Lackawanna State Forest (23-Dec-2015)

On a very rainy winter day, I was happy to have some help. Kelly and her dog Brutus joined me on a portion of today's clean-up. The original plan was to meet at Hickory Run State Park and work on a trail there, but we decided the Lackawanna State Forest would be a better place to go. This year Kelly has helped me with three clean-ups all in the same area. I am very grateful for the help and it takes a true friend to help with this kind of clean-up in today's conditions.

When we first started out the precipitation was light and throughout the hike it stayed between light and moderate. The path that we took was a mixture of access roads and trails and on November 3rd we had hiked and cleaned the same route.  

It did not matter that we cleaned this just last month, there always seems to be more trash. New cans and this time I took glass, the large bottle on the right was something I decided to leave alone last trip, now it has been removed.

This is a type of Clubmoss. It stood out from the other mosses and in some sections it appeared to be creeping across the trail. I can not tell you the exact species, but it is from the genus Lycopodium.

Here Kelly is emptying a discarded beer can, while Brutus works on sniffing out more trash. 

This was our pile, not all that much, but a lot in view of this same clean-up being done last month. All of us were soaked by this point and my collecting partners of the day had to get home for some holiday preparations. We said goodbye and I decided to go clean-up another section of the state forest. Kelly once again thank you and Brutus for coming along, it was much appreciated!

I had never driven to the end of the access road and had no idea where it went. With the amount of traffic I have seen here on some weekends I thought it might connect to another road. It did not and came to a dead end and at the end was trash. I parked and got to cleaning. I left the camera in the car, it too was soaked and I wanted it to dry. Luckily all I found was trash and no wildlife or anything else that was exceptionally photo worthy. I walked back the road a little way and filled my backpack twice. The above was the end product from this second hike of the day. 

I stopped at the entrance to take some photos on the way out. Snagged these items just from my car to the sign below. 

Even with the rain today was a great day out. If it was a little colder I think it would have been miserable. I am not sure where I am going to tomorrow, I will be taking out the trash somewhere.

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