Sometimes video surveillance of public property pays off. Consider, for example, the entrance to Albany’s Water Gardens, which not too long ago somebody mistook for a good place to discard a couch.
To get to the Simpson Park Trail, you pass what is advertised as the boater access on First Lake. But the conditions are such that there’s no great rush of boaters at this neglected Albany lake.
On a bike ride Monday, I came across this scene at the entrance to Albany’s Simpson Park and Talking Water Gardens, and it leads to this conclusion: People who overturn portable toilets or commit other acts of vandalism are telling the world that, unlike the historical Vandals, they are really, really dumb.
It’s rare that you meet another person on the narrow, winding wooded trail between Albany’s Simpson and Bowman parks. Today, though, I ran into a man who was tacking a missing-person poster to a tree. Here, listen to him explain:
This is not what you want to see from any of Albany’s riverside trails. But whether you want to or not, it’s what you had to look at the last few days on a vacant lot off the Willamette river trail from Simpson Park to Bowman Park.
An autumn day on the Simpson Park trail
The dry weather of the last few days has made this a great time to visit Albany’s Simpson Park trail, whether on foot or on a fat-tire bike.
Tags: Albany trails, Simpson Park, Willamette River