The original plan for today was to head to the end of Penn Forest Road in Beltzville State Park and check on a high traffic area that I had cleaned several times last year. When driving on the bridge over the inlet for Pine Run these plans changed. In the inlet was a duck, I couldn't make out the species, so I decided to take a closer look. I parked in a small park lot across the road from the Pine Run Boat Launch access. When I got out of my car the duck was still there and I headed down to the water. About half way down the path above the duck went under. I got to the lakeside and waited and waited. It never came back up. I did start finding trash, I didn't dwell on the mysterious disappearing duck and got to taking out the trash.
I have never stopped at this section before. I have paddled by it, I just never had a need or desire to park there. It seems a lot of fishermen like the spot judging by the amount of line I collected in the brush by the lakeshore.
This was right next to the lot. I did leave the cardboard case all of this was jammed into. A lot of times I do not pick up paper products, it doesn't take them that long to biodegrade where they are.
If you take the time to collect the items, bag the items, go for the last step and throw away the items. These people were so close, but not doing that last step defeats the purpose of the other two.
Between the parking lot and a portion of the inlet I could see a white garbage bag that looked to be full of cans. It was on a steep slope with thick underbrush. I was only able to reach it with the tongs once I got down parallel to it on the slope. The first grab ripped the bag and I found it was a nearly full bag with not only cans, but bottles as well. I took the items out one piece at a time with the tongs and filled my pack.
This was everything that was in the bag on the slope. Like the other bag above, why did these people even take the time to bag this up if they were just tossing it down towards the lake anyway?
The area I covered here was not that large, but it yielded much more trash than I would have hoped. I just wanted to see what kind of duck was there, instead I got all of this.
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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