Arkansas River Cleanup
by Christina King
The day began wonderfully. Sun, blue sky and relatively warm temps for an Arkansas river cleanup on May 11, 2002. The Arkansas River is in the midst of the lowest flows since 1977. The river was only running 350 cfs. We decided to run the easy section from Johnson's Village to Ruby Mountain so we could pick up trash and keep it in our boats. Several of us floated in our inflatable kayaks (duckies) representing the Pikes Peak River Runners, Private Boaters Coalition and High Country River Rafters clubs. We had showed up to float the river, pick up trash and make a difference on our home river.
We picked up
lots of trash. Beth Buller got top honors for
picking up the most cardboard.
Wendy Schneider had the eagle eye for spotting the most bits of trash and I got ambitious with the largest pieces of trash (crawling with leeches). Or at least that is what I found crawling between my toes when my feet came too close to the tarp infested with creepy crawlies. We had a lot of fun in the sun and enjoyed our float. I hope to see more boaters next year.
