The trail around the lake in At the foot of the hill

If you are a regular reader of mine, you will remember that we live on the third (top) floor of a fairly large apartment complex which is located at the edge of a big park in the suburbs of Denver. Just out the back door of our building is a grassy slope that leads down to a small lake (reservoir, actually) which is maintained by the park district. Around the lake is a cement bike/walking path that is about as wide as one lane on a street. There are signs along the path stating that the distance around is 1.4 miles. The park is often the venue for concerts, picnics and gatherings of all kinds. This past Sunday there was a concert that went on most of the day and into the night...with a huge crowd in attendance. This really doesn't bother us any because the speakers are turned away from us, although we do often hear the bass throbbing when the music is playing. I think the concert itself was over when we went to bed Sunday night, but the crowd was still hanging around, doing things that concert-going young folks like to do...drinking beer and smoking pot, I'm sure...although smoking pot is still illegal out here. (I think you can buy it legally, but it still against the law to use it on public property.) Anyhow, we went to bed and closed the blinds (our bedroom is directly across from the amphitheater) and forgot about it. Next morning, I got up about six thirty and, as is my habit, opened the door to the deck. Across, over there on that side of us, is a strip mall and at the end is a parking lot which had been jammed with cars the afternoon and evening before. There were still a few cars there. There is a hedge between the parking lot and the lake edge, and just the tops of the cars are visible from here. Over the hedge I saw red and blue police car lights flashing.
We talked about what might be going on over there, all through breakfast as the lights kept on flashing. We made all kinds of speculations, thinking everything from maybe a rock through the window of the restaurant building there, to somebody passed out in his car.... Then, from my office I was able to see people moving around a little past the mall and started watching more closely. It must have been around 8 o'clock, I thought there was a car a little farther up the path and close to the water. What the heck, I thought. More people milling around. I looked away for a couple of minutes and when I looked back I saw a tow truck turn around and head up the path toward the library, and hanging from the back of it was a small white car covered with splotches of mud and maybe moss.
There wasn't much more to see from here. The police car was there quite awhile longer, but eventually it, too, was gone. A little later, I went down to the lobby and the residents were all a buzz...Seems that a young man (maybe 20 years old) was driving laps on the bike path and flipped into the water about 4:30 a.m. Sad to say, he was killed.
I don't know the whole story of this young man, but I have to say the easy access to pot is not a good thing for our kids.