Saturday March 25, 2006
After leaving our Sierra Club Heritage Trail Buckthorn/Trash Removal Outing Saturday between John Deere Road and Rexsteel around noon, I went to the Pohlman Prairie parking lot on US 52 and IA Rt. 3 north of Dubuque. I intended to hike up to the top to check on the possibility of an additional service trip up there that John Vontalge, the park ranger with us on the trail, mentioned may be needed. But, first, for lunch, I drank a Cherry-Lime, IBC Soda as I went through my "Gates of the Arctic" photo albums adding a few notes and clarifications here and there for some of the photos.
As I was already a bit tired from the earlier work, I decided to then just leave to go play with grandkids, but I HAD noticed some trash lying around the parting area as I pulled in. So, after already having backed up the van to leave, I swung it around parallel to the deep gully positioning the van's side doors facing the gully, back of van toward the trail, and the front facing the exit to the highway. Using a big Project AWARE river clean-up reusable trash bag, I collected the nearby trash, but then I happened to look down into the deep gully and saw a big mess of dumped stuff: hubcap, tire, bags of trash ripped open with cans and bottles strewn around, used disposable diapers (always pleasant), a garden hose, three big plastic buckets, underwear, a double-bed coil spring mattress and its accompanying wood-framed upholstery covered mattress support that the mattress would rest on, etc, etc.
Well, it was only around 1:30 by then, so I decided to pick up the loose trash on the slope, at least, and went down that steep slippery slope (leaves had been dumped there too so the slope was covered with rotting leaves and the ground beneath them was still frozen in places). I took the AWARE bag and filled it, then filled the three discarded buckets after moving a big rock off one, and hauled all that and one still intact garbage bag up the slope... took about three or four slip-slidin' trips. I also went back down for the tire and garden hose. Then, still a glutton for punishment, I flip-flopped the mattress up the slope (it was down about 1/2 - 2/3 of the way twisted against a tree), dropping it on my head once when I slipped onto my stomach and it tumbled back down onto me.
And THEN, there was that upholstered mattress support frame with nice looking wood (firewood, at least?) serving as the framework. It is difficult to leave a job not yet finished!! :-/. But, that last item had tumbled WAY to the bottom of the ravine among big boulders and fallen tree trunks and limbs near the entrance into the cement culvert that goes beneath Highways 3 and 52. Upon inspection, it seemed fairly light, however, so I began dragging it up the slope through the maze of limb and boulder obstacles. It got caught on a steel post ripping the cover because I was dragging it upside down like a depressed sled or toboggan with the open framework up so IT would not catch on rocks, small trees, and such along the way. I managed to kicked that post out of the way without losing the mattress frame back down the slope. Then I saw a solid steel rod sticking up in my path toward an opening in the trees wide enough to drag the frame through. I had to go around it as it was anchored firmly - a good hand and foot hold! But, as I maneuvered the mattress and my feet to use the rod as a foot hold for my right foot, my left foot slipped and my right side just below the rib cage landed directly onto the end of the rod. I was thinking: "Man found impaled on rod in gully with bedspring mattress support frame box still clutched in hand." But, MY superb muscular frame :) was able to bounce off with only a red welt.
I eventually got the mattress frame to the top and past some trees, with me quite dirty and sweaty. I had taken a few photos but was getting short on film.
So, NOW, how do I get all that stuff into the van to haul away? The mattress and frame were wider than the rear double door opening of my van.
I had a small hand saw in a case still on my belt having used it for cutting buckthorn earlier in the day. So, I used it to cut the wooden box framework in half so I could fold it over. I also folded the mattress in half and used the discarded garden hose as a rope to tie it shut. I opened the back doors of the van, folded down the back seat, covered it with a small tarp, and managed to struggle the two bed items in on top of the folded-down seat. Oh, yes, including the water soaked five pillows and dust cloth/cover from the underside of the mattress support frame.
I then put the buckets of trash, a still intact garbage bag, and the tire on the floor inside the back doors of the van and the AWARE bag inside the side doors. Closed all the doors... and, right then two deputy sheriff cars pulled into the lot!! One stopped in front of my van, the other pulled up beside me. No escaping that blockade!
Apparently, someone had driven by and reported to the sheriff that some creep was dumping stuff INTO the ravine! Well, it didn't take the deputies very long to figure differently, as my van was full and the ravine was empty of trash. They looked! I was dirty and sweaty from head to toe: I even showed them the red welt on my side which I had not yet checked on myself. If I had been unloading INTO the ravine in broad daylight, it seems I should have been about finished by the time they would have arrived! I mentioned the earlier Sierra Club service trip with John Vontalge so they said since this was a county park area maybe I could contact him about a dumping site for the mattress. But, of course, that was after I asked THEM where I could dump a mattress free after all my efforts! The officers didn't volunteer to give me a police escort to the landfill. :)
But TWO sheriff's cars??!!! They needed back-up, I guess.
PS: On Sunday, I sorted the Pohlman Prairie episode trash. I put out three big bags of trash for pick-up Monday morning including the pillows and dust cloth and upholstery from the mattress support frame. I cleaned 22 recyclable plastic bottles and aluminum cans and put them into our blue plastic BFI county recycling bin - so they are on their way for recycling. 4 additional glass bottles were recycled later. 43 nickel-return soft drink and beer cans and bottles, including Fleischman's Royal Whiskey and Captain Morgan Original Spiced Rum, were rinsed out and washed and taken in for "redemption."
I kept some of the trash as "evidence" because inside the one large still intact garbage bag was a Sears credit card receipt with a name and address and inside a smaller bag was a similar receipt with a different name and address. A phone bill report had yet a different name but no address. There was also a rabies vaccination dog tag with ID number on a discarded dog collar. The Conservation Officers MAY be able to locate those residents and apply a little pressure... as is sometimes done with general trash left in dumpsters and elsewhere in county parks.
PPS: I did take the evidence to the Swiss Valley Dubuque County Conservation Office and follow-up on those names WAS conducted. I took the mattress to the land-fill. Bob Walton and other rangers who happened to be at the office that day were impressed that someone would actually report such "dumping" activity, and then that the sheriff's department would actually respond and so promptly. Must have been a slow day on the crime-fighting front.
After leaving our Sierra Club Heritage Trail Buckthorn/Trash Removal Outing Saturday between John Deere Road and Rexsteel around noon, I went to the Pohlman Prairie parking lot on US 52 and IA Rt. 3 north of Dubuque. I intended to hike up to the top to check on the possibility of an additional service trip up there that John Vontalge, the park ranger with us on the trail, mentioned may be needed. But, first, for lunch, I drank a Cherry-Lime, IBC Soda as I went through my "Gates of the Arctic" photo albums adding a few notes and clarifications here and there for some of the photos.
As I was already a bit tired from the earlier work, I decided to then just leave to go play with grandkids, but I HAD noticed some trash lying around the parting area as I pulled in. So, after already having backed up the van to leave, I swung it around parallel to the deep gully positioning the van's side doors facing the gully, back of van toward the trail, and the front facing the exit to the highway. Using a big Project AWARE river clean-up reusable trash bag, I collected the nearby trash, but then I happened to look down into the deep gully and saw a big mess of dumped stuff: hubcap, tire, bags of trash ripped open with cans and bottles strewn around, used disposable diapers (always pleasant), a garden hose, three big plastic buckets, underwear, a double-bed coil spring mattress and its accompanying wood-framed upholstery covered mattress support that the mattress would rest on, etc, etc.
Well, it was only around 1:30 by then, so I decided to pick up the loose trash on the slope, at least, and went down that steep slippery slope (leaves had been dumped there too so the slope was covered with rotting leaves and the ground beneath them was still frozen in places). I took the AWARE bag and filled it, then filled the three discarded buckets after moving a big rock off one, and hauled all that and one still intact garbage bag up the slope... took about three or four slip-slidin' trips. I also went back down for the tire and garden hose. Then, still a glutton for punishment, I flip-flopped the mattress up the slope (it was down about 1/2 - 2/3 of the way twisted against a tree), dropping it on my head once when I slipped onto my stomach and it tumbled back down onto me.
And THEN, there was that upholstered mattress support frame with nice looking wood (firewood, at least?) serving as the framework. It is difficult to leave a job not yet finished!! :-/. But, that last item had tumbled WAY to the bottom of the ravine among big boulders and fallen tree trunks and limbs near the entrance into the cement culvert that goes beneath Highways 3 and 52. Upon inspection, it seemed fairly light, however, so I began dragging it up the slope through the maze of limb and boulder obstacles. It got caught on a steel post ripping the cover because I was dragging it upside down like a depressed sled or toboggan with the open framework up so IT would not catch on rocks, small trees, and such along the way. I managed to kicked that post out of the way without losing the mattress frame back down the slope. Then I saw a solid steel rod sticking up in my path toward an opening in the trees wide enough to drag the frame through. I had to go around it as it was anchored firmly - a good hand and foot hold! But, as I maneuvered the mattress and my feet to use the rod as a foot hold for my right foot, my left foot slipped and my right side just below the rib cage landed directly onto the end of the rod. I was thinking: "Man found impaled on rod in gully with bedspring mattress support frame box still clutched in hand." But, MY superb muscular frame :) was able to bounce off with only a red welt.
I eventually got the mattress frame to the top and past some trees, with me quite dirty and sweaty. I had taken a few photos but was getting short on film.
So, NOW, how do I get all that stuff into the van to haul away? The mattress and frame were wider than the rear double door opening of my van.
I had a small hand saw in a case still on my belt having used it for cutting buckthorn earlier in the day. So, I used it to cut the wooden box framework in half so I could fold it over. I also folded the mattress in half and used the discarded garden hose as a rope to tie it shut. I opened the back doors of the van, folded down the back seat, covered it with a small tarp, and managed to struggle the two bed items in on top of the folded-down seat. Oh, yes, including the water soaked five pillows and dust cloth/cover from the underside of the mattress support frame.
I then put the buckets of trash, a still intact garbage bag, and the tire on the floor inside the back doors of the van and the AWARE bag inside the side doors. Closed all the doors... and, right then two deputy sheriff cars pulled into the lot!! One stopped in front of my van, the other pulled up beside me. No escaping that blockade!
Apparently, someone had driven by and reported to the sheriff that some creep was dumping stuff INTO the ravine! Well, it didn't take the deputies very long to figure differently, as my van was full and the ravine was empty of trash. They looked! I was dirty and sweaty from head to toe: I even showed them the red welt on my side which I had not yet checked on myself. If I had been unloading INTO the ravine in broad daylight, it seems I should have been about finished by the time they would have arrived! I mentioned the earlier Sierra Club service trip with John Vontalge so they said since this was a county park area maybe I could contact him about a dumping site for the mattress. But, of course, that was after I asked THEM where I could dump a mattress free after all my efforts! The officers didn't volunteer to give me a police escort to the landfill. :)
But TWO sheriff's cars??!!! They needed back-up, I guess.
PS: On Sunday, I sorted the Pohlman Prairie episode trash. I put out three big bags of trash for pick-up Monday morning including the pillows and dust cloth and upholstery from the mattress support frame. I cleaned 22 recyclable plastic bottles and aluminum cans and put them into our blue plastic BFI county recycling bin - so they are on their way for recycling. 4 additional glass bottles were recycled later. 43 nickel-return soft drink and beer cans and bottles, including Fleischman's Royal Whiskey and Captain Morgan Original Spiced Rum, were rinsed out and washed and taken in for "redemption."
I kept some of the trash as "evidence" because inside the one large still intact garbage bag was a Sears credit card receipt with a name and address and inside a smaller bag was a similar receipt with a different name and address. A phone bill report had yet a different name but no address. There was also a rabies vaccination dog tag with ID number on a discarded dog collar. The Conservation Officers MAY be able to locate those residents and apply a little pressure... as is sometimes done with general trash left in dumpsters and elsewhere in county parks.
PPS: I did take the evidence to the Swiss Valley Dubuque County Conservation Office and follow-up on those names WAS conducted. I took the mattress to the land-fill. Bob Walton and other rangers who happened to be at the office that day were impressed that someone would actually report such "dumping" activity, and then that the sheriff's department would actually respond and so promptly. Must have been a slow day on the crime-fighting front.