Kayaking the Dan River - Cleanup. (1 Viewer)

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jamesurq

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Jason and I spent a couple hours drifting down the Dan river last weekend. Really great relaxing drift. Very little effort needed. We noticed an interesting similarity between what we saw there and what we see at URE.

CANS.

s*** tons of cans in the river.

What I'd like to propose is a canoeing/kayaking trip to pick up cans and garbage. Obviously, to fish, kayak and have fun as well... There are several routes, some of which are shorter (1-2 hours) some are longer (4-5+ hours). Some of which have camping on the side of the river

We could have a few legs - for those that can only invest an hour or two, those of you prepared for a half day, and those that would like to make overnight camping part of the trip.

At this point, I'm just gauging interest:

1) Are you interested?
2) Would you be interested in a 1 hour, 4-5 hour, or overnight camping?
3) Do you have your own canoe/kayak?
4) Do you have any extra canoe's/kayaks to bring for others or to fill with trash (there's a lot of it)...
5) Does April 29th-30th work for you?

Let me know.
 
Interested in any of the options, but overnight makes the most sense with my travel times. I have an extra kayak/paddle/PFD if Sarah doesn't come with. Camping obviously adds weight and gear to the boats if we have to carry it all, leaving minimal room and harder maneuvering for trash pickup. I'd wager we can come up with some tow-behinds to assist.

The time might not work for me depending on how badly my wallet needs a refill (huge busy season for someone with my lack of skills). I'll know my mid-April, if not prior.

Wait...Didn't Duke Energy clean up everything, or were they just after the coal ash???
 
Can't personally commit to date before the Relic Run, but I'd love to float down a river. Don't have a kayak, but I could go buy some tractor inner tubes and have a good time.
 
Yeah I'd say the inner tube weather is a little ways off. Unless you have Nordic blood.
 
ive got a kayak/paddle/pfd i can loan out if i cant make it. my weekends are filling up quick
 
Sounds fun count me in , got two kayaks
 
The Rymer's should be able to attend. We have one single, one double kayak and a canoe. Would like the camping idea, but wouldn't be able to pack camping gear for the fam in the boats, so would like to find a camping spot, drive upstream, put in, etc.. The weekend of the 29th may even work.
 
Calling Jason.@jfz80
 
What part of the Dan did you paddle? I did the section through the Hammer Stern Wilderness to Hanging Rock. It was a nice little trip and ends at the state park so camping would be easy.
 
Just a short jaunt from Pine Hall area to Madison downtown.
 
Sorry. I was .... um ..... busy. Yeah. Thas it ;) amazing mow much more water than sunday from just a little rain

^^could impact efforts of a planned day as i didnt see the bottom nor a smallmpercentage of cans. May be best to plan for summer when predictably less flow? Or just have a backup date.

Patrick we did lindsay bridge access to 704 access in dtown madison.
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So this started as a chat with James on Sunday about how it would be fun to perhaps coordinate this as sort of a philanthropy event for the club. I know we donate generously to various causes and in the past we had other projects like the veterans construction day

This could go several ways as i see it.

A) just organize as a casual onsc event day/overnight. No club organization/involvement. Just friends meeting for the day on the river. Dinner afterward.

B) Coordinate as a cleanup effort And hopefully work with town to pick up said trash if we get to the access point. Perhaps include dan river campground and ask about a discounted rate for group and clean up drive. Inquire about overnight parking at access and possibly LEO patrol swing by if leaving overnight.

Its private property along the river so camping is limited. We could pick a place as Patrick mentioned but ads some travel time and logistics, totally doable. Just thought this would be close to many (30 min n of gso) and easy; its a heavily traveled section so a normal 45 min paddle could be an afternoon spearing cans.
 
Interested.
 
I think perhaps we should do option A initially and keep it low key. Then potentially discuss plans for a warmer weather cleanup project with a larger group and share some of the planning/organization with the BOD? Assuming they are on board.
 
I'll say this, once you start to do things as an "official" cleanup event, theres a chance the bureaucrats will start asking things like, group insurance, water training, safety/ppe precautions, first aid/blood borne pathogens training, etc.

Do it low key, and post up pics to fb after, saying, what started as a club float trip blossomed into an impromptu river cleanup...
 
Valid point, they can keep all their trash if they like :meh:

Classic beurocratic impediment to a good cause

Well i hope we dont have to start completing driving test and safety inspections to pick up bud lite cans at URE soon

Whats next roadside walking safety training for adopt a highway volunteers?!?
 
Valid point, they can keep all their trash if they like :meh:

Classic beurocratic impediment to a good cause

Well i hope we dont have to start completing driving test and safety inspections to pick up bud lite cans at URE soon

Whats next roadside walking safety training for adopt a highway volunteers?!?

As a "bureaucrat" I don't disagree that the regulations seem excessive, but the reason they exist are that if something goes wrong, governments are usually the first ones to get sued. Should there be several hurdles just to clean up trash on a river, No. But say someone drowns, the first questions would be "were they qualified to be on the river". I don't know what "qualified to be on the river" means, but I do know courts would be pretty strict if we didn't require a lot of what @stevezero listed. In my experience most of the regulations we have are because someone got sued, and it cost them a bunch of money. Other governments look at it and say "we don't want to pay a bunch of money is a suit, so we need the same regulations" Its unfortunate because that people that wanted to do something positive get discouraged because of the regulations placed on the event. All that being said, damn government regulation and have this trip be a non sanctioned event.
 
Get busted for some trivial offense, and you can pick up trash on the side of the highway with a bunch of other people in brightly colored vests
 
Get busted for some trivial offense, and you can pick up trash on the side of the highway with a bunch of other people in brightly colored vests
Yes you can, you also get training before they let you do it. ;)
 
As a "bureaucrat" I don't disagree that the regulations seem excessive, but the reason they exist are that if something goes wrong, governments are usually the first ones to get sued. Should there be several hurdles just to clean up trash on a river, No. But say someone drowns, the first questions would be "were they qualified to be on the river". I don't know what "qualified to be on the river" means, but I do know courts would be pretty strict if we didn't require a lot of what @stevezero listed. In my experience most of the regulations we have are because someone got sued, and it cost them a bunch of money. Other governments look at it and say "we don't want to pay a bunch of money is a suit, so we need the same regulations" Its unfortunate because that people that wanted to do something positive get discouraged because of the regulations placed on the event. All that being said, damn government regulation and have this trip be a non sanctioned event.

I totally understand the logic. I work for a huge company, and for every boneheaded training class we have to take, or policy change, its because that event happened one or more times.

We volunteered with the army corps of engineers at philpot dam back in 2009 or so, and the amount of training we had to take was just as much, if not more involved than full time employee training. In fact, we had many of their FTE's in our classes. For walking around the shoreline and campsites to pick up trash, we had to attend training on first aid, cpr, blood borne pathogens, wilderness first aid, personal protection equipment, protective clothing, protective footwear (including steel toe boots), proper chain saw usage and PPE (we werent going near chain saws), radio training, vehicle safety, with background check and driving test. We also had to go thru various boater safety courses to be able to ride along in the patrol boat on the lake. All "necessary", because there might be a chance you had to use it.
 
I think if its done as a social event when the water level is really low, and our ever prepared club just so happens to have a bunch of black trash bags, gloves, and a couple of them grabber thingies, some minor cleanup work could spontaneously break out. Let the annual dan river cleanup go after the big ticket items (tires, bumpers, sliders, fenders.....wait, wrong thread ;) ....err all the big junk that increases the risk factors.

Ive been on the Dan where more time was spent walking than paddling, because it was so low. It also didnt help that several in our group were "high displacement/high density" paddlers.

The further you go into the summer, the higher likelihood of tubers getting in the way on the river. Specially the closer you get to hanging rock. The one large park area there (i forget the name) is usually full of the miscreants that put the cans in the river in the first place.
 

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