Lehigh Gorge State Park: Rockport Access (12-Oct-2016)

For this trash hike I went up the Lehigh River to the Rockport Access of the Lehigh Gorge State Park.  Like many of the areas I have been hitting lately it is a place I have been to earlier in the year that I am checking on to see what has accumulated over the summer.

Before starting out on the trail I went to check out this man-made tunnel that is off of the side of the access road. I have often found trash in it and today was no exception. 

There was only one item inside, one of worst kinds of items I will pick up, a dirtied diaper. I can't believe where parents leave these things. On the other end of the tunnel there were a couple beer cans and one plastic bottle. The bottle was out of my reach, so unfortunately it had to stay, it will eventually wash down to the access road.

Every view of the river through this section is exceptional. The fall is one of the best times to visit the gorge. The colors are amazing, no noisy rafters on the river and the temperature in my opinion is just about perfect. 

This is Buttermilk Falls. It is just a short walk up river on the D&L Trail from the access point in Rockport. It can be a little more impressive after a rain event. 

These items were near the base of Buttermilk Falls and next to the river. This was the largest pile of trash for the whole trip. I don't mind at all when this can be considered a large pile. 

When I noticed this can wedged between the rocks I wasn't thinking it would be a full one. There are just too many unopened beers in this river. Same thing with water bottles, so much aluminum and plastic is wasted on products that aren't even used.

This was not my average sort of trash find. What is it you might ask? I really don't have a clue, it still has a lever and at one point it had two.

Penny seemed to have a good time by the river and on the trail. There were a lot of bikers to bark at on the D&L. If you ever see us out on the trail, she will bark at you if you are on a bike. She will possibly bark at you if you are just walking by or have a dog yourself. Barking is just something she likes to do at people, critters and sometimes rocks that look like critters. 

Not as interesting as the piece of trash with a lever, but still something different. This looked to be a home made fin. I wonder if I will eventually find what it was attached to? I am guessing a home made cardboard paddle board. 

In this particular portion of the river some of the fall colors were exceptionally vibrant. 

At the end of today's hike I really didn't have all that much trash. I covered a fair amount of ground though and I am happy that I found so little and that I found a couple items I missed on previous trips.

I will not be able to post again until sometime next week. I will be out looking for trash, but I won't have access to the internet. It is going to be nice to unplug for a few days. 

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

Like this project? Like it on Facebook: Taking Out the Trash in Eastern PA

Lehigh River (10-Aug-2016)

Back on the D&L Trail for a Lehigh River clean-up. I started in Bowmanstown and headed up river. Along the D&L in this section there are multiple side trails going down to the river, these often attract fishermen, swimmers and those who just want to enjoy the river. So I was expecting to find a decent amount of trash. 

I hit every side trail, outlook and tried to do my best in spotting trash in the poison ivy and other undergrowth along the D&L. A portion of this section has some small rock cliffs with no walkable bank and this is the main reason I stayed along the D&L.

All of these items came from one rock ledge below the trail. The path going down was heavily worn and not the safest to traverse. 

The view downriver towards Bowmanstown. The trash pile above came off of this ledge section mostly from around where I was standing for this photo. There was one can out on the ledge above. 

Once I got to a place where there was walkable bank, I took a trail down to the river. Cardinal Flower was in bloom on the rivers edge. It added some color to the hike. The bank to the left heading out towards the opposing shore is actually an old dam. It is breached on the far end and as you will see further on in this post, has some old exposed timbers near the breach point.  

On the other side of the dam I found an abandoned campsite and my least favorite item of the day. A tent, filled with water, that didn't have the greatest smell to it. I emptied it out, balled it up and set it aside to pick up on the way out. I find a lot of discarded tents along the riverbank. If they are still in good condition I tend to leave them in case there owner is going to come back for them. In this case, the tent had clearly been there for awhile and no one was going to use it again. 

Not far from the tent was this fire pit. I left the trash here as well to be picked up on the way out. 

The views always makes the clean-ups more than worth it. 

This made things tricky. As I do on most hiking clean-ups, I had my dog Penny along. She did not make getting those bottles an easy thing. She wanted that deer and I didn't want her touching it. Luckily, I managed to keep her away and get the bottles. The deer was a buck and from the condition it died some time ago.

The exposed old timbers of the dam. Some of these are just impressive and definitely from old growth trees. There are several sections along the Lehigh where you can find just massive logs from old structures that were along the river. 

On the way out the items in and around the fire pit filled up my bag and it was time to head home. 

Another bag taken out from the Lehigh!

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

Like this project? Like it on Facebook: Taking Out the Trash in Eastern PA

Lehigh Canal and River (19-Apr-2016)

I had to take Penny to a vet appointment this afternoon, so I decided to take a walk down the canal path not far from the veterinary office. I figured it would give me an idea of just how much trash had accumulated over the winter and I would just clean up along the path. It was a beautiful day for a walk along the canal. Ended up doing more than one by the days end and took out a good amount of trash. 

There were a lot of Painted Turtles out basking along the canal. I counted twelve in this photo. I did see Red-Eared Sliders basking in other sections as well. 

Personally I never like finding a native reptile or amphibian dead. It doesn't bother me as much if it died of natural causes and not by human hands. In some cases like this one you just can't tell. This is a dead Northern Water Snake. People often think these are Copperheads and will kill them just because they think they are venomous and a danger. There really is no reason to kill a Water Snake and I don't feel there is any reason to kill any snake. Everything serves a purpose in the environments that they live in. In the case of the snake above, it could have been killed by a human or it could have been killed by something like a Great Blue Heron. Great Blues will eat snakes and it would be possible that one would grab a snake, kill it and drop it for some reason. 

Seeing this was a treat. This was a fairly large Common Snapping Turtle and it looked as though a dam on the canal was in its way. It was less than half way up the side of the canal when I first spotted it and I watched as it climbed to the top. As their name suggests Snapping Turtles will bite if they feel threatened. If you ever find one in the road and want to help it across be careful. They have long necks, sharp claws and will feel threatened if you go to pick them up. 

Watching the Snapping Turtle climb up the canal side took more time than I would have hoped. Had to get Penny to her vet appointment so we headed back to the car. 

I was disappointed with the amount of trash I picked up and decided that after the vet we would be returning to the site to clean up the riverside. There was a lot of trash in the canal itself, but without the kayak I couldn't do anything about it. 

After the vet visit, I headed back to where I was earlier in the day. At the parking lot there was an unleashed Pit Bull with no owner in sight. I parked, Penny started barking and the Pit Bull literally started circling my car. I came to the conclusion that the lower portion of canal in Walnutport needed cleaning more than this upper area and slowly backed out of the parking space. As I was pulling away the dogs owner was across the road calling it. That, however, did not change my mind and I continued on to the lower section. I was happy I did. I ended up walking further down the D&L on this side of the river than I ever had before. I actually didn't know the trail went so far down. 

There were a few more turtles than I saw on the earlier trip up the canal. In this photo I counted three non-native Red-Eared Sliders and twenty-five native Painted Turtles.

First time I have had this view of the old rail bridge pillars. I have seen them from the other side, I have paddled through them, but never made it down the bank this far on the Walnutport side. 

When I got to this point I had a full trash bag and nearly a full pack. I decided to call it a day and this gives me a marker to start at on another trip. I also took note of where exactly I was on the river. I didn't know the canal went down this far and I can now do river clean-ups down to this point and take the canal back. That helps a lot because I then don't have to arrange drop offs or pick ups with others. 

Near the bridge over the canal there was a trash can. Instead of hauling all the trash back to my car I decided to do a sort and lighten the load down to just recyclable that had to be carried back. I was glad I did, there were a lot of just trash items and it made the walk back much easier. 

Before heading back toward the car I walked down to the river and collected the items on the left. The items on the right were things I missed on the way down that I picked up on the way back. 

Common Snapping Turtles mating. On the way down the path I could only see one of them and it was strange how it was positioned half in and half out of the water. The way back I saw the above and realized what was going on. 

An American Coot. It was hanging out on the canal all by itself. Unlike the Mallards that swim towards you as you pass on the path, the Coot swam to the opposite side and stayed there until long after I had gone by. 

Not sure how I missed these on the way down the canal path. I must have been focused on trash. There were two pairs of parents with goslings and I thought it was a little early for them to have hatched. Most of the pairs I have seen are still sitting on nest. I am not exactly sure where I will be headed tomorrow. I think maybe I will try to work some more on the Lehigh Gorge.

I will return to the Walnutport sites soon. The canal really does need a good on the water cleaning and I would also like to get out on the river soon.

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

Like this blog? Like it on Facebook: Taking Out the Trash in Eastern PA

Lehigh Gorge State Park (29-Mar-2016)

Back to the Rockport Access and back down river on the D&L Trail. The goal for the day was to go back to the area near where Drake's Creek enters the Lehigh and finish up that section. It is over two miles in and in the shadow of the gorge on the way there and with the wind it was much colder than I anticipated. 

Arriving at the area I was happy to be back in the sunlight. It warmed my day up a lot. I have never been on the other side where Drake's Creek comes in. Definitely something I will have to check out this summer. 

Almost right away I found some sunglasses I missed last week. Sunglasses are one thing I have kept since the start of this project. I am going to have to do a count soon to see how many I actually have now.

A tiny boot. I am sure this is old, it looks very well made. 

There were some things I couldn't remove and this can was one of them. The other items were also cans, but they were in the river, still to cold to go in after them. 

Not a full wallet this time, just an insert, but this was the newest so far and contained on credit card and two medical cards. They expired just last year. May be able to track this person down as well. 

I try not to put Penny in the blog too often, but she was extremely well behaved on this trip. It was a huge change compared to the past two weeks. The only time she even barked was when two grown men on the D&L Trail were barking at her. I don't know why they decided to have a barking match with Penny, but this did occur. I said nothing to them and walked Penny down the bank and got them out of sight.

A roll of duct tape. Was this someones raft repair kit? It never even crossed my mind that I would ever find a nearly full roll of duct tape on the riverbank. It is just full of trash surprises.

Most of the smaller items no one could really see from the D&L Trail or from on the water. Items like this however do make a visible difference when removed for those enjoying hiking, biking or floating. There are many of these types of things on the opposing bank. Those I will have to get when it gets warm enough to paddle on the river. 

Caddisfly Larvae. This particular species is mobile within its case and these individuals were crawling around most likely looking for food. 

So many cans taken off of the river and still so many still sitting on its sides. Old, but still fully recyclable. 

I like finding containers or cases on the river. They always have the same thing in them. Sediment.

The first tire I have found in the upper gorge. It was an easy pull out of the river. 

Left the tire and a base to a road cone on the side of the trail for the DCNR and carried out a bag and a pack. I was using a large contractors bag and it was less than half full, it was about as heavy as I could take with the over two mile hike out. I did reach my goal though and most of the trash from that area is gone. I am sure there is still more that is buried in sediment that will be exposed during the next flood or heavy rain event. 

Found this on the trailside on the way out. Who was Charlie and what caused him to loose his name tag?

This plus the tire I think was a good haul for the day. Tomorrow I will be going to a memorial service and will not be doing a clean-up. Will be back out again on Thursday. 
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

Like this blog? Like it on Facebook: Taking Out the Trash in Eastern PA