This time we took along two recent Traverse City Central High School graduates, Anastasia and Amara. We worked on the trip report on the drive home, before one of the girls fell asleep.
Participants were Lois and John, Irene and Paul, Wayne and Leslie, Paul W, Kathleen, Jackie M, Gerald and Susan, and Amara and Anastasia. Mark Miltner couldn't join us this time, but he did provide shuttle service and the boats.
Amara: I didn’t find many things when we first started, since it seemed that the pickings were pretty slim. The things we did find were often on the bottom of the river, and so there were a lot of people using spears to get up really old cans off the bottom. We also found a bunch of things like chip bags and water bottles. At the beginning I struggled to find anything and was a bit disappointed. However, as time went on, I got a lot more confident being able to find things and ended up hitting the jackpot with Anastasia. We spent at least ½ hour cleaning out one log jam, tossing stuff to Sue, Lois and Irene.
I never expected to be the kind of person to go on outings with people I didn't really know, but was very surprised that I had a really great time. I see myself doing this stuff. It's kind of cool that a bunch of people who are mostly retirement age and beyond are willing to go out and clean the Pine River, which is gorgeous.
John: Leslie found the bikini top to a woman's swimsuit and we all wondered if the woman was going downstream topless…or maybe it was something she meant to put on later and capsized and just lost it.
Lois: Part of the group was sure that there was a smartphone ringing on the bottom of the river, until Irene realized that she was storing her husband's phone in her dry bag. So the quest for the ringing phone ended at that point.
Anastasia: I was a bit worried until I realized that we hit the jackpot when I climbed out on the big logjam. It was a true mother lode! I felt fearless about climbing in and around it, but everyone cheered each time we found another beer can, water bottle, chapstick, and especially the giant Jack Daniels bottle. It was half full.
I think one of the things that's really nice is that everybody really welcomed us into the group. We didn't know anybody except John & Lois, and people really engaged in including us in the conversation. They also taught us about how to manage our kayaks on the river, so we learned how to do eddy turns and back ferries, which helped get us through some tight spots. I was also glad that J&L had mentioned the fact that we must lean downstream when stuck on a log; that helped a lot!
Lois: Paul W was paddling solo in a canoe for the first time. Actually it was a tandem canoe, loaned by PRPC. He did great and reveled in using one of the mighty spears.
Anastasia: Each time I would find something, everyone who was on the river heard me screaming and was cheering for me. All the people had fun talking to each other and learning a little bit more about others.
Lois: A couple of rangers (Sydney and Trevor) from the Huron-Manistee National Forest were there to greet us at the beginning. They met us again at the end, when they helped haul up the boats and collect all the trash. We found four giant bags, two canoe paddles, and a 2003 identification card from a student at Western Michigan University. I’m still trying to find the guy.
Gerald and John helped a lot hauling drivers up the hill to the parking lot.
The weather today was hot, but not unpleasant. Several people went into the water to stab cans and others just went into the water to wash off the grime at the end of the trip. Anastasia and Amara learned quickly how to maneuver in the sit on top kayaks provided by PRPC.
Amara is headed to MSU and Anastasia (from Ukraine) will be at Western Michigan University, so we are hoping that during the next few summers, they will return to help out on future cleanups. They've already signed up for the Lower Platte in a couple of weeks. It was delightful to have them along!
Photos by Irene and John
Our group - Standing: Anastasia, Paul W., Susan, Gerald, Leslie, Wayne, Paul M, Irene Kneeling: Amara, Jacqui,Kathleen,Loisand John behind the camera
Anastasia in one of PRPC's rental sit-on-top kayaks
Amara finds an unopened can of Mountain Dew and the "drink by" date was six months from now.
Paul displays a piece of birchbark he pulled from the river thinking it was a piece of trash.
Having agile people along always helps get the difficult pieces of trash
All that stretching, but she leave no lip balm untaken
Paul uses his underwater viewer as Lois helps to gather cans on the river bottom.
Leslie found this bikini top which led us to wonder whether the woman finished the trip topless.
Paul shows off a piece of a broken canoe paddle he pulled from the river.
Amara and Anastasia on the logjam
Amara shows off the biggest prize
Look - there's more trash!
Anastasia learns to use the spear, and Amara learns to take cans off carefully
At the end: Back row: John, Amara, Paul M, Paul W, Leslie, Jacqui, Anastasia
Front row: Irene, Kathleen, Lois and behind the camera Ranger Sydney
