Hikeu Organizes Very Successful Clean-up of the Lamoille River

Sunday was a great day here in Fairfax, Vermont. We would normally spend a day like this on the Trail, doing what we love. But instead we worked along side a dozen other Fairfax residents cleaning up the Lamoille River in the area of our local Park and Bike Path. The river is quite wide in town, around 75 yards I would guess, and we swept about a half mile of the river in all.

I got the idea to clean the river a few weeks back after wading that section of the river with our dogs and seeing all the junk. I knew something needed to be done and decided then to lead the charge.

I had never organized anything like this before, but everything fell together perfectly. The weather was perfect, the crew was ambitious and not afraid to get wet. Fairfax resident David Shea from All Metals Recycling donated a metal recycling dumpster. Gary Stewart brought a tractor and chains to haul the heavy stuff out of the river.

In addition to all the metal, we retrieved 32 tires! These will be recycled as well.

Some of the more interesting items retrieved were big, old antique milk jugs, milking buckets, tire rims with wooden spokes, a solid iron tire rim from a very old truck and one old bike that looked to be from the 50's. More modern stuff included a lawn mower, shopping cart, and several bikes.

I feel great about getting the river cleaned up and can only imagine how much lighter it must feel with all that old junk removed and on its way to becoming something of value once again.