Being a daily dog walker I tend not to pay a lot of attention to what particular day it is.  To me it’s just a daily activity.  We’re out there day after day, in the heat, the cold, the rain, etc.  The only things I draw the line at are lightning and ice as I don’t care to become a crispy critter and I’d like to avoid breaking my ass.

Anyhow, on Saturday I took Boots over to the park and encountered a bunch of stuff prepositioned at the bridge where the trail splits to go to the Pointe and Town Center.  The sign near the tent they’d set up said it was for the haunted trail event that was starting at 7:00pm.  Worried that I might be blocked from returning I made certain to try to wrap up our daily sojurn well before 7:00pm.  As I was crossing the bridge someone I assume is from Keller Parks and Recreation said to me that the trail would be closing shortly.

I took the opportunity to ask her to have signs put up in advance of the next event to warn regular trail users that the trail would be closed.  She seemed surprised by such a suggestion and made a statement to the effect that in 10 years of doing this event no one had ever asked for them.  It’s unfortunate that no one was willing to be a pain the ass besides me, but aside from that I think this is a classic example of getting so wrapped up in an event that you think everyone assigns it the same level of importance as you.  I’m just out to walk the dog and I don’t pay a lot attention to what day it is unless I’ve been reminded that an event will occur.  When they ran a triathlon a few weeks ago the organizers put up signs on the trail stating the date and time that the event would be run.  I thought this was a nice touch and it allowed me to plan my day accordingly.

In my opinion it’d be nice if Parks and Recreation would put up signs in advance of any activity that would close a trail or a portion of the trails.  They don’t have to be elaborate or fancy (like the custom-made metal ones used for the bridge repairs).  I’d just like some warning so I can plan to be elsewhere when the trail closes and the hordes show up.

Update:  The haunted trail event this weekend jogged my memory, though.  I recall a couple of years ago that the trail looked like it had been wrecked the day after the event.  There were bits of props from the “scare stations” (or whatever they were) still in place, there were candy wrappers all over the ground, and there were still lots of fake spider webs on the trees.  That fake spider web stuff doesn’t appear to be biodegradable (or if it is, it’s really slow).  I continued to see bits and pieces of it for more than a year afterwards.