It took one hour to make the Pennybacker Bridge overlook a little cleaner

It took one hour to make the Pennybacker Bridge overlook a little cleaner

Jeff Sheldon pauses during an hour-long trash cleanup at the Pennybacker Bridge overlook Wednesday to enjoy the view. Pam LeBlanc photo

 

One hour, six bags of trash and a moldy old rug.

That was the haul after an hour-long sweep of the trail at the Pennybacker Bridge overlook on the northwest corner of Lake Austin at Loop 360.

I visited the spot for the first time a few weeks ago, and was dismayed to find it littered with plastic bottles, beer cans, discarded face masks and food wrappers. I mentioned it in a post on Facebook, and a few friends suggested that we gather for an informal trash cleanup.

We did that today. It didn’t take long, and picking up trash (at least two pieces a day) is part of my list of New Year’s resolutions.

This is not pretty, folks. Ugly graffiti covers many of the limestone rocks at the overlook. Pam LeBlanc photo

We’ve named our little group the Cycling Cleanup Crew, and we plan to organize a quick cleanup at various locations around Austin roughly every month. Care to join us? Check back here. I’ll post details. All you have to do is bring a trash bag and gloves, and the willingness to leave our Austin greenspace a little cleaner than you found it. Participants are encouraged to arrive by bicycle.

Today, Dan Pedroza (whom I met while riding my bicycle across Iowa a few years ago), Jeff Sheldon (whom I met while picking up barbecue at the amazing Stiles Switch), and Margaret Licarione (whom I met for the first time today), and I made a quick run up the overlook, gathering trash like we were hunting for Easter eggs. It appears that people drop trash off the edge of the cliff (“I’m done with this bag of Fritos, guess I’ll just pitch it over the edge!”) while they’re up there enjoying one of the best views in Austin, and most of the detritus is precariously lodged in bushes on the cliff, just out of safe reach. What we really need are some rappelers to pitch in.

I removed at least three long tinsel garlands from trees at the site, along with a dozen or so broken Christmas bulbs. I love Christmas as much as anyone, but nothing says “I don’t care about the environment” like hanging cheap junk in trees on the side of the road and not cleaning it up afterward. Most of it winds up blowing off and spoiling our green space. Please don’t do it.

Margaret found an old rug in the woods, half buried in the trampled dirt. We pried it out and hauled it away.

Today’s cleanup didn’t take long, and it felt great to get outside and leave a tiny corner of Austin nicer than we found it. Want to join us? Check my Facebook page for upcoming details.

Jeff Sheldon, left, and Dan Pedroza, right, hoist an old rug into the bed of my truck. Pam LeBlanc photo

 

 

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People are dumping heaps of junk on the side of roads and it ticks me off

People are dumping heaps of junk on the side of roads and it ticks me off

I passed dozens of mounds of junk dumped on the side of the road between Austin and Manor today. Pam LeBlanc photo

What’s up with dumping trash on the side of rural roads around Austin?
I rode my bike from my home in Allandale to Manor and back this morning, eager to knock off some miles in less than 100-degree heat. And while the ride featured some beautiful rolling terrain, a flyover by some model airplanes, late season sunflowers and a few docile cows, it also featured the worst piles of roadside trash I’ve seen in years.
As I pedaled along, I passed pile after pile of broken furniture, busted TVs, worn out mattresses, pieces of lumber and used football helmets – huge, heaping mounds of it. The piles were alongside rural roads just outside of the Austin city limits, where, I’m guessing, nobody really monitors for people unloading truckloads of construction debris.

This pile included a heap of old football helmets and pads. Pam LeBlanc photo


I snapped these photos on Lindell Lane, north of Decker Lake (or Walter E. Long, as the kids call it these days), and on Blue Bluff Road, east of the 130 Toll Road. You could fill a dozen railroad cars with the amount of junk I pedaled past.
I wish I could load it all into an 18-wheeler and back it up in front of the home belonging to whoever put it there.
Instead, when I finished my 43-mile ride, I looked up the fines for illegal dumping in Travis County. I’ll call and report the problem on Monday.
Illegal dumping can be classified as a misdemeanor or felony, depending on the amount and type of waste, whether it was put there by an individual or a business, and whether the defendant has prior offenses. But dumping between 500 and 1,000 pounds of junk (what I saw) can land you a $4,000 fine and up to a year in jail. (Read the penalties for all types of dumping violations at https://www.tcsheriff.org/images/departments/docs/enviro_brochure.pdf.)
To report illegal dumping, call 1 (877) 663-8677. You can also report it to the Austin/Travis County Environmental Health Services Division at (512) 978-0300 or x311.
It’s pretty simple. Don’t be a jerk. Don’t drop your junk on the roadside.

This pile looks like construction debris. Pam LeBlanc photo

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A takeaway from chasing kayakers up the Texas coast? Our beaches are trashed

A takeaway from chasing kayakers up the Texas coast? Our beaches are trashed

We found trash at nearly every campsite where we stopped along the coast. The only exception? Small barrier islands. Pam LeBlanc photo


One thing I noticed as I chased the 3rd Coast Cowboys Epic Kayak Journey up the Texas coast the last two weeks?
Trash.
From the first night, when I camped at Mansfield Cut, the passage between North and South Padre Islands, to the finish point at Walter Umphrey State Park near Port Arthur, nearly every place we pitched a tent or delivered supplies to the team was fouled with discarded plastic bottles, food wrappers and beer cans.
Hopping from boulder to boulder on jetties, I spotted trash in every nook and cranny. I found toilet paper in the sand dunes, where endangered sea turtles nest. So much trash, along with a collection of old tires, was strewn around one spot on Bolivar Peninsula where the paddlers camped that it looked like a dump. (And, in a way, I guess it was.)

Jimmy Harvey sets up his tent on a small barrier island in Matagorda Bay. Islands like this were mostly trash free. Pam LeBlanc photo

As we made our way up the coast, the only places not buried in trash were the islands accessible only by boat. There, bright green grass waved in the breeze, and gray and white pieces of driftwood stood out like bones.
I’ve never understood the mentality of litterers. Do they think it’s someone else’s job to clean up after them? Do they think trash disappears? Do they think pristine beaches and fields look better caped in discarded tents (yes, we saw that), Fritos bags and broken coolers?
People fishing seem to be particularly piggish. I found bait packages, fishing line, broken awnings, single-use grocery bags and snack containers.
I brought spare trash bags with me on the second half of the trip, so I could pick up some of the refuse. Not a pleasant pastime, and it hardly made a dent, but I’m kind of obsessive-compulsive. It made me feel a teensy bit better.
Think about it. If every person who visited a park or beach picked up a few extra pieces of garbage left by someone else, we could make a difference.
Please, Take 3 for the Sea.

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Found on the San Marcos River: Innertubes, toilet seat and a cow femur wearing a shoe

Found on the San Marcos River: Innertubes, toilet seat and a cow femur wearing a shoe

Pam LeBlanc hauls bags of trash from her canoe to a dumpster. Chris LeBlanc photo

I spent a satisfying day yesterday paddling a 6-mile stretch of the San Marcos River, loading my aluminum canoe with old flip flops, car tires and deflated innertubes left on the waterway.

I turned my boat into a floating trash barge for the first day of the San Marcos River Cleanup, hosted by theTexas Canoe and Kayak Racing Association. My final haul included an old fishing rod, a slew of plastic containers, a football, a deflated raft, swim goggles, and a cow femur wearing an exploded tennis shoe. I left the dead deer behind, and another boat traveling with us picked up more tires, more innertubes, more plastics, and a toilet seat (found, then lost again.)

Chris LeBlanc wrestles garbage from an old cypress tree on the San Marcos River. Pam Leblanc photo

It’s discouraging to see so much garbage in the river, a place that brings me so much joy. I spent a lot of time on it last year training for and participating in the Texas Water Safari, a 260-mile paddling race from San Marcos to the Texas coast.

The good news? If you want to participate but missed yesterday’s event, you can join day two of the event, scheduled for Saturday, March 7.

You don’t need a boat to participate. The upper stretches of the river and its banks, especially at highway crossings and bridges, are so trashed that volunteers are needed to walk the shore, collecting garbage.

Chris LeBlanc rolls a discarded tire off the San Marcos River in Luling. Pam LeBlanc photo

Gird your loins if you plan to attend – it’s pretty nasty out there, and organizers of the 35thannual event promise a serious yuck factor. You’ll be handsomely rewarded, just through knowing you’re helping to keep our waterways – and the creatures that live there – healthy.

Chris LeBlanc holds up a cow femur wearing a shoe. Pam LeBlanc photo

“Volunteers are guaranteed to experience trash jams that resemble the trash compactor (complete with monster) from the original Star Wars movie,” a web posting about the event says. “This section of river is not recommended for the faint of heart.”

To help clean the top section of the river (suitable for novice boaters), the 2-mile stretch from San Marcos City Park to Thompson’s Island, meet at City Park at 9:30 March 7. To register, go to the City of San Marcos website at https://www.sanmarcostx.gov/363/Preserve-Beautify.

Part of the haul. Pam LeBlanc photo

If you’re an experienced paddler, consider pitching in to help clean the 3.5-mile stretch of river from Thompson’s Island to San Marcos River Retreat. Meet at the retreat at 9 am on March 7.
Plan on staying on the river until about 4 p.m. Organizers will deliver lunch to the San Marcos Wastewater Treatment Plant at about noon.

To get to the San Marcos River Retreat from Interstate 35 in San Marcos, take Highway 80 toward Luling for 1.8 miles. Turn light on County Road 101. Take an immediate left onto County Road 102. Go one half mile and turn right on Pecan Park Road. Pass TG Canoes and Kayaks and the road will end at the San Marcos River Retreat office.

For more info call Tom Goynes at 512-787-5574 or go to http://sanmarcosriverretreat.com.

Jason Sowell participates in a trash cleanup on the San Marcos River on Feb. 29, 2020. Pam LeBlanc photo

 

 

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Take Three for the Sea the next time you’re at the beach

Take Three for the Sea the next time you’re at the beach

I picked up trash when I walked down the beach in Galveston this week. Pam LeBlanc photo

Check out this photo: Two things I hate, and which I found in abundance during a morning stroll on the beach at Galveston Island this week.

Whoever dropped the straw didn’t even use it. It was still tucked inside its paper wrapper when I found it in the sand. And that plastic water bottle? I can think of only a very few instances that a reusable water bottle wouldn’t work just as well, or better.

I was staying at the DoubleTree (yay warm chocolate chip cookies!) on Seawall Boulevard and got up early to walk across the street enjoy the sunrise, which was lovely. I’d also just listened to an NPR report about recycling.

According to the network’s “Plastic Tide” series, the average American generates more than 250 pounds of plastic waste each year. Most of it isn’t recycled.

According to the organizers of the Take Three for the Sea movement (www.take3.org), only 9 percent of the 8.3 billion tons of plastic that has been made since the 1950s has been recycled, and an estimated 8 million tons of it washes into our oceans each year.

That spurred me to a tiny action.

Since I’m compulsive, I picked up a plastic bag (found on the beach) and filled it with trash that I found during my walk. Galveston Beach is pretty. I want it to stay that way. I hope you do too.

 

 

 

About Pam

I’m Pam LeBlanc. Follow my blog to keep up with the best in outdoor travel and adventure. Thanks for visiting my site.

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