June Bug

There are a few social trails here and there -- there are paths taking off into the woods. I like the idea of sanctioned paths being built. Cullen McMorrow is now the Trails Program Director for the Austin Ridge Riders and does a lot of work on the Walnut Creek Trails. From his bio on the ARR Board of Directors page: Send Cullen a message at the ARR contact page here: http://austinridgeriders.com/contact-us/

"Fall down nine times, get up ten." Even Bon Jovi says so.

Two years ago, Mr. JB was bitten at WC by "a dog that doesn't bite." He had actually stopped to let the woman and her dog get by. Fortunately, this was a very responsible dog owner who followed through with confirming rabies vax and Mr. JB was cleared by his doc, with no resulting infection. Rabies is a terrifying illness. Through my Nextdoor list serve and my own observations, I know that the wild world interacts seamlessly with the domesticated world in the evenings and during the night. I've seen opossums and foxes in my back yard (one block north of Braker Lane) and there are regular coyote and raccoon sightings. There are even bobcats in the Walnut Creek corridor, confirmed by neighborhood game cameras. Of these animals, only opossums don't carry rabies. If you do get bitten by a dog, be relentless in making the owner confirm a current rabies vaccination. Considering the current climate of utter wingnuttery about vaccinating kids and vaccines in general, I would not be surprised if at least some of those people have stopped vaccinating their pets.

It's heavily dependent on time of day/day of week. BCV (before corona virus) the park was mostly empty during weekdays, with a few early morning hikers. Friday, Saturday and Sunday evenings saw minimal use as well.

Flashback: Yup, with our original clog, we had to get the hand vac on the exit pipe to suction out a bunch of nasty goop, similar to that. Along with vinegar and hot water I think we poured a bottle of hydrogen peroxide down the tube to soften things up.

I'm 180 from you. Create a dog park on the north side of the park with a water features, utilizing the empty area between the ball fields and Old Cedar Lane, east of the BMX/Wells Branch Creek and ban dogs from the rest of the park. Another area for a large dog park is the area south of the swimming pool, bounded by the old two-track park road and the current entrance to the trail system off the parking lot. This would take care of the unending problem with dog poop all over the park. I actually do encounter people walking extremely well behaved dogs who stay close and respond to voice commands. I'm totally fine with that. There is explosive population growth going on in the general vicinity of WC, along Braker, in the Domain, and along North Lamar. The park is being loved to death and it's only going to get worse with increasing user conflicts that I truly hope do not result in mountain bikers being shut out of WC.

There is also one at the Main Creek Crossing on the "far" side. However, for the average trail user with dog(s) and the complexity of the trail system, it's incomprehensible. I noticed a new "on leash" sign near where the trail comes in from the neighborhood by Shady Springs by the power lines. I'll keep an eye on it to see if it's vandalized. Back in the day the little "on leash" icons on the carsonite posts were vandalized within 24 hours in that area.

1998, appliance salesmen at Hancock Center Sears: "With the more basic dishwasher, there are fewer things to go wrong." Evergreen. Yes, bad design is an understatement. I'm putting a piece of tape over the USB port on the new (identical) laptop. RIP Macbook, AB. Is 4 years a typical life span? Somewhat related, in an opposite way: a twitter thread yesterday revealed how many people loved WordPerfect, miss it, and have never EVER gotten over the loss of Reveal Codes (ditto).

Indeed. We drove to Cottonwood/Sedona the last day of Feb and returned a week later, taking the southern route on I 10. AZ is amazing with little mountain ranges everywhere. To live there would be to explore every weekend.

This happens every year with some take you dog to a park day or something. REI posts Walnut Creek as an appropriate venue every year, and every year I respond with a long reminder about not leash free, lots of park users including mtn bikes, etc.

Excellent. It really is a disconcerting feeling to feel the heat creeping up in the house. Maybe this bad looking line of thunderstorms will cool things down just a bit.

Last week: 1) The check engine light was triggered by rodents chewing up three wiring harnesses. 2) Chromebook died when the earbud plug touched the USB port, which is about a 16th of an inch from the audio jack. With a new Chromebook, you log in and it has all your stuff, just like the old Chromebook, which is simultaneously totally comforting (awww, my stuff!) and deeply creepy (they have MY STUFF!) On a positive note, we got our wills done, that landscaping project is almost finished and we don't have The 'Rona. Y'all stay well and cool (to the extent possible).

There have been many complaints on Gracywoods Nextdoor about loose aggressive dogs at WC, to the point where many neighbors don't try to walk with their dogs on leash in the park anymore. The city/parks has never installed effective signage about leash status.

Main Walnut Creek is the divider line. Everything on the swimming pool side of WC is off leash. Everything on the other side is on leash.

How many miles?

Holy schmoley! TxDOT's Texas Roadbed Surface website has a searchable dirt/gravel view! I looked up some towns and also searchable by address and (I think) street name. Another resource: gravelmap.com

I've already started cleaning the drain line. We had an incident awhile back with the old AC where the AC drain line became clogged with algae, overflowed and ruined part of the carpet in Mr. JB's office. Stan's put in a sensor that shuts everything down and prevents overflow. Even with that, I treat the drain line every two or three weeks by pouring a cup of vinegar into the line, followed by two cups of hot water. Funny thing: We also have the Stan's service contract. When we got our new AC a few years ago, we got a nice new programmable thermostat, which I still have not gotten around to programming. During the installation, I asked the technician about programming it; he laughed and said he'd never programmed his home thermostat either. He just adjusted as needed, which I've discovered works pretty well.

Saturday, May 23: Not a state park, but Pace Bend is already closed for the day due to the large number of visitors. Pace Bend is currently day-use only and they'll reopen tomorrow until they reach (currently limited) capacity.

Here's the link to a listing of trails in the St. George area on UtahMountainBiking.com

Been a Strand Bros then Stan's customer for 20 years. Consistently reliable.

Demystifying the Illusive White Squirrel has a link to report white squirrel sightings.

SRSLY?

Confirmation as of 4:37 pm. It's not the heat, IT IS THE HUMIDITY. The section where you come out of Tangle of Trails and head over to Church Hill is completely overgrown with PI at WC. Solid. Also, there is an infestation of squirrels; they're everywhere. The internet offered this helpful information.

Ditto! The Website (in English) is still active: Marino Bikes. The prices are still insanely reasonable.

Two things. First, my impression is that state parks are limiting the number of day passes -- just as many businesses can only operate at a reduced capacity to preserve social distancing, state parks are only allowing a very reduced number of visitors each day to avoid crowding. However, when we were riding the trails at Buescher, the day passes were sold out. Overall, very few people there, but it was apparent everyone was there to use the trails. Social distancing was not observed and most people were not wearing masks. Re hoarding: State park Annual Pass holders can reserve, for example, a day pass every day for a month, and then go whenever they want, even if they use only one or two of those days. This was confirmed to us by someone who knows Annual Pass holders who live by a state park who do this.