers or partial wrappers
• A few random small scraps of this and that

Not bad at all!