Along the western edge of the park, near the southwest corner, we stand at the edge of the field and look down into the woods. Everything shiny you see is a beer can or a bottle.
From very nearby, we can see more bottles and cans...
We look across the green fields, and a green bottle. At least this bottle is not broken.
Some people aren't satisfied to leave their empty bottles. They also have to leave their empty pants.
Below, we see even more empty pants and bottles.
if you are standing in the lower parking lot -- off of Baltic Avenue -- and are near the water fountain, you can walk straight down the path, and at the place where the trail turns right, you can walk along an unpaved trail and there you can cross one branch of Rock Creek and be on an island.
Most people are unlikely to do this.
On that island, we found this old copy of "El Tiempo Latino", but frankly, it's not really that old. It's from 13 de Junio, 2008.
Within feet of the newpaper, we find a lot of bottles. Most of them, thankfully, are not broken.
By walking a bit farther, and very cautiously and quietly, we are able to photograph a homeless camp, complete with beer bottles and clothing hung out to dry.
Here's more of that clothing, and below and beyond it, we see a beaten trail.
Look closely at the picture below. The large humps have been there for at least some years, but one has recently been excavated. Perhaps it's just being used as a latrine.
And here is another "party place" and homeless camp. It's not far at all from the other one. This is what would have been called, back in my father's day, "a hobo jungle".
Notice in the background that there are logs clearly and recently cut with chainsaws.
Either I am delusional and hallucinating, or I am looking at a lot of bottles. Someone has been doing a bit of drinking here.
It looks as if someone forgot their boots, and their trash, and their empty bottles... well, you get the picture.
Below, those tires have been in the creek since the 1940s, I'm pretty sure, but that campsite on the other side of the creek is fairly new. As is the fishing ground on the little islet there.
How do I know? I have been here before. Below, one shot of what it used to look like at this exact spot, with a slightly different angle. Note that it is very clean... because I carried out many bags of bottles and cans and other trash, some years ago.
But now?
Not even in the middle of a supposedly abandoned and lonely forest is there an escape from graffiti.
We must go now.
Returning from the island, we see even more empty pants... but these are not far from the place where we saw the pink girly sneakers with the laces still tied. They may be found where the large branch lies across the unpaved dirt trail at the base of the promontory.
August 25, 2008.