Narrative and photos by John Heiam
Marv & Marlene Puska, Marvin Ison, Susan & Gerald Wilgus, Carrie Metevia, Amanda Turner, John Walton, John Heiam and Lois Goldstein all met at the put-in for the Lower Platte at 10 AM. When we ran the car shuttle, Ranger Matt Mohrman took the drivers back from the take-out so we had all the cars at the end.
The day was warm enough so we enjoyed occasionally getting in the clean warm water of the river to get trash. Very early in the hunt, John Walton found a seven foot 2 x 6 hunk of lumber with big spikes sticking out of each end. Since it weighed about 40 pounds, we were anxious to unload it at the first access, Kittendorf Landing.
Aside from that nasty board, the river was pretty clean until we reached the lake. Along the lee shore we found quite a collection of cans and bottles - some with a large buildup of zebra mussels. By the time we reached the weir, we had collected five large bags of trash. Amanda won the "newbie award", for finding the most trash of any first time kayaker. She also was delighted to see lots of wildlife, given her great vision and nice slow pace. Everyone had a lot of success finding goodies.
We had lunch at the weir, and then proceeded down the river. We didn't find much trash from there on, however, once we neared the big lake the biting flies became almost unbearable. It was not unusual to have five or ten of them all biting you at one time. Lois and I jumped into the river and walked the canoe the rest of the way, to stop the flies from biting our legs.
At the take out, everyone unloaded quickly so we could get into the safety of our cars. Aside from the last fifteen minutes, we had a very enjoyable day, and we left the river in better shape than we found it.
Before we set out (Marvin Ison hadn't arrived yet)
Susan scores a piece of trash within a few feet of the put-in.
Lois admires a strange piece of trash, and tries to figure out what it is (was?).
John unloads the 2 x 6 loaded with nails.
This was our haul before lunch.
Lois gets wet to retrieve a label from a fruit plate.