Greater Hazleton Rails to Trails (22-Dec-2015)

A rainy and fog filled day. I set off to Hazleton, my first priority was not a clean-up, but some last minute holiday shopping. Luckily, I got through that fairly quickly and decided to stop at the Greater Hazleton Rails to Trails and see if there was any trash. I wasn't surprised when I started finding things right away.

The bottle on the left was the first piece of trash today. It was located about 15 feet from both a recycling bin and a trash can. I deposited that bottle in the recycling bin so I wouldn't have to carry it on the whole trip. The next several items were water bottles, the same old trailside trash. 

One cool thing about this section of trail is that there are a lot of educational stops along the walk. At this particular site you can learn about different types of grasses. Other stops talk about habitats, wildlife and the historic significance of the area.

Not sure what the point of a sign this big along the trail accomplishes. The many posted signs bordering the trail are good enough to explain what the property is. One thing that it is definitely not doing is discouraging people from littering in the area. Either people don't know that their drinking water comes from the reservoirs on this property or they just don't care about trash in water they will eventually consume. 

If I come across larger patches of Green Briar on a trailside there is almost always trash throw in it. Maybe it is just my luck. I did get these items and the Green Briar got me as always.    

Last year I hiked this trail several times and in this visit I found some new additions. Not only did I see a couple new bat boxes, there was also a nice display by one that explained the importance of bats.

Three party balloons today. This is two of them.

Along much of the larger reservoir posted signs state that trespassing is not allowed. In one section though there are no signs and there is a trail that leads down to the water. There was trash all the way down. Mostly beer cans and plastic bottles.

This is the larger of the reservoirs here. It is fairly large, the water is down a bit since the last time I was there. 

There are countries where people can't get clean drinking water and here we can find full plastic water bottles just laying on trailsides. I sincerely hope that this bottle was accidentally dropped. The mystery can on the right is also a waste, but before the can is recycled I am going to get some use out of it. I will be making it a new label out of recycled/recyclable materials and giving it away as a holiday gift, not for consumption of course, but it should get a good laugh or two.

The round trip walk was just under five miles and I collected a little more than half a bag. I did a sort in the parking lot, but I did not have time to do a count. 

With both a trash can and recycling bin in the parking lot I took advantage of the situation and deposited everything but the cans in the proper receptacle. The recycling bin was a tiny annoyance with just the small hole on top and being locked on the side. I do completely understand why they do that though. I am exhausted. Tomorrow I will be doing a small clean-up at Hickory Run State Park and as it looks now I might be getting some help. 
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