The weather was sunny and steamy hot for Wednesday's cleanup cruise down the Pine River. The illustrious cleanup crew this time around consisted of Leigh Baker, Lois Goldstein, John Heiam, Tracie Lord, Maxi Neugebauer, Fred and Judy Swartz, John Walton and his daughter Claire, and Susan Wilgus.
The biggest concern heading out was that Fred's ongoing cleaning efforts might have left the river in a state of total perfection, with nothing left for the cleanup crew to do but leisurely paddle down the scenic stream. The glistening shores certainly suggested this possibility. Susan reported seeing more bird’s nests by the shores than trash, Maxi spotted some beautiful purple irises, and we all passed by at least two broods of ducklings. But careful scrutiny still yielded a bounty (for better or worse) of cans, shoes, bottles, and wrappers.
Easy pickings had obviously been addressed during previous outings, leaving us with mostly challenging items. Judy reported having to chase after many items for a second time after they became dislodged and started floating downstream (which if we were keeping a trash-count score would, of course, count double). John and Claire started out with the appearance of bravery, boldly flinging themselves into bushes and logjams. But mid-trip they were attacked in one such effort by a nest of *absolutely gigantic* furry spiders. From that point on, their wild abandon was only sighted a few more times, mostly in special situations coincidentally involving beer cans which appeared potentially unopened.
The difficulty of retrieving items had obviously led to some of them being left in the river for a long, long time. Tracie found many tennis shoes whose canvas tops had entirely rotted away, and at least one soda can was found with the old pull-top design. The most novel find of the day may have been Leigh's, who found a nice size 11 ski boot. The biggest find (literally) was definitely John and Lois' discovery of a large Nike umbrella. In the end, after a full day's effort, we reached the pullout with many bags worth of trash. Claire and Maxi helped dispose of some of the day’s finds by celebrating with what Maxi termed "weasel piss". All other garbage was sorted for recycling and disposed of accordingly.
Written by Claire Walton