Beltzville State Park (29-Feb-2016)

My car was in the shop until the afternoon. I did not have much time to get a clean-up accomplished and I had to keep it close to home. This is why I went back to the Trinity Gorge Trail at Beltzville. I knew on previous trips that there were a lot of shotgun shells in this area that I had left before. Searching and picking up smaller items like that is incredibly time consuming, however it is something that really needs to be done as well. I knew there was more bottles, cans and the normal finds in the area, but the last time I went this far in the items were impossible to get to. The winter changed the conditions here and I ended up taking a lot more out than expected. 

One of the first items I came across was this balloon. Someone needs to come up with an eco-friendly balloon alternative. 

Not only were many more places that were accessible today, there were also a lot of items that were visible that were hidden before. 

It did not take long to fill my pack and a small bag. Once I did this I tried to really focus just on the shotgun shells.

If you have been following this blog for awhile, you may have seen a post about this site before. There is one area along the lakeside that looks to be maintained as a hunting spot, most likely for waterfowl. All of the lower branches on the trees have been cut and pile and many of the branches have been replaced on the trees with the shells above. On my last visit I just left them. There were new ones today, like the one on the left and I took them all. To the hunters that left these behind, there really is no reason to decorate trees you cut with your garbage. 

Penny quickly got tired of being tied to a tree while I was pulling all of the shells off of the trees. Becoming very vocal she hurried me up.

Not only did I find a bunch of shells at the hunting site, I also found something to put them in and a fish.

I then walked the corn fields until the sun was hit the horizon. It was then a quick walk back to the car before the light was completely gone. 

It turned out to be much more than the shotgun shells I was after. I have taken a lot of trash out of Beltzville and I can still find more. Why are there so many that don't respect our state parks? 

This was the view from the parking area right before I left. I think this is the best sunset viewing on the whole lake. 

You too can help with taking out the trash! If you get out hiking take a grocery bag with you, give it a second use and fill it with trash while you are out! Every bit helps. You can also help contributing to this project here: Help Fund Taking Out the Trash

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Gouldsboro & Tobyhanna State Parks (28-Feb-2016)

Wait a minute, this doesn't go with the title. It doesn't, but was half way to the destinations. I had Penny along and this stop offered her a rest stop. We just walked around the parking lot, but that didn't stop me from making the most of the stop and collecting trash. 

I took care of the bags and bottles on the left. The boxes and other items that someone left in the parking lot I was not going to deal with. They were large and I have no idea whats in them and don't want to know. The Game Commission will hopefully get rid of them soon.

I think this was a lot for a rest stop for Penny. It didn't take long to find all of this either.

Only my second visit to Gouldsboro State Park. Today the plan was to see what the conditions were like this far north and clean-up the areas that I found were the worst last year. It was about the same as last year as well. 

Your average lakeside trash. Portions of the lakeside were ice free and allowed me to pick up some things that were most likely inaccessible just a couple weeks ago. 

The lake isn't that large, but I would like to paddle it sometime. There are a lot of little islands and lots of places trash could be hidden and I am sure it is out there. 

Something different. I doubt someone was serving soup or punch on the lake. My best guess is that this was being used by a fisherman as a tool to keep the ice clear in his fishing holes.

This was all I could find for a trash can and I wasn't going to leave any of the non-recyclables I collected here. They could too easily find there way back to the lake. Not sure what was going on with the contractor bag on the side. 

This is just as much, if not more than I collected in the same area last year. Isn't that disappointing. How do we make others change? 

This was my third visit to Tobyhanna State Park. Like Gouldsboro, I have never paddled this lake. I hope to get back here too to do an on the water clean-up. Today I stuck to the trails. 

Walking a portion of trail around the lakeside I found the common things. 

Although the lake had a layer of ice over top, the stream flowing in was free and clear. 

These items were all from an area I thoroughly cleaned last year. I think it is a popular fishing site. I will never understand those who think it is enjoyable to stand or sit next to trash while fishing. 

These signs are great. Be careful, there may be unexploded munitions in the area. Isn't that what everyone wants to read when they go hiking? Other times I have been here there were groups out searching with metal detectors, I'm guessing this is what they were looking for. 

Penny had the next find of the day and it wasn't trash, luckily it wasn't old munitions either. She had to be tied to a tree while I snapped some photos.

If you visit Tobyhanna State Park it is possible, but not likely that you will stumble across a Porcupine. Most of the time I only see them because I have Penny along, she points them out and drags me towards them. This particular porcupine was young and nowhere near an adult size. Porcupines are great at climbing trees and they do so not just for safety, but also for food. On a previous occasion I discovered an adult porcupine near the top of a tree feasting away on small branches. 

Not long after the porcupine encounter, this Bald Eagle flew overhead. In recent years Bald Eagles really have become a common site. They truly are a success story. I know when I was young they were extremely rare to see. 

I still can't get over finding so many of these. This one was even in what looked to be a high traffic area near the campground. No one in the past 20 years or so saw this and decided to pick it up. That amazes me.

By the end at Tobyhanna, this is what I picked up. 

Like the gamelands at the start of the post, Fern Ridge Nature Preserved offered a break for Penny on the way home. Here we actually walked around for awhile. Never hiked this area before and I was curious to see what it was like. In a way I was disappointed, in another I thought it was a cool place. 

The area starts out with a field which on the far side is lined with Phragmites and Japanese Knotweed, both non-native plants. Just beyond them I found piles of dirt loaded with junk like the pieces above. Some of the stuff was buried with only pieces or half of the items sticking out of the earthen piles. This kind of made me laugh. Someone had a great idea with making this a nature preserve and went as far as making and putting up a nice sign, but never tried to remove this stuff or the non-native plants. Beyond the junk there are no real defined trails. Penny and I wandered through the woods for a time and it was starting to get late in the day. So we did not stay long.

This was all I found that I could actually take out. It was a long day. I am beyond exhausted. I might not be going out tomorrow, but we will see. 

You too can help with taking out the trash! If you get out hiking take a grocery bag with you, give it a second use and fill it with trash while you are out! Every bit helps. You can also help contributing to this project here: Help Fund Taking Out the Trash

Like this blog? Like it on Facebook: Taking Out the Trash in Eastern PA

Beltzville State Park (27-Feb-2016)

Feeling worn out, I said in the post yesterday that I would take out more trash today and I really had to push myself to do that. Stuck with Beltzville, still limited with the rivers and streams being high. This time I went to the 209 side of the lake at an access across from the Pine Run Boat Launch. I worked on this area last year and it was trashy. There is a lot of thick brush and much of the trash is not easy to get to.  

I worked on the area between the lake and the Trinity Gorge Trail. Like I said I had done this before, but on the previous trips, I just couldn't get to all of the trash. This time I took different routes and it seemed much easy than it was last time. I think the winter helped open up some of the areas that were nearly impossible to get through before. A lot of the items were older, pretty far from the shoreline, but looked to be washed up. So I think at some point in the not too distant past the lake was filled to a level I have never seen before. 

Multiflora Rose. I have mentioned this plant in previous post and it is one of my least favorite things. It is non-native and is found at every access around Beltzville. I think people that throw trash into and underneath this plant are just plain evil. I always have cuts and punctures having to pick trash out of it or walk through it to get trash on the other side. The only benefit that I know of from this plant is that a variety of native birds like to nest in it. The nest on the right is possibly from a Mockingbird. Notice how trash was used in the construction of this nest.

The clean-up went fairly quickly and in under two hours I had a garbage bag and a pack full. At most sites it would take much longer to collect that much.

It was about half and half, as far as recyclables and trash. Many styrofoam items and chicken liver containers. 

Had Penny along and she spent a lot of time during the clean-up tied to trees while I worked my way out of the brush. She isn't a fan of multiflora either and I do my best to keep her out of it. She needed a good walk so we traveled up to the Preacher's Camp Access. There a think sheet of ice still covered the lake, where almost every other portion is clear. There were even boats running on the lower section. 

Penny looked to have a good hike. Even met a Basset Hound on the Preacher's Camp Trail. This trail I have cleaned up many times, even before I started this project. It stays fairly clean, so there wasn't much stopping along the hike. We went as far up the trail as she wanted to go and then we headed back.

This was all I picked up on this second hike and I was happy to find so little.

You too can help with taking out the trash! If you get out hiking take a grocery bag with you, give it a second use and fill it with trash while you are out! Every bit helps. You can also help contributing to this project here: Help Fund Taking Out the Trash

Like this blog? Like it on Facebook: Taking Out the Trash in Eastern PA