The 10th Annual Lefthand Canyon Cleanup attracted 170
volunteers from 22 different motorized and non-motorized recreation
groups, as well as individuals in government agencies and the general
public. This year the US Forest Service promoted the Lefthand Cleanup
as part of the Earthday weekend. Colorado State Parks Trails Coordinators
Benjamine Pedrett and Nancy Scalise got the cleanup media coverage in
the surrounding newspapers as well as promoting the event as part of
the State Parks "Year of Trails".
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Starting at 8:00am, we had a light dusting of snow
on the ground from a storm the afternoon before, but it didn't take
long to melt off. The "No Shooting" signs placed by the Forest
Service the year before have made an impact. The lower areas that shooting
had been done at in the past were beginning to revegetate. Some of the
smaller informational signs were replaced with hopes of educating the
public about the right way to recreate on public lands. The upper shooting
area is still being used, and it had the main amount of trash to clean
up.
With a such a large group of volunteers, some were
sent to the two side canyons on County 94 to clean up the trash there.
With the trash from this other area, the dumpster donated by Western
Disposal was filling up before noon. To help manage the traffic in the
area of the cleanup so that the trucks hauling the trash could make
the trips to the dumpster easier, Gail Straty of the Trailridge Runners
4WD Club controlled access on the 4WD road. She directed all the volunteers
to park along County 94. This change from past years improved the speed
of unloading the trucks hauling out the trash to the point that the
volunteers were always loading up an empty truck, instead of piling
the trash bags and waiting on the trucks to return through all the traffic
on the 4WD road.
Lunch this year was donated by Northern Colorado Trail
Riders and prepared by their members Scott and Don Edwards, Howard Konken,
and Linda Dressel. Also this year, New Belgium brewery donated some
"Fat Tire" beer for our hard working volunteers. Having a
few hot dogs and cold drinks was a nice reward for our eager volunteers.
While the main group was working on the trash at the
start of the Lefthand Canyon 4WD road, Eddie Householder and members
of the Big Thompson 4WD Club with the assistance of Ozzies Towing and
Stan's Auto Service Towing headed up to five points to retrieve a burnt
out Cherokee. Once the Cherokee was brought down to pavement, it was
quickly loaded onto a flatbed tow truck to be hauled to the bone yard.
Darrel Turner of the Trailridge Runners 4WD Club brought
his Bob Cat which made unloading the trucks full of trash bags and larger
items easier. To get as much trash in the dumpster as possible, Darrel
would compress the trash with the Bob Cat bucket. Even doing this we
still had four trucks full of extra trash before the cleanup was completed.
Thanks to all those who volunteered. Your time and
effort is why the Lefthand Cleanup is such a success
