Next time you paddle take a trash bag with you and bring back some trash. If we all pitch in we can make a difference. It’s about 97 degrees here today and i just looked out the window and saw about a dozen canoes and kayaks coming back from a river,bay clean up. I don’t think any of them were under 65 yrs. old. If they can do it we all can. Happy Paddling. VF
Agreed.
The deck of my kayak looks like a garbage can by the time that I get back from after-work paddles and I’m on a small 50-acre lake.
Yep.
We do it, too. On the water and on the trail.
My canoe usually looks like a garbage
barge when I get back from a trip.
That’s right , do pick up the trash …
– Last Updated: Jul-21-08 9:23 PM EST –
....... others have dropped or has gotten away from them . We do whenever we are out , but put more efforts into it when paddling the water or hiking the wood .
I grumble under my breath sometimes about it , but will often pick a place clean . It helps to think others will enjoy a trash free place also , it's a motovation .
I also like to think that someone seeing me picking up the trash , will be more inclined to pitch in and do it too sometime . At the least I'm hoping a litterbug will see me and have second thoughts next time .
I feel kinda responsible for our beautiful places we have to enjoy . The litterbugs are far fewer than those who are thinking about what a privledge it is to have such places to spend time in .
Also agree, although once I could
paddle past flotsam and trash. These days, I can’t, so long as I have room on my deck or in a storage compartment. Imagine if every paddler scooped up just 2 pieces of trash each time they paddled.
Your not going to like me
I have been paddling too long and also have lived on a small river for the past twenty years to heed what you suggest.
I used to be idealistic like you, and always thought I was doing the world some good by picking up some trash, but eventually got so fed up with picking up after the pigs, that now I just walk right on by their trash.
If I am out in the wilderness where I know the derilicts of society don’t frequent, I will do it, but there is no way I am going to waste my time doing it, knowing that the same ones will be back time after time tossing their litter.
I do thank you though and hope that some day things might just turn around, but unfortunately during my life time they have gotten worse, not better.
Cheers,
JackL
I hear you, Jack
but I figure that by making a small effort I might be making the next passerby’s experience a little better.
For all I know, some thoughtful person has gone before me and picked up trash that I would have frowned at and picked up myself.
I’m with JackL on this one 100%
When I go paddling I go for pleasure and picking up trash and hauling crap isn’t fun. On trips I organize I do not allow people to pick up trash because it disrupts the trip and is unsafe for skilled paddlers.
Now on the other hand I don’t know anyone who personally organizes more clean-ups than I do. This isn’t brag. It is a fact. I don’t go through the clean-up organizations for T-shirts or meals. We meet for breakfast and I pick up the tab. Everyone brings their lunch and it is a whole day ordeal (8 hours plus). I bring trash bags and tools. Those who go have a love for rivers or learn to love them and all are paddlers. People are taught how to pick up and carry trash/tires safely on/in their boat.
The record stands at 11 already this year and the next one is Saturday, July 26. Meet us at the Huddle House on Hwy 20 in Cumming, Ga. if you want a free breakfast and a great time.
This is my work hard…play hard way.
Paddlin’ on
Richard
Fishing line
kills birds. I try to collect it and dispose of it safely. It pretty much ruins my day when I see an anhinga with a wad of fishing line on its beak, knowing it will slowly starve to death.
Cynthia of Chicago Kayak has
several cleanup days at the Skokie Lagoons each year. You can’t escape her and have to participate. My wife and I are in the small picture in a tandem halfway down the page on the left (I’m holding the trash bag):
http://www.chicagokayak.com/chicago_kayak_earth_day_skokie_lagoons.htm
GK , I’ll bet I appreciate …
… the clean-ups people like you do , more than I know !!