This afternoon provided splendiferous conditions for trash paddling! Not a cloud in the sky. After launching and reaching Egg Rock, I drifted down the upper Concord River. The area just upstream of the Old North Bridge provided 23 pieces of trash. By the time I reached the Great Meadows boat landing, I had 36 pieces, and these were stored below deck. Heading around the oxbow between Great Meadows Landing and Sawmill Brook, a mink swam across my path into a backwater. I decided to follow and was soon finding more bottles etc. I had forgotton about the mink and was heading back out to the main channel when I saw a head pop out from behind a tree trunk. It was the mink I had seen earlier. He would pop out from one side of the tree, then pop out from the other. A very curious little fellow.
Shortly, I reached the next bend in the oxbow and began my trip back upriver. Just a little ways downstream of the Great Meadows Landing, on river right, I espied a shiny bottle in the sunlight. Paddling into this area where the river was trying to take a shortcut, I recoved the bottle I saw and a few others. Sitting in amongst the trees, a white trash bag caught my eye. It was wedged in some branches and filled with 24 empty Budweiser beer cans. A trash paddler's dream come true!
Other wildlife observed today were green-winged teals, wood ducks, mallards, Canada geese, red-winged blackbirds, great blue herons, and a muskrat.
Now, with my foredeck covered to the hilt with trash, I headed to my takeout with the feeling of satisfaction that a successful hunter might possess. My count was 82 pieces of trash of which 62 were recyleable cans and bottles. My YTD total is 951.
No comments:
Post a Comment