Just like any day where something overly important is on my calendar, usually a fishing trip or this cleanup, I didn’t sleep much. Waking every 20 to 30 minutes just to see that time was crawling through the night like a cold snake, I frustratingly put my feet on the floor at 5:30, loaded the pickup to the gills, went and grabbed 6 dozen donuts, downed a pot of coffee, and waited for the family to roll out of bed, well rested.
Like most folks my age and older, I live with a nagging feeling that I’m forgetting something. Usually my wallet or ibuprofen. So when we pulled up to the park to start setting up, the feeling hung over my head like a dense fog. But by the time everything was laid out thanks to an unmatched group of family and friends, I was feeling somewhat relaxed, somewhat.
A month ago, The Confluences board member Brady Grant put forth the stellar idea of Trash Captains. They would spread out down the creek to cheerlead the volunteers up to their butt cracks in mud and trash. His idea grew like a carp in the Rapist Pond. These litter leaders helped set up, carried extra bags, water, food, and gloves, answered questions, and weighed all the trash bags as volunteers piled them like enormous cow pies next to the bike path. And in the rare case of an un-homed person getting a little frisky, they were there to diffuse the situation. They also picked up a bunch of trash in their spare time. Huge difference makers this year! (Kevin, Brady, Briahn, Kevin, Ryan, Colleen, Eric, Kim, Antonio, Cal, Mike, Lawrence, and John. We couldn’t thank you enough.)
This model worked like a charm resulting in a much less chaotic morning for everyone, especially myself. We didn’t have to worry about people miles away we couldn’t reach if something went wrong and I didn’t personally receive a thousand texts or phone calls all morning. When Santiago’s Burritos screwed up our order, Mary Helen (wife supreme) just waited for them to be made, brought them to Twin Lakes Park, and a couple of Trash Captains loaded them into backpacks, hopped on their bikes, and delivered them to volunteers spread out over 3 miles of urban wilderness. Just like we drew it up as they say.
To up our game, all the trash was weighed and tallied by some magical Google App developed by, you guessed it, a couple of smarter than me Trash Captains. By the time Pizza Hut pizzas arrived (mostly donated by Pizza Hut at 7171 N Pecos Street!) the tally was a disgusting 2,600 pounds. And we think that was a conservative estimate.
Thousands of plastic bottles were bagged for recycle and almost twenty used tires were stacked along the bike path for recycle as well. Aluminum cans were hauled in by the hundreds, or as my 10 year old said, millions. Adams County was there the same day to start hauling everything to the recycling plant and landfill like the amazing partners they are.
Prizes were divvied up to 154 thankful, hardworking volunteers while they washed away the morning with Great Divide beers and deliciously crisp Epic Westerns.
At our Captains meeting at least three Great Divide beers in, we reflected on why we were even doing this and where the cleanup was located in the grand scheme of river drainage, and population, and the ocean. This made us feel a bit small as such thoughts of our tiny blue planet hurtling through endless space does.
Our simple little abused creek starts as snow melt and pristine mountain springs at 14,000 feet elevation near Greys and Torreys peaks and “the tunnel”. When standing at the summit of these peaks a couple summers ago, we squinted at the endless flat line of the plains through the hazy morning clouds. The thought a creek so clean and unmolested would eventually trickle over a crack pipe or penis pump made me shudder. It was but a baby up here in the thin air. Pure and perfect in its infancy. But on it’s journey into adulthood it would make crazy encounters with us big brained humans. We turn it into beer, drop lead fishing weights into it, and our vehicle oil and gas seeps in from street runoff. No way to treat an adolescent.
Rains dribble through hundreds of old mines in Clear Creek Canyon around Georgetown and Idaho Springs picking up poisonous sediments, then it rushes along the endless line of traffic of I-70, picks up a slew of small tributaries and passes through the mega industrial machine we know as the Coors Brewery. Starting in Golden it meanders it’s way under a total of 48 vehicle and train bridges and overpasses while picking up everything from the city’s storm drainage and human littering/dumping. Then it meets up with the South Platte River which is polluted to hell in it’s own rite.
From there, the South Platte travels hundreds of miles across the plains watering crops and livestock, recharging the Ogallala Aquifer before dumping into the Missouri, and then the Mississippi, and finally the big blue sea.
It dawned on us in that meeting we are cleaning the creek at the epicenter of nasty. I-25, I-270, and I-76 all rumble past just in the three miles we clean up while trash grabbers nip at Swisher Sweet wrappers like night herons picking off bait fish. Credit some trash blowing out of pickup beds, or being tossed out mindlessly. Then there are the crazy items like an industrial dryer drum. That one didn’t blow out the back of someone’s truck.
So after weighing in all that junk, and watching the creek transform once again this year, I was personally exhausted (from waking up early) yet hopeful. But the Trash Captain team was energized. They spent all evening around the fire pit spitballing ideas for the future of The Confluences and what we can do better next time. It goes without saying this group won the day and may be the reason I actually sleep before the next cleanup.
We are all looking forward to what the future holds not to mention Year 5! Keep up with us on social media and wherever you get your WordPress.
Lastly. Thanks to all our sponsors who continue to give a damn about the earth. Yes, people are jazzed to clean up the planet, but tease them with incredible prizes and the trash tally explodes!
Rep Your Water, Protect Our Rivers, Anglers All, Topo Designs, Burton, Park Burger, Archery Games, Pizza Hut, Urban Anglers, Stranahans, Epic Western Ranch Water, Fishpond, Prodigy Coffeehouse, Umpqua, Thrivent Financial, History Colorado Center, The Drake Magazine, Riversmith, Yo Colorado, Patagonia, Scoops Ice Cream, Tattered Cover, Grand Salon, Great Divide Brewery, Denver Water, Park Burger, Seth Kent and his Glider, Denver Water, The Greenway Foundation, Meow Wolf, Improper City, Abbey Tavern, The Thin Man, Zero Market, RMH Group, Photoz by Sheila, ABC Imaging, Wright & McGill / Eagle Claw, Keep Nature Wild, Davis Partnership, and Adams County
The Confluences 