Lehigh Gorge (19-Dec-2015)

This hike started the same as the one on Thursday. I parked at the Glen Onoco access of the Lehigh Gorge State Park and started up the Glen Onoco Trail. This time I took the trail to the right at the fork which leads away from the falls and up to some lookouts at the top of the Broad Mountain. 

 Not far after the split I started finding item after item. Nothing interesting, just cans and bottles as always.

In this case going to pick up one item, led to seeing another, going for that item led to seeing another and so on.

Pants. Did someone hike off of this mountain without wearing pants. I did not have room for pants in my pack today and hopefully they are made of a natural, biodegradable material, like cotton. 

The trail comes to another fork. I chose to take a right again going up the stone staircase. The other trail I believe takes you back to the falls. 

It felt like the coldest day of the year so far and it might have been. Along the trail I did see couple icicles and there were flurries throughout the hike. 

Water bottles, with a few other containers started adding up on the accent. 

At the top the trail levels off and follows along the ridge. Some thoughtful individual took the time to crush their beers cans and wedge them into holes in trees. The can on the left was tucked in there pretty good. 

For those seeking a view the hike is worth the trip. The Lehigh down below looks like a small stream from this vantage. I can't wait to get back to cleaning up on the water. Spring just can't come soon enough. 

 This is the view strait ahead from the largest clear lookout.

I spent some time at the top taking other trails and I happened upon this crawlspace between some rocks. From the scat I knew a porcupine has spent time in it, but I didn't think anyone was home. I crawled in over the scat and reached for the cans. Someone was home and must have been startled by me reaching by it, there was a lot of commotion back in the dark spaces. I grabbed the cans, the bottle and scooted out. 

All of the cans were old with pull tabs. The one on the top right was a steel Pepsi can, I did leave that one. Eventually it will completely rust away without that much impact on its surroundings. The rest I struggled to add to my full pack. 

I kept going even with the full pack and found this. I am beyond fed up with tagged rocks. What is the point? If you are going to spray paint something, tag a bridge, a building in a city, even a billboard would work! Please, just leave these natural places be. On the other side of this rock was more beer cans and water bottles. I was overloaded with trash and decided to start heading back.

On the way down I just kept collecting. I took the same trail back, with just a little bit of a perspective change along the trail I spotted a bunch of stuff I missed on the accent. Not one more item could have been shoved into my pack, I had one small bag on me and I filled that fast, the front pocked on my sweatshirt was full and both of my back pant pockets were full of cans. I was really wishing I had brought a garbage bag. 

This Mike's Hard Lemonade can must have had some left over liquid in it when it was discarded and it landed mouth up. Open cans with contents act as traps, there is stuff in them that critters think smells good and if they are small enough to fit through the mouth, they often fall in and can't get out. This can was half full of multiple species of dead carrion beetles. These beetles provide a much needed service for us. They tear apart and consume rotting carcasses. I don't know about you, I think it is an important job they do. I find containers loaded with them often and too many of these beetles meet their demise in this manner.

Very happy to be back to the parking lot, I couldn't have taken one more item off of the mountain. I sorted the items in the lot and separated the non-recyclables and glass. The recyclables in this pile just about filled a garbage bag. If you have any sites you would like to see cleaned up this coming year feel free to let me know. 

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