Note: While all of the facts in this story are entirely true, my method of story telling is modified to be more entertaining, as recounting a day picking up garbage can only prove to be so thrilling on its own, I have added a big more imagination and brain appeal to keep you entertained. Also, there are pictures to go with this story, but due to camera complications and the fact that as a volunteer I only have so much time, they have not as of yet made it onto my computer, sorry!
Saturday, September 17th was California Coastal Cleanup day, a statewide volunteer effort put together by the California Coastal Commission and in conjunction with the International Coastal Cleanup, hosted by the Ocean Conservatory.
Naturally we at the Pescadero Conservation Alliance wanted to do our part in helping to keep our ocean and beaches clean, and even more naturally we wanted to do it at Gazos beach. Where else would the organization who headquarters, the Gazos field research station, is located up the Gazos canyon and situated by Gazos creek, choose to volunteer?
So with our buckets, and bags, and multitude of gloves, we arrived bright and early at 9am at the beach, well, ok it was actually more like 9:20, but arrive we did! And well prepared for a day of trash collecting, or at the very least; ready and willing!
Two California coastal cleanup volunteers ( who are also Snowy Plover volunteers in HMB), cheerfully greeted us and after admiring everyone's cookies, we were given our mission.
Our mission, if we chose to except it: comb the beach for every last scrap of paper, plastic, glass, cloth, metal, Styrofoam, and all other substances made by mankind.
We accept! Although we did decide to forgo any Mel Brooks antics and did not pull out our combs and literally comb the beach!
So off we went with bags in hand, gloves on hand and good intentions in our hearts.
Kellie and I started off down by the creek, and got our hunt off to a good start, despite the fact that 90% of our other comrades were also heading off in that direction. However once we got further down the beach we were back tracked by the creek crossing. Apparently Kellie has outgrown creek tromping, therefore we redirected our course in the opposite direction down the course. Even better! Less competition that way, meant more spoils for team PCA! But alas, two of our dedicated competitors had beaten us to the best trash collecting spot; yes, that's right, they got to the bottoms of the cliffs first.
All thoughts of returning to home base with the best treasure were lost, after all, the most garbage is always up along the cliff walls.
Disenheartend but still going strong, team PCA, or I suppose I should say three quarters of team PCA as John never did catch up to us, took on the rest of the beach, but it yielded little for our efforts.
Catching a lucky break at the interesting rocks, I was able to speed ahead of the competition and get the coveted spot below the cliffs, as our competition fell behind. At this point Kellie fell out of the hunt having found a likely looking rock to sit on and contemplate the ocean.
Hunting through the washed up kelp beds proved to be fruitful, but very time consuming. Not only was most of the trash broken up into miniscule pieces hidden in the kelp, but deciphering what was garbage and what was really just a very unusual sea plant, proved to be rather difficult. My natural curiosity kicked in, wanting to hunt through the kelp for cool looking stuff, and subsequently allowed my competitors to gain ground on me, as they had taken up my old spot further out on the beach. Deciding I would have to chose between collecting garbage for my team and spending hours finding neat sea plants, I chose garbage ( only in the name of clean beaches through) and hurried myself along.
After the initial switch in placement, my competitors and I leap frogged up the beach, switching places whenever one pulled ahead. Finally near the end of the beach my team spirit was sorely put to the test as I ended up with the outer spot while crossing the huge kelp bed that would land us at the end of the beach and our turn around spot. My very active imagination kicked in and envisioned me in several fateful scenarios: me being sucked into the huge bed of kelp (every step I took I sank several inches); me being swarmed the the millions of flies; me being eaten by the swamp thing I was sure must reside in this very large and very smelly kelp bed. But at least my mourners could say it was in the name of clean beaches.
After finally traversing the kelp bed, and no swamp thing made an appearance, I reached solid beach again on the other side. And it was well worth the perilous journey, for in addition to filling up my trusty bucket ( the official coastal commission bags were still back contemplating the ocean) I found a neat egg, which I gingerly, and proudly carried back up the beach, very satisfied with my self.
After reuniting with Kellie and the bags we decided to return to home base, as Kellie was tired and I was feint with hunger. Just as we were about to head back though, Kellie spotted a knife stuck high up in the rocks. Well that was way too cool to leave behind, so I scaled the rocks to retrieve the knife thinking some pirate was probably missing his favorite knife for scaring little children and the less suspecting landlubber.
Knife retrieved, we headed in, with still no sign of out third team member.
We returned to our cheery leaders, proudly displaying our spoils. We ate yummy cookies and chatted with our cheery leaders, and waited for John.
Tanya arrived with her group of kids from South Coast Children's Services (some of the same ones from the our Discovery Hike, check it out here), who headed out to do their own hunt for trash, and we waited for John.
Kellie and I talked some more, and I ate some more, while still waiting for John.
Tanya and her group came back; we were still waiting for John.
Kellie and I plunked ourselves down right at the beach entrance so we could see if John was coming, and waited some more for John.
Finally admitting defeat, since we had no idea where John was or what he would be bringing back, we had to admit that most likely we had not brought in the most poundage of garbage, even if we did find a cool knife.
But in the final moments, our veteran team player John finally showed up, straggling along under ten pounds of recycling and twenty-six pounds of garbage (John has not confirmed this), proving that experience will provide the best results!
Check out the Coastal Cleanup Day website to see all the office results.
Happy Trail!
Disclaimer: for everyone reading this blog, the highly unusual opinions and obviously off the wall and silly observations are purely my own and are very likely not expressed by anyone else at PCA or really anyone with any sense whatsoever. So like anything in life, take what is written here with a grain of salt (or pepper or garlic powder, whatever suites your fancy).
