Tonto National Park is closing Canyon Lake later this month to work on the dam that sits on its western shores. The water level will drop about 50 feet. I love this lake and swim in it twice a week from essentially Valentines Day through Thanksgiving. Most people would kill for open water swimming for that long each year. Of course at the beginning and end of the seasons we are in full wet suits and neoprene caps and gloves.
On the last swim of the year, usually the weekend before or after Thanksgiving, those of us brave enough to last the 50 degree water hold a small BBQ on the beach. This year however with the lake closing in September we decided to hold the event this weekend.
What does this have to do with being a green conservative?
In thinking about my year up at Canyon Lake, since February, I have pulled out at least 200 pounds of others peoples trash. That is a lot of beer bottles, cans, caps, boxes, batteries, broken glass, fishing containers, diapers, napkins, wipes, plastic bags, used utensils and deflated inflatable pool toys. Mostly beer containers though.
Littering frustrates me. Its such a lack of respect to not pack out your own garbage, especially when the person or group is not tidy in how they spend their time there to begin with. It would be great to just have to pack out already bagged trash, but when it's just strewn about with no care or thought it really chaps me.
I still hope to go up to Canyon Lake the rest of the year, if for no other reason than to do some running and cycling among the deserted highway in solitude. I'd like to see what the landscape looks like under all the hundreds of miles of swimming I have done there.
The Tonto Park Rangers are woefully understaffed in maintaining the cleanliness of the parks around the lake. It's to bad really. Every time I am there, I see them working hard at just keeping the trash cans empty and the bathrooms maintained. They do what they can with the litter and am sure they are on top of it much better than I give them credit for. I have run through the beach area's on early mornings after holiday weekends and it is smelly and atrocious.
So long Canyon Lake swimming. Till next year.
On the last swim of the year, usually the weekend before or after Thanksgiving, those of us brave enough to last the 50 degree water hold a small BBQ on the beach. This year however with the lake closing in September we decided to hold the event this weekend.
What does this have to do with being a green conservative?
In thinking about my year up at Canyon Lake, since February, I have pulled out at least 200 pounds of others peoples trash. That is a lot of beer bottles, cans, caps, boxes, batteries, broken glass, fishing containers, diapers, napkins, wipes, plastic bags, used utensils and deflated inflatable pool toys. Mostly beer containers though.
Littering frustrates me. Its such a lack of respect to not pack out your own garbage, especially when the person or group is not tidy in how they spend their time there to begin with. It would be great to just have to pack out already bagged trash, but when it's just strewn about with no care or thought it really chaps me.
I still hope to go up to Canyon Lake the rest of the year, if for no other reason than to do some running and cycling among the deserted highway in solitude. I'd like to see what the landscape looks like under all the hundreds of miles of swimming I have done there.
The Tonto Park Rangers are woefully understaffed in maintaining the cleanliness of the parks around the lake. It's to bad really. Every time I am there, I see them working hard at just keeping the trash cans empty and the bathrooms maintained. They do what they can with the litter and am sure they are on top of it much better than I give them credit for. I have run through the beach area's on early mornings after holiday weekends and it is smelly and atrocious.
So long Canyon Lake swimming. Till next year.
