Lehigh River (30-August-2015)

Exhausted before I left I decided to do a short paddle in which I have recently cleaned up most of the shore line. I didn't know what the river height was going to be like today and I don't keep track of the release weekends. If you are not familiar with the phrase release weekend, it means that there are scheduled water releases from Francis E. Walter dam to raise the Lehigh for recreational purposes. This weekend must not have been one and the river was lower than my last paddle down. This meant it was safer for me to get out at more places that I couldn't cover before. 

This was from a small island stop. Everything there was scattered throughout many debris piles and there were only plastics items here and there.

The truck cap has migrated down stream. I don't know whether someone moved it or if it had just become dislodged and made its own way.

Not surprising, another whitewater splashing bucket.

This section was much less severe than last time. Not much water in my boat, whereas last time I got soaked.

I knew the bank in this section was full of trash. It is not accessible by foot and this was one of the areas where even near shore the water was too high and fast to stop before. Sadly I had to leave some bottles that I found here. I could see them, but they were in really thick brush and getting them would have caused more damage than good.

A plastic leg, a whitewater paddle and water gun were the best finds of the day and all around the same area.

Started filling up about half way through the trip.

Two more whitewater splashing buckets. Way too many of them and it is clear who is the cause. If this annoys you as much as it annoys me, please contact the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission. Tell them you do not want organizations who make money off of our shared resource polluting our waters.

More debris piles, more plastics.

Even more debris piles and even more plastics.

This photo is not set up and is exactly how I found it. This is a hatchling snapping turtle that has just recently emerged from its egg. If you look closely at its nose you can see a little white spec. That is an egg tooth and is what turtles use to cut through their egg shell when they are ready. The egg tooth falls off not long after the hatching makes it out of its egg. It's really nice that one of the first things this turtle got to see is a nice styrofoam cup floating at the waters edge.

Nearing the end of the paddle.

I think this was a fine amount for the time I was out there. I used a different takeout point and luckily there was a dumpster for the non-recyclables on the left.