Mauch Chunk Lake (13-Apr-2016)

When I arrived at Mauch Chunk Lake I was happy to be there. The sun was shining, it was warm, there was no wind and there was no one else on the lake that I could see. I knew it was going to be a great clean-up and it was.

 The trip started off with small items in the Cattails.

 Then there of course were cans on the lake bottom.

Also cans floating on the surface.

Had to get out for one item and ended up collecting a small pile. This ended up happening every time I got out of the boat.

Some items against the shore like this can and sandal I was able to reach with my paddle. 

Balloons. These I had to reach with the paddle as well. There was no solid ground that I could step out on and the mud was deep. I thought when I retrieved one the rest would come with it. Of course they were not all tied together anymore. It took some time, but I did remove them all.  

I have said it before and I am saying it again. If you do use balloons for a party, do not let them go into the air. They do eventually come down and someone or something will have to deal with them. 

This is a female Eastern Painted Turtle. I picked her up for a look and some photos then slid her right back into the water. Eastern Painted Turtles are a common species in PA and can be found in lakes, ponds, streams and rivers.

More piles from places where I got out and explored the woods. Most were older items, I don't think many people get to the back portion of the lake anymore where these were found. 

Picked up a few more lures. Not nearly as many as the lower portion of the lake, yet some good ones.

This is a sickly looking male Red-Eared Slider. Red-Eared Sliders are not native to Pennsylvania. They are very common in the pet trade and when people loose interest in their pet turtle they often find there way to places they do not belong. Releasing any turtles into the wild is unlawful in Pennsylvania. There is more than one reason for this. The first is that turtles from different areas may carry different diseases. Releasing a turtle infected with something a population has never dealt with before could be disastrous to the native population. The second is that some non-native species, like the Red-Eared Slider, will out complete the native turtle species for resources. If you have a pet turtle you do not want, please find it a new human home and do not drop them off in the wild. This specific turtle is not doing well at all. I will try my best to help it recover and if it does I will find it a home. 

Picked up a few more items after catching the Red-Ear, not much though. When I got to an area a cleaned up about a week or so ago I paddled back across the lake to the launch. A calm lake is a very nice thing to paddle on. 

This was everything I took out of the upper portion of the lake on this trip. Not much more shoreline to work on Mauch Chunk and I will be back to complete it soon. To end this post I have four photos of birds which I took out there today...

Buffleheads in flight. 

Male and female Wood Ducks. The female is the one that is really hard to see. 

Pied-Billed Grebe. This was at the very end of the day and I just got a glimpse of this bird in the cattails. I waited about 15 to 20 minutes for it to swim out so I could get this photo. 

Before leaving I found this and another Killdeer in the parking lot. Generally Killdeer will nest in rocky areas, but some find parking lot edges suitable. 
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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Lehigh Gorge State Park (12-Apr-2016)

Hiked a road I had never set foot on before. It is nice going to new areas and this one was close to home. After seeing Drake's Creek from the opposing side of the river a few weeks ago, I wanted to find the access to it. From what it looked like on Google Maps the lower section of Drake's Creek was on state gamelands and the upper portion was privately owned. When I got to the site, it was a little different than the maps had shown. The lower section and the access road that goes down to the river is actually labeled and maintained by the DCNR and is part of the Lehigh Gorge State Park. I parked near the top of the access road and started walking down it. From the start I could hear Drake's Creek, but the vegetation in the valley was too thick to see it. 

In the thick vegetation on the side of the road was the average roadside items. Bottles and cans were the majority of trash along this access road.

Found several piles of cans. Some sites look like people were camping or partying. I would just like to note this is part of the State Park system, not State Forest. There is a big difference in the laws of the two. Fires (outside of camp and day use areas) and drinking are fineable offenses within our state parks.

It really gets me when you are in a place when you are surrounded by views like this and there are beer cans and bottles around. Who needs a drink when this is in front of you? It just doesn't make sense to me.

Once again Snow Fleas! Found these Springtails on trash in a couple places along the access road. If you click on the photos they will enlarge and I cropped the image so you can get a better look at these tiny critters.

Noticed something in the Rhododendron that just was not the right color. When I went to get it I found there was more trash down along the slope. 

A lot of green plastic and look, there is a whitewater bucket that didn't even make it to the river! I don't know what the green plastic was. At first I thought it was possibly a poncho, but then I kept pulling more up. I never did take the time to spread a piece of it out to figure out exactly what it was. I did see what looked to be a plastic button on one of the pieces so it could have been multiple ponchos or it could have been pieces of a tarp. 

This was gross. It was with other trash on the slope. Bread, probably a pizza crust. When I removed it from the plastic it was more like a paste.  

Drink pouches, beef jerky packaging and more were spread throughout one spot. Most of the pouches looked like animals had been chewing on them.

This fungus was probably the coolest thing I found. It was only growing on one rotted log not too far from the creek. After checking multiple sources I think this is Cyathus striatus. The common name is Fluted Bird's Nest. I am not a fungus expert and I did not use a key to figure it out, so this may be an incorrect id. If anyone reading this knows fungus and could tell me if this is right or wrong comments are always welcome.

This wooden structure is there to make it easy for rafting companies to get their rafts down to the creek. From what I could see this really is not a safe access for rafting. Also, there was a lot of trash around this. To me if the rafting companies actually cared about the river, this area would be cleaned periodically and especially after a season ends. Much of the trash I found around this had been there longer than just over this past winter. 

This is where the unsafe part comes in for the rafts. On the other side of this bridge the rafts have to be carried down a really rocky slope to the river. I really don't think the DCNR should allow access to the rafting companies at this site. As a former river guide I would not take the general public through an area like this. It just is not safe. 

This would be a more common trash item around cities. Why would a safe box be on a riverbank? Bridges are the answer. I have seen on multiple occasions items that would contain cash or change under bridges by rivers and streams. Throw the locked item from a certain height and gravity and a hard surface below might break it open for you. Could have been the case with this or this may just have broke and someone threw it in the river. So far I have seen broken newspaper machines, cash registers, lock boxes like this and parking meters.

First Dixi Cola can I have ever found. Not sure when this was from. I do not believe it has been sold in the US for a long time. 

Looking down river. Here on the slope going up to the railroad was a lot of old trash. By the river and around the creek was newer items. 

The keystone on the bridge reads, A.D. 1881. So this bridge has been standing for over 130 years and still has train traffic going over it. I find that impressive.  

This was too much to carry all the way out. I left everything except my pack at a pull-off on the access road. Hiked up and drove my car back down to do the trash sort and pack everything up. 

On the way up I spotted this Porcupine. The tree it was in was lower in the valley than the access road, so even though the Porcupine was fairly high up, it was just around eye level with me. This is the second one of the year I have seen in a pine tree. Maybe this one had climbed up to take in some sun on this nice and sunny day. 

A lot of trash for not that far of a hike. I would say this was about the same distance at the Shades of Death Trail at Hickory Run and there was about double what I picked up there. I guess people just don't see what I do in these areas and therefore they just don't care about them. As I was sorting everything out a DCNR Ranger passed. They slowed as they went by, but kept going. On their way back I had everything packed into the car and they stopped and thanked me. I thought that was really nice, but not needed. I explained I was working on other areas in the gorge and the tires pulled up along the D&L was one of the things I was working on. She told me she had just picked up a couple off of it and I felt kind of bad because the last ones had rims in them and were not the lightest. On that note, thank you again to all of the DCNR Rangers and Maintenance Personnel that help maintain the Lehigh Gorge State Park. There are more tires on the river bank and I will be removing them, so thank you in advance for picking them up. 

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

Mauch Chunk Lake (11-Apr-2016)

April showers again, this made me decide to stick close to home and head back to Mauch Chunk Lake to finish off the dam. When I arrived the rain had stopped, but by the time I got down to the lake it started up again. It was off and on the whole time I was out. Much warmer than the past couple days and was actually a nice day for a clean-up. 

Cans were some of the first items I found. The one on the left was unopened the one on the right half full. The amount of trash would be greatly reduced if people just followed the parks rules and didn't drink by the lake.

First lure of the day and it was a different one. The main body was the normal hard plastic, but the tail was rubbery. I would be interested to see how this actually works when fishing and if it attracts fish any better.

The goal was to clean this part of the dam. It isn't the easiest to walk and there was a lot of trash between the rocks. I started working my way across and thought it would probably be better if I started at the other end and worked the area back. So that's what I did. 

That's a whole reels worth of fishing line. My guess is someone decided to change the line while on the dam. Of course a whole between the rocks is just like a trash can, so that's where they put it. 

Many bottles. Most were easy to grab, but there were a couple that I couldn't understand how they got wedged in the way they were.

This was on the dam as well. I can tell it is snake bones, most likely from a Northern Watersnake, but with what I had I could not determine species. I hope the snake died of natural causes, it really is a shame when people kill them just because they are what they are.

Looking up the lake near the end of the walk back. The water was calm and I was thinking the whole time this would have been a much better day compared to what I dealt with yesterday. 

By the end I had close to a bag and a pack full. More productive than yesterday and even with the rain I didn't get soaked. 

This was it. Since most of this was hidden from sight between the rocks, most people that visit the area or walk over the dam don't realize how trashy it really is. 

I had Penny along on this clean-up and for her we took another walk further up the lake. I took this on the walk and it was my favorite photo of the day. 

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