Lehigh River (4-Jan-2017)

First river clean-up of the year! I tend to stay away from water during the winter months, but it was a nice day and there wasn't much snow cover on the ground. I kept this clean-up close to home and went to the Glen Onoco Access of the Lehigh Gorge State Park where I took a lot of tires out last year. 

 Some of the first items I found were in the water. You would think plastic forks float, but this one was on the bottom. The other item is a military pin. I would really like to know the story of the pin and how it made its way into the river.

I did about a half mile hike along an old section of canal to get to the flood plain area I spent a lot of time at last year. Going through this area, I am extremely pleased with the way it looks. Hardly any trash and a huge difference compared to what it was when I first started on it last year. 

I had really hoped to remove all of the tires from this area, but ones like these are still there. Some I do believe I can remove with the right tools, others I might not be able to get out. There are less than twenty tires still in this area. I have to talk to the DCNR about their removal, most will have to be dug up. I do intend on doing my best to get these gone, like all the others I have already removed.

From the top of the flood plain I decided to work my way down the edge of the river. I have been through this area, but did not spend as much time on it as I did the channels in the flood plain.  

Along the rivers edge I started finding the normal stuff. Including a lot of footwear I must have overlooked last year. I do believe I removed the partner to the blue shoe on another clean-up, just a little further down river from this spot.

Picked up three new pairs of shades to add to my collection. These were fancy, too bad they are missing a lens. 

This was a very odd spot to find this pool toy. It wasn't near any access point and it was up the bank. If you decide to go inner tubing on the Lehigh I would caution that using pool toys like this is not a good idea. These are not designed to run a river and pop easily. It is always best too, to wear a Personal Floatation Device in addition to the inner tube.

By the time I got to the bottom of the flood plain I had been in the shade of the mountain for some time and for a short while there were even flurries. It was a little too cold for my liking, but I did remove a fair amount of trash. 

This was everything. The first river clean-up of the year went well and was the first of many to come in 2017!

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