What a spectacular day! John and I would like to thank the other TAPC members who came along, and encouraged us not to cancel this trip when the weather forecast looked less than promising. It turned out to be a lovely day, with temps in the high 60's, some clouds and some sun. In fact, the overcast skies helped us spot the last remaining trash in the river. We have made a real difference in the cleanliness of the Lower Platte; there is not one piece of litter left! The rangers at Sleeping Bear Dunes are so grateful to our club for taking on this task, and the other paddlers today noticed too, and thanked us. The most interesting items were two old beer cans: a Carling Black Label with the old style poptop, and a partially decomposed Miller High Life that had been opened with a church key can opener; Karen had never seen one of those - a relic!
John and I used our tandem canoe (with John working his magic with the spear to get those old cans on the bottom of the river), and Bob Fitch was in his solo canoe. Bob won the award for finding the most stuff - his bag contained almost half of our total group haul. Tom Wells came with his kayak and his fishing waders, just in case he might find an errant salmon heading upstream as he paddled downstream. Steve Somers and Karen Mueller used their kayaks as well, and were instrumental in adding to the cache of stuff. We accumulated only about 1 1/2 large bags of trash. It was so gratifying to see that we have cleaned up the river so well. The first time we did this river was in 2005, and that day we filled an entire canoe with trash! Today we were moving so fast that we went all the way to the El Dorado access before lunchtime, though Bob took a scenic side trip and missed the picnic table. We were done by 1 PM. I want to thank all the people who have assisted with river cleanups this year - today's crew was terrific! We really do make a difference. (written by Lois Goldstein)
