Beltzville State Park (1-June-2016)

It was almost 6pm by the time I got over to Beltzville. The goal was just to get in a second small clean-up before the sun went down. Since I new my time was limited the plan was to paddle across the lake from the Preacher's Camp Access and travel up the channel that leads to Wild Creek. I wasn't sure if I had time to make it all the way up to the creek and back, I was going to try though. 

My first trash stop was in a small cove. Only a couple chicken liver containers and a few smaller items.

A tire! I of course had to remove it. I pulled it out from underneath the brush and threw it up on the bow. From these photos you can't tell, but it was a white wall and it was old. This tire may have even been discarded before the lake was even there.

Paddling back a cove I noticed this bag up the bank. It wasn't in a spot I could get out of the kayak, but I was able to reach it with my paddle. I took the can out of it and put the rest in the non-recyclable bag. 

While I was stopped putting items into the bag on my bow, I heard a rustling in the woods on the other side of the cove I was in. I waited and watched as the rustling moved closer to the waters edge. It sounded large and I thought there might be a deer coming down for a drink. Instead two Canada Geese plopped into the water. They then swam in a strait line towards me. I honestly thought I was going to have some trouble. The last thing I needed with a tire on the front of the boat is an attack by a couple geese. About ten feet away from me they just stopped. I am still not sure what to think of the whole thing. I guess they just wanted a closer look at the strange human picking up trash.

A second tire find. I wanted to take it, I really did. The issue I had with it is, that a second tire would make my boat top heavy and unstable. On other lakes I would be fine with it, but Beltzville has larger boats, with larger engines and larger wakes. I would rather just take one tire off a trip than risking two ending up at the bottom of the lake. 

Of course there were flip flops, picked up a couple more than just these.

There were also lures. With the amount of kayak traffic in the channel lures weren't something that I thought I would find. Normally the better ones at least are something the fishermen will stop for and pick up. You can tell the one on the right is a good lure, it has lots of teeth marks in it.

The wing of an unlucky silkworm moth. I am not sure of the species, there are several that have similar color patterns. This was one of three wings I found along the bank, all fairly far apart and I don't think they were all from the same individual. 

This specific area really gets on my nerves. There is a rope swing and it is a popular hang out. There is always trash here. I have cleaned it up from the water at least three times and multiple times walking in from the trails as well. Today when I paddled around that big rock in the back ground there were some kids that went running off. When I went up to where the rope swing was there were beer cans strewn around. I cleaned everything up and got back on the water. As I was paddling away a new group of kids showed up at the swing. On the way back there were new beer cans to be picked up. I really wasn't pleased.

I made it to where I could see Wild Creek, but I didn't go up as far as I could. I wanted to get off the water before dark and I knew I had to start paddling back. I made a handful of stops on the way out, it was only for really obvious pieces though. 

The sun was just about gone when I got back to the main portion of the lake. I pointed my boat at the light on the far shore and paddled across.

The recyclables were packed into the car and everything else including the tire were taken up to the only trash can at this access. With the exception of having to reclean an area on the same trip, it was a nice paddle.

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

Tuscarora State Park (1-June-2016)

Trying to keep cool on another hot day I took a ride over to Tuscarora State Park and parked at a pull off and trail head above the lake. For the most part the trails here are shaded and stick close to the streams, a nice place to be on a hot day. 

An old glass jar, one of my first trash finds of the trip, came with a surprise. A Two-Lined Salamander! After snapping this photo I put the two line in the depression where the jar was and worked on cleaning the mud from the jar. 

Some portions of the trail were overgrown. Here Multiflora Rose was hanging over the trail in some places. As always when I'm near it, I got a couple thorns in me. Invasive species aren't cool. 

Looking down stream on the main branch of the Locust Creek. There are two streams in this section with the same name. The other is a small 1st order stream that flowing into this one.

For a couple items I had to get my feet wet. This plastic bag caught in a strainer was one of them. 

There wasn't much along the trails. These are a couple of the things I did find.

A juvenile American Toad. Most likely a hatchling from last year. 

A couple more things found along the stream. Normally I don't take broken glass but the bottle on the left was only missing its bottom. I am still surprised whenever I find round bottom 2-liter soda bottles like the one on the right. They generally don't look as though they have been in the environment for over 20 years and some look like they came off a shelf yesterday. This one being in the stream had a little wear, but not much after the mud was cleared off.

Looking down the channel where the Locust Creek meets Tuscarora Lake. From here I took a different route back to my car. Didn't find much trash on the way out.

For the amount of walking I did this really wasn't a lot of trash compared to other places. I'm happy about that and the other nice thing was that there was hardly any new trash items, almost everything had been there for awhile.

A juvenile Pickerel Frog. 

Green Frog on the left, American Bullfrog on the right.

This small school of Perch was swimming through the channel where Locust Creek meets the lake. Last week when I did the on the water clean-up here I did see a lot of Perch, just couldn't get a photo.
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

Nesquehoning (31-May-2016)

I had posts to catch up on, so I wanted to keep the clean-up short and close to home. I decided to take an access road down to the Nesquehoning Creek. Too often there is trash along this dirt road and I expected there would be some on this outing. 

The first item I came across was this dumped tv. This is not an item I can take and I see more of them dumped all the time. There isn't any place I know of taking them for free anymore, if there was I would remove every one I came across.

This left me scratching my head. Plastic and metal hanging baskets. In order to get to this access road, you have to pass the recycling center. Both the plastic pots and metal are accepted at the center. The individual who dumped these had to do more work than just dropping them off at the proper disposal. I only had my pack on me, so I left these for now, I will try to get back there soon to pick them up.

This Red Eft was slowly making his way across the access road. It brightened the hike up a little bit after seeing the recently dumped items. 

This Tiger Beetle was also on the access road. These like to hang out in cleared areas like dirt roads and trails. When you approach them their normal behavior is to fly down the path five to ten feet and land. Some will repeat this over and over again if you keep walking toward them. 

Along the road there were bottles and cans. Where the road meets the Nesquehoning Creek, there were small piles of bottles and cans. I do not go to this area often anymore and every time I do it is always the same thing. The others that go here simply just do not care, the woods serve as their garbage can. Just how can someone reach these people and change their perspective on things? I am still trying to figure that out.

Penny made the coolest find of the day. She started pulling me towards this and when I realized what she was after I had to pull her back. A carcass full of Carrion Beetles! You may not like them, you may think the photo is gross, but they do a very beneficial job for the environment and us. In this photo there are at least two similar, yet different species. Carrion beetles can also be found on decaying fungus and scat. Cans, especially beer cans with contents left inside act as attractants and traps to these beetles. We need these beetles around and litter kills them.  

By the end I did fill my pack, Penny had a good enough walk for the day and I was able to catch up on my blog posts. I did put this one off though, so it is a little more than a day late. 

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

Perkiomen Creek (30-May-2016)

Headed down to Montgomery County for a clean-up with Jeffrey Greco and Tyler Sacks. We decided on paddling the Perkiomen Creek. This was not just to remove trash off of the creek, but to help plan out the best route for the Perkiomen Creek Sojourn, which will be held this coming weekend by the Perkiomen Watershed Association. Both Tyler and I will be helping to guide the Sojourn. The route for any trip like this needs to be run prior to make sure there will not be any surprises along the way when the group is on the water.   

Starting out there were only a few small items along the bank. I know there were clean-ups done not that long ago, so I wasn't sure how much we would actually find. 

Jeff and Tyler stopped to pick up a couple of items at the head of a small rocky flood plain area. I paddled down a little further and got out to check some debris piles.

Clearing this out was much easier with help. I climbed up and started throwing things down. Jeff sorted the recyclables from non and Tyler helped me with trash around the pile. 

Tyler found a lost med kit completely full and completely ruined. I hope those who lost it weren't in need of it when they did. The trash can in the canoe was picked up on the first dam that we had to go over. With there being a lot of private property along the Perkiomen you need to be careful when picking up an item like that. It may be someones property. Since it was on the dam, had a cracked bottom and looked like it had been in the creek for at least a little while I made the call to take it. Also, Tyler added the trash bag, it was not in it when found. 

Some of the houses built along the creek are just awesome. This is one of my favorites built on top of a large rock. 

Jeff spotted this Bald Eagle at one of our stops. It was on the opposite side of the creek in a tree. At the time none of us noticed that it had a fish nor that it was banded. After a little bit of research last night I believe that because of the green band on this eagle that it was originally banded in New Jersey. Did anyone else see a Bald Eagle on Memorial Day? 

For a holiday I was shocked that there weren't more people out enjoying the creek. We passed several fishermen and a family inner tubing, but that was about it. 

Not only was the extra help appreciated, but having a canoe along is the best. I was able to unload some of the larger items I picked up with the kayak and go back to collecting more.

What my kayak looked like nearing the end of the trip. 

The last item I picked up for the day. This piece of plastic was around 60 ft long. I think it may have come from a bridge construction site just up stream. There were other pieces, but no way of removing them on this trip. The pile of plastic on the top of the kayak made it a bit unstable for the rest of the paddle.

The haul for the day. The non-recyclables were left next to a trash can in the park we exited at. In this case Tyler took the recyclables home to be disposed of locally. The area that we were in has had a problem with a non-native species called the Lanternfly. Potentially trash items could have Lanternfly eggs on them and is not something I want to be responsible for spreading around PA. 

To Mr. Greco and Mr. Sacks, Thank you very much for helping with this clean-up! We removed much more than I expected and it was an great time!

A mother Merganser with young. Mergansers are a fish eating duck very common on our streams and rivers.

This is a Painted Turtle, a common species on the Perkiomen Creek. It was missing one of its from feet, but that really is not an issue for this turtle. Life in the wild is hard and the loss of a limb for a turtle is not that uncommon. If you ever come across a turtle like this it does not need to go to a rehab. It will be much happier staying in the wild and there really isn't anything a rehab can do. If the wound is healed and the turtle looks to be healthy there is nothing wrong with it. I have seen many painted turtles like this one and they do well the way they are.

There were a few Northern Watersnakes on this trip. Northern Watersnakes are not venomous, but are often thought to be Water Moccasins. The good news is we do not have Water Moccasins in PA. Even though the Northern Watersnake is non-venomous I would caution that if you try to pick one up it will do two things. It will bite and it will relieve itself on you. Both are in defense, you are large, the snake is small and it probably thinks you are trying to eat it. This animal should be left alone and respected.

The coolest insect find of the day! A Water Scorpion. This aquatic predator will sit as it is in this photo and wait for a prey item to swim by. It possesses raptorial forelimbs like a preying mantis, which it uses to snatch up its prey. Then it will suck out the insides of whatever unlucky invertebrate, small fish or tadpole it catches. It is not the only aquatic insect predator like this around and it is on the smaller side compared to some.

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