It was a cold one out there today. Put in a lot of time hiking and came up with a little less than half a bag of trash. For me that is a good day. Started at the bottom of Little Gap and hiked up to the top of the east side. It has been over a year since I have gone this way and I wanted to check out an outcrop that can be a mess sometimes.
For the most part this trail was clean. It is a harder hike than the west side of the gap and that could be the reason for the lack of trash or an Appalachian Trail group may have cleaned this section recently.
Not the easiest section of AT in the area.
This is the outcrop where I thought I was going to find a lot of trash. On first glance there was nothing. I just knew there were items somewhere here, so I started exploring. If you have never seen a snow shower from a distance take a good look at the background in this photo. While I was out today I watched several showers move in and pass over the mountain.
At the bottom of the outcrop I found this bag and plastic snack items. Then I found a couple cans and kept looking around.
When I saw this overhang I knew there would at least be a couple pieces tucked away in it.
I was right. The overhang had its own little trash crevice. I cleaned this out completely with my tongs and was surprised by the amount I pulled out. I could only see as much as is in these photos.
All of this was taken out of that small crevice. When I would go to remove one can I could hear others rattle around. One after another they came out and then an empty bag of granola too. Eighteen cans total came out of the space I could only see four in. I then did a sweep of the area and headed back to the trail. Kept going for a little while and it started snowing and I wasn't finding any trash. I decided to turn around and go back. At the bottom it was sunny again and I ended up hiking up the west side.
The trail heading west in Little Gap is very popular. This means there is often trash on the trailside and I do clean this area often. It doesn't help that there is a lot of Green Briar along the trail. The tongs helped out considerably with this one.
It was nice and sunny at the top, with spectacular views.
Too many times I have gone to this site and seen these three items. They were tucked way back in a large opening in the rocks. I have tried multiple times to fish them out with sticks and never had any luck. The tongs made quick work of it and they are finally off the mountain.
I watched a large snow shower move in from the northern valley and when it hit the mountain we decided to leave. Wasn't it in the 90's a couple weeks ago?
Somehow I spotted this on the way out. I would like to point out it is not environmentally friendly to use rechargeable batteries if you end up leaving them in the woods.
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