Eugene is correct about 1. You need to verify that the path is simple,
and this is something that we don't believe is possible in NL (i.e.,
with a logarithmic space verifier). It seems you really need
polynomial time verifier. (In your question you said "logarithmic
time", but this doesn't make much sense because in logarithmic time
you can't even read the input)
About your second question, you simply run over all (n choose 3) = O
(n^3) triples of vertices and count how many of them form a triangle.
Can't be simpler than that!
-- Oded