WANTED: Clean Fill

This afternoon when I took the spotted dog for a walk on a trail we frequently use, we found this:

A huge pile of dog shit smack in the middle of the trail

Well, actually we smelled it first. I thought the adjoining dog yard was mighty pungent, but wrote it off to the weather. Nope. It was a huge pile of dog poop, right where we walk, ski, snow shoe, and pick berries. I'd estimate about a 20-dog dog yard winter's worth.

So, I casually stopped by the neighbor's after my walk, and noted that, well, uh, they had dumped all of their dog shit right in the middle of an established trail. True, it's not much used except by a few neighborhood people, and true, it's right on the edge of their property.

I expected to hear something along the lines of: "oh sorry, we didn't realize people were still using this trail and we will find somewhere else on our 40-acre property to dump it."

Instead, I got this, delivered with a totally deadpan face:"We are filling in low spots in the trail."

Poop as fill.

First I have heard of that. Soooooo, what happens when the low spot fills with water as they usually do? How does one "walk" or say, take an ATV, through a low spot filled with poop? Poop not's firm, nor hard, and it gets really, really nasty when wet. How on earth can it fill in anything other than an outhouse hole?

I was- to say the least - dumbfounded. Since I thought she was joking, I at first laughed, but she wasn't. Finally I requested that perhaps another material, such as slash or pecker poles be considered as trail filler, and was advised they would take that under consideration.

Guess I'll be re-routing that trail next weekend.