Yesterday I went on an adventure to clean up the Russian River with about 15 boats filled with mostly 20 year olds from SSU. We started in Asti and the leader could not unlock the canoes. Then one of the teens figured out the lock thank God.
We chose partners and I was a partner with Rebecca, a student of Anthropology from SSU. The weather was perfect with a slight breeze at 95 degrees. Luckily we all capsized our boats and got completely soaked - not just once!
The river is very low this year and because of that we had to portage our canoes at least 10 times during the 8 mile journey back to Geyserville. It took us about 8 hours and we had to portage our canoes at least 10 times. I kept wondering why the teens had no sunglasses or hats? The canoes weighed at least 50 pounds with all of our gear in it. I got many bruises from pulling the canoe through the portages. Thank God there were some teenagers who manuevered our canoe through narrow rock passages. The trickiest one was the very last waterfall where a teen pushed our canoe through two rocks about the width of the canoes. I did not bring enough water for me - I certainly did bring plenty of food and shared some of it with those who forgot their lunch.
We picked up at least 50 pounds of garbage including tires and metal pieces.
We saw small trout and a number of beautiful birds- snowy egrets, crows, and white tailed swallows, a flood of geese, and other birds. During last year's clean up trip we saw many turtles and the river was higher. Last year only a few canoes tipped over. All in all it was a fun adventure and I look forward to this clean up every year.
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