Monday, picked up 4 grocery bags full of trash in the vicinity of the Route. By the time I got to FR2998, it was late afternoon so I decided to walk down Camp May Road because the shadows along the Route reminded me that mountain lions like to feed at dusk. The bags of trash were too heavy so I had cached them periodically in several places along the road. When I got to my car, I drove back to pick up the bags.
Tuesday, did some useless work to delineate the Route better. During the back burn to establish a fire line to fight the Las Conchas fire, some of the logs that mark the Route burned. It's also marked with rock cairns but they're hard to see at times. On one section, I really overdid it with lining both sides with logs. When I could, I confined the path to a bare dirt since it's probably not good to spread out too much in an area recovering from fire. After this work, I was tired and since walking on a paved road is far easier, I went out to Camp May Road at the Shotgun Shell dirt parking area and completed my walk.
Today, I undid a minor re-route that I'd done Tuesday because I realized that it wasn't at all obvious and where it was originally was further above a tiny drainage and drier. Also today, near the Ocean, I decided that logs on both sides were overkill and I lined only one side of the path. I wanted to stay more left where there was bare dirt and it seemed the way was obvious. In the process of doing this, I discovered a short, ready-made trail connection and it made sense to start using that.
Today, I collected 3 more grocery bags of trash, some which wasn't really along the Route but I could see it glinting so I picked it up. That's it, though, for my annual trash pickup! Today, I didn't quite go up to FR2998 but instead finished my walk on Camp May Road. Once again, I'm superstitious about walking by myself along the Route when it's feeding time for the animals. Speaking of animals, I saw a total of 4 deer today! Again, I had to drive up to retrieve the cached trash bags. They'll go out in my trash tomorrow. Gee, if any neighbor looks in our trash can, they're going to think "They sure drink a lot of beer!"
I may have seen the resident jogger again today. I parked where West Road is blocked off and saw a jogger just coming off the steep trail the bicyclists have built that shortcuts up to the Ocean. In the past, I went up and down that shortcut twice but it's steep so I'll stick to going up the old dirt road remnant just below Camp May Road, hopping the guardrail before the first steep hill on Camp May Road and crossing the paved road to go up to the Ocean.
I realize that any maintenance I do on the Route is akin to rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. There are so many fire-damaged trees along the Route which will surely topple one day. Today, at Guardrail Hill, below the second major climb Camp May Road makes, I happened to notice a towering burnt snag, the very bottom of it chiseled narrow by the back burn used to fight Las Conchas. It leans like the Tower of Pisa and I hope when it falls no one is there and it falls away from the Route.
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