Joint Trash Patrol of the Nashua River

This morning, I joined forces with Denise Hurt of the New Hampshire Appalachian Mountain Paddlers Club in trashpaddling a roughly 4 mile section of the Nashua River between Mine Falls Park in Nashua and Runnels Bridge in Hollis.  Denise is one of the club's trip leaders and an avid paddler.  The club has approximately 1500 members and represents all aspects of the paddling community.  After hearing about my trashpaddling activities via Playak.com, Denise invited me to join her on the water and demonstrate, first hand, my trash retrieval methods.
  
We launched from Mine Park's boat ramp which, by the way, was one of the cleanest I've seen, and headed upriver.  The wildlife community was present and accounted for in the form of ospreys, belted kingfishers, eastern kingbirds, red-winged blackbirds, tree swallows, Canada geese, mallards, goldfinches, painted turtles, an oriole, a cardinal, a cedar waxwing, and a musquash. 
These young osprey were waiting for their next meal to be flown in...

We also passed this loving tribute to a man who'd apparently derived much pleasure from his time spent upon the river...

This really is a beautiful stretch of river.

Trash was very spotty at first but began to pick up as we neared Runnels Bridge...

Upon landing, just downstream of the short rapids for lunch, we were surprised to see how trashed this area frequented by shore fishermen was.  A fifteen minute terrestrial patrol more than doubled our haul and Denise was pleased with the improved conditions...

Once everything was properly stowed between our 2 crafts, we began the return trip to Mine Falls Dam and found the scenery none too shabby...

Smiles were on the faces of all who were lucky enough to be on the river (or the golf course) that runs along the eastern shore.  A spectacular day!

Stopping to gather additional trash on the trip downriver, Denise was not easily dissuaded, regardless of the obstacles...

Back at Mine Falls our joint trash haul was disgorged from our boats...

The combined effort netted 70 recyclable containers and 166 pieces of miscellaneous rubbish that ran the gamut from bait tubs and nip bottles to a broken tackle box and small inflatable boat.  YTD = 3673.

Thanks to Denise for showing me this part of the Nashua River and jointly trash patrolling it.