On Sunday, I was the only person to show up for an open water swim practice that my triathlon team does a few times per week. Everyone was sleeping in or racing out of town. It gave me an opportunity to enjoy the beauty of our wilderness on my own...and pick up all the trash that people leave at our little spot.
Its unavoidable especially at close areas like Tonto National Forest that people who have low regard for nature will leave their trash, smash their bottles and scrawl graffiti on US Forest Service buildings. Just in the last month there is over a dozen new tags in the rest room I occasionally hit before swimming.
The spot we swim at is outside the beach/boat areas but still sees a fair amount of people who fish and perhaps engage in gazing and drinking alcohol. Littered around the area was ripped up Styrofoam coolers, broken liqueur bottles, soda cans, used napkins and other detritus. I filled a large garbage bag from my car and wished I had another. I took it to the dumpsters within the beach area.
Some of this trash is packed down into some of the rock crevasses or tucked under prickly trees or cactus. Later in the day while grocery shopping I picked up some more trash bags and one of those reaching grabby things called Trash Tongs to pick up the broken glass shards and hard to reach stuff.
I wish people would take better care of their personal trash outdoors. When I was in the military and later in my civilian business I was instilled with the habit of leaving a place cleaner than I found it; I even wipe down counters in movie theater bathrooms and at restaurants that still have paper towels.
After my short swim I hiked up into the canyon to find the Lost Dutchman's goldmine. Well I was more taken by the scenery than looking for caves but legend has it the unfound mine and many others are in the area. It made for a good day of training and my team mates will hopefully find a cleaner spot the next time they go to drop their towels for a swim.
Its unavoidable especially at close areas like Tonto National Forest that people who have low regard for nature will leave their trash, smash their bottles and scrawl graffiti on US Forest Service buildings. Just in the last month there is over a dozen new tags in the rest room I occasionally hit before swimming.
The spot we swim at is outside the beach/boat areas but still sees a fair amount of people who fish and perhaps engage in gazing and drinking alcohol. Littered around the area was ripped up Styrofoam coolers, broken liqueur bottles, soda cans, used napkins and other detritus. I filled a large garbage bag from my car and wished I had another. I took it to the dumpsters within the beach area.
Some of this trash is packed down into some of the rock crevasses or tucked under prickly trees or cactus. Later in the day while grocery shopping I picked up some more trash bags and one of those reaching grabby things called Trash Tongs to pick up the broken glass shards and hard to reach stuff.
I wish people would take better care of their personal trash outdoors. When I was in the military and later in my civilian business I was instilled with the habit of leaving a place cleaner than I found it; I even wipe down counters in movie theater bathrooms and at restaurants that still have paper towels.
After my short swim I hiked up into the canyon to find the Lost Dutchman's goldmine. Well I was more taken by the scenery than looking for caves but legend has it the unfound mine and many others are in the area. It made for a good day of training and my team mates will hopefully find a cleaner spot the next time they go to drop their towels for a swim.
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