August 10 Pine River cleanup, Dobson to Peterson
Lois Goldstein | Published on 8/10/2023
We had a fabulous group of river pickers today, and found a surprising amount of stuff, considering that we had cleaned this same section 5 weeks ago on July 5. Highlights are shown in the photos below.
Mark located a submerged canoe from the Pine River Paddlesports Center fleet, but apparently it was buried about three feet down underneath a major fallen tree, so he decided that the time and expense of trying to retrieve it wasn't worth the trouble.
As usual, Wayne was willing to head out into the water to gather fallen cans, and Paul arrived at the takeout with a massive bags of beer cans. both full and empty.
John & I spotted a large heavy lawn chair, and Mark muscled it into the bottom of his canoe.
We are much appreciative of the rental canoe provided by PRPC, since that means we don't have to bring our own boats. One less thing to clean when we get home! Paul also loves using the sit-on-top kayak that they offer. PRPC is always gracious about transporting us too.
Wildlife sightings today included frogs, mink, mergansers and great blue heron.
Grabbing the red onion bags is a challenge, since they are usually tangled up on logs beneath the surface. Unless they are tied to boats, they are useless.
Special thanks also to the rangers at the Huron Manistee National Forest, who support our efforts by providing watercraft permits and parking passes.
Report by Lois
Photos by John and Jacqui
Top row: Jackie (aka Sassy), Wayne, Ron, John, Lois
Bottom row: Jacqui (aka Jacks), Kathleen, Paul
Mark is behind the camera
Lois and John watch as Mark lifts a heavy canvas bag filled with wet sand and gravel
A deer that didn't live to enjoy summer
Our audience
Mark goes after a stump that is hidden just below the surface; it has tipped many rental canoes
It is not impossible to spear a glass bottle
John and Mark work to fit this chair into his canoe
A bear cave?
Lois goes after the red onion bag that is wrapped around a stump
Success! (notice how strong the current is around her legs)
A frog using an old shoe as his lily pad. We were able to convince him to leave so we could pick up the shoe.
Lois finds the perfect water shoe for a princess; unfortunately it was a bit too small for her.
When Lois & John paddled over this, they thought it was a can. The problem was that the water was waist deep, and the current was very strong. John waded out and tried to stab it with his spear. When that didn't work, he tried his grabber. He was able to pick it up out of the water, but then it fell into even deeper water. Finally, Wayne showed up, and he was able to get it with his lure retrieval tool.
The crew with our trash. Most of the stuff we found today was "legacy trash", meaning that it had been in the river for at least a year. We suspect that it had been in the river for MANY years.
