July's Frosty Start

Yesterday being the first Saturday of the month could only mean one thing...Denise Hurt and the New Hampshire Appalachian Mountain Club Paddlers would be kicking-off July with a Trash Patrol.  So, on an appropriately steamy summer's morn a dozen paddle-propelled boats launched into the Mighty Merrimack from Frost Road Park in Tyngsboro, and headed out in pairs...

Most of the recovered trash went into deck-mounted plastic crates.  However some items, such as this plastic trash barrel, required custom rigging...

At the patrol's conclusion folks went about separating the recyclables from the rubbish and tallying-up the haul...

Recovered from the river were the following:
227 recyclable plastic or glass containers, 343 pieces of rubbish which included 5 automobile tires, a large Styrofoam block, 2 plastic 55-gallon drums, 1 plastic trash barrel, 5 syringes, and 11 "Hookset Disks". 

The disks seen below as "cash on the barrel" are some of the more than 4 million released from an upriver wastewater treatment plant into the Merrimack on a stormy March night back in 2011...

Post-patrol the group enjoyed an early July 4th cookout at Frost Park alongside the bend in the Merrimack...