Shattered

I’m starting to get a little concerned about some things I’ve been seeing on the walking trails over the past month or so.  It started with the mirror where the trail goes under Rufe Snow at Bear Creek.  The trail curves there making it impossible to see who’s coming around the bend.  When you combine a narrow trail, the blind curve, and a mix of runners, walkers, bicyclists, and rollerbladers, it’s a recipe for disaster.  The mirror was great for seeing if someone was barrelling towards you on the curve (and for alerting the barreller that people were ahead).  Unfortunately, it appears that some jerk smashed the mirror with a rock.  It started with just the center section, making the mirror difficult, but still somewhat usable.  Yesterday I noticed that the whole thing was gone.

Last week I also noticed that someone has smashed a beer bottle on the concrete retaining wall of the overpass.  This was moderately dangerous, since if you suddenly had to throw yourself out of the way of a speeding cyclist the only place to go was up on the wall (it’s one of those sloping retaining walls you typically see with overpasses).  My dog likes to jump up there and walk around the corner, so I’ve had to be careful to keep her off of it as well.

Also yesterday I had someone yell to me from the edge of the Town Hall parking lot to watch for the glass on the trail.  Someone had smashed what appeared to be a beer bottle on the trail behind Town Hall.  I’m glad of the warning, because the glass was in small pieces.  It wouldn’t have been a problem for me, but I’m sure my dog wouldn’t have fared as well. 

In the 2 1/2 years I’ve been walking the trails, I haven’t seen broken glass or this kind of blatant vandalism until now.  I hope this isn’t the start of a trend.  Maybe when the kids go back to school next week things will return to normal.

2 Comments

  1. Kevin White says:

    Indeed, it’s usually a very nice park/trail. 🙁

  2. On today’s walk I saw that while the mirror hasn’t been fixed, the glass is gone.  I’ll be keeping an eye on this over time (it’s kind of hard not to, since I walk through there on a daily basis).