Who came?
In the photo below: David Fred, Steve Somers, Lois Goldstein, John Heiam, Maxi Neugebauer, Norm Fred, John Cunningham from Cincinnati, Judy Swartz, Fred Swartz and Jean Palmieri. We also recruited a guy named Bob from Troy - Norm gave him an extra grabber stick, and he picked up gobs of stuff!
Where did you go?
Pine River from Peterson to Low Bridge
How was it?
The weather was fabulous - one of the few summer days this year so far. Nobody minded getting into the water, whether we chose that location or not!
What kind of boats were there?
One loaner tandem canoe from PRPC (piloted by David and Norm - the king of spearing trash), everyone else in kayaks (including one loaned by PRPC)
Anything noteworthy?
We found the usual stuff: cans (both empty and full), sneakers, bottles (both glass and plastic), sweatshirts, sparkly Happy Birthday signs, flip-flops, chip bags, disintegrated bags (both plastic and mesh), Crocs, tee shirts, balloons, plastic containers from "Jello shots", a good Nalgene bottle, a five gallon plastic bucket, plus lots of other non-natural trash.
At one point, Judy tried to get an item, missed and called in Steve for assistance. When he dropped his paddle, Maxi went after it. But she didn't notice that there was an overhanging tree just downstream, and then dropped her paddle too. As she was floating backwards into the branches, she ducked, got caught sideways and ended up swimming. But she never lost her hat, glasses or kayak. She swam the boat to shore, it was emptied and pumped out by John H and Norm. Nothing was lost, including Maxi's valuable stash of trash.
A half hour later, we came around a bend to find two women (not in our group) who had capsized together, and were stranded on the other side of the river. Norm and David sprung into action; nothing gives them greater joy than using their rescue rope! They got both ladies back to our side of the river, and onto a gravel bar. Lois ministered to one of them, and fitted her with a PFD. She was barefoot; apparently the flip-flops she had been wearing were now fodder for our hunting efforts later in the day.
Meanwhile, their kayaks had headed downstream without the ladies, and John H and Fred went off to retrieve them. It is REALLY hard work to tow a kayak upstream on the Pine! (Ask me about the time I had to pull Norm's solo canoe filled with trash upstream on the Jordan.) Norm and David ferried one woman to her boat (she sat on the trash in the middle of their canoe), but the other one simply waited for our trusty team to bring it to her.
Meanwhile, one of their male companions decided to take off in his kayak, but without his own paddle. When he saw Fred coming the other way, he tossed his paddle into the purple boat being towed (but didn't grab the paddle that was already there), so he was literally downstream without a paddle. Lois headed down, hoping to avoid another major rescue extravaganza, grabbed one paddle from the purple boat, and used two paddles to get down to the idiot who had given his up. She then went into "teacher mode" (can you imagine that?), told the guy to stop on a sand bar and wait for the others in both groups, so they could sort out their equipment.
Further downstream, we all got through Pinball Rapids just fine, and finished up a bit after 4 PM. Olive Garden was waiting for us!
written by Lois
