Lehigh Gorge State Park (16-Mar-2016)

Yesterday I received approval to start removing tires from the banks of the Lehigh within the Lehigh Gorge State Park. These tires have been in and along the river for way too long. It is going to take some time, but I am going to do my best to remove every visible tire from the park. Thank you to the DCNR, especially the staff of Lehigh Gorge and Hickory Run for giving me approval and helping me with this endeavor. 

The start was slow. The tires that were at the bottom of the flood plain were washed down stream in the last flood and it took some time to find the first tire of the day.

After finding the first four tires there was another tire free gap on the flood plain. I ended up collecting more cans and other trash as well. 

I really do hope that some day I can see a trash free Upper Lehigh. I think it is possible, though it would require a societal change. Littering seems to be getting worse not better. I still have hope though. I wouldn't be doing this if I didn't.

When I started finding tires again it didn't stop. I would get to one and see another, get to that one and see another and that just continued on.

As you can see a lot of the tires were filled with sediment and in most cases roots. I cleaned out the tires as best as possible and used what came out of them to fill the tire impression left behind. The nice thing about this area is that after a couple rains you won't be able to tell that there was ever a tire there or that it was disturbed in any way.

Where I was finding the majority of tires I decided to take them all to one spot before carrying them out to the trail. This way I didn't have to find multiple paths to take them out. Just one strait shot up to the D&L Trail for all of them. 

The first three tires. There was an easy path up where I found these and they were taken up right away. I had originally planned on piling everything up where I left these, but the others were too far down the trail, so they got a separate pile. 

Fourteen tires and a road cone made up the second pile. I would have taken out more, but a thunderstorm rolled through and I decided to call it a day. 

The other items I collected between tires were the regular. Cans, glasses, hat parts, paddle pieces, the regular.

Then there was Spiderman. Just his head and the back of his seat was sticking out of the sand. The best trash find of the day.

The rest of the trash taken out. A full pack and a little less than half of a trash bag. The only other things that really stood out to me other than Spidey were the cassette tapes. I wasn't surprised to find any, just to find two. They aren't that common of a river trash item. Maybe someones collection was thrown in upstream though. I think I will be working on this area for the next couple days. It is just a small part of the gorge and is just the start!
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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