Charles River Watershed Cleanup

Yesterday was the yearly Charles River Watershed Cleanup Day. After meeting at the local Whole Foods, we went out to our designated location: a dirt road leading out to a dammed bit of the Charles.



You can see my friend Walt out there, just between the trees. He donned waders and bravely slogged out into the wetland to extract trash. Among the stuff he hauled out were a broken baseball batting practice device, part of a table, an entire sealed bag of garbage that someone else had dumped, and the ingredients of beer pong: beer bottles and ping-pong balls.



He also brought a turtle back to shore for Gabe to examine. A snapping turtle perhaps? Judging by the damage to its shell, the poor critter had led a rough life.



Kelly, Gabe and myself stuck to the shore. Of the three of us, Kelly did the most work. I bagged a measly half-bag in between keeping Gabe out of the poison ivy and ineffectively keeping the gnats from biting his neck. Gabe contributed a few sticks and leaves.



Walt and Gabe.



Here is Gabe scaling sand bags left over from the recent flooding. . .



. . .and playing with sticks.



And this is what we were cleaning up. Beautiful, isn't it?