On Thursday, it was already hot at 10:20 when Harrison, the Paddle Brave Livery driver, got us back to Chase Bridge. There were 13 of us but it was a lucky number this time.
While we were doing the shuttle, Mike R. gave Ruth, a beginner, some lessons on river paddling. John M. protected the women.
The river was pretty clean and we found only one very large bag of trash before lunch that was deposited at the Castle that the DNR graciously picked up for us. Jocelyn was diligent in finding the usual suspects.
Ian M, our Scottish ambassador, found a shoe with a bottle of Jack Daniels strapped in it. He was disappointed it wasn't Scotch, That proved to be the TOD (Trash of the Day).
Who does that? That guy lost a $30.00 bottle of booze and a $50.00 pair of nice leather river shoes simultaneously. That's 80.00 bucks down the drain.
We left the Castle around 1:00pm and headed downstream..
Tracie had too much trash to carry in her kayak on this section, so she attached the bag in an overhanging tree so I would find it, which I did. That is the first time anyone had ever done that in many years of doing river cleanups and it is a great idea. I will let everyone know about it on my future events. Thanks Tracie!
Later, we encountered much more trash and at the Chapel, a "renter", crashed into Ruth and dumped her.
She was cool and did a great job of recovering. Some people don't have any manners at all.
The considerably more, very nasty and smelly trash that we had found after lunch was deposited at Smith Bridge and was taken by Harrison, the same driver from Paddle Brave. He helped with our boats and the trash. He is a very nice young man and deserves an "At A Boy" for his courteous and helpful actions.
Sandy W. hams it up with the still working flashlight she found as she poses for the picture.
Someone on a previous river cleanup didn't attach flotation to their trash grabber and it was lost. We found it but it's now trash also. Flotation on your grabber is a must!
I think everyone had a good time but we were all ready to be done. Six hours on the river is enough!
We did have a nice South wind all day, however, and that made it quite tolerable.
After we left Smith Bridge, John M and I headed to a hidden lake we had found late Wednesday night and we had four hours of Bass fishing which we won't soon forget. John found a US Army National Guard unexploded artillery shell in the lake and he tossed it on to the shore. That's definitely a first.
John got the FOD and an artillery shell. I got a picture of the fish. We will try to report the shell to the proper authorities.
The fish got his revenge by putting the lure into John's lap and almost caused him some serious injuries but John was lucky and no harm was done. Fishing is not always fun and games. Fish are powerful wild animals and can be unpredictable.
On Friday we fished a hidden lake we found last month and John got the FOD again. A whopper.
Thanks to everyone who came to help make the S. Br. an even more gorgeous place. And thanks to Lois for encouraging me to lead this trip a few years ago. I really enjoy the S. Br. It's a beautiful and sacred river.
Norm