How 'bout Another CITO?

This morning, we had an appointment with the Stevenson Creek to give it a cleanup, geocacher-style, since one of the reasons many of us love geocaching is because we get to experience the beauty of Nature. In order to help preserve this beauty, one of the functions geocachers perform is something called CITO (Cache In, Trash Out). This is where we tend to pick up trash and things marring the landscape on the way into and out of a geocaching area. Sometimes, if the job is big we call a geo-meeting in order to clean up an area that has seen better days.

The cleanup team, with the day's haul.

In the beginning.... We had quite a few kayaks and canoes show up.

One of the reasons we do this. So we can have pictures of critters like this.

Cleaning the mud flats before the tide comes in. We yanked 2 plastic lawn chairs, a wooden captain's chair, a wire mesh crab trap and about a dozen golfballs from out of the muck. Much of this stuff was sticking up and wrecking the view of the waterline and we could see it from the canoe/kayak launching area.

We were using our canoe as something of a garbage barge and resupply ship (new bags, bottles of water and cleanup tools), as it could carry a bunch of stuff back to the collection site for each trip. This was the smallest load we hauled back. At one point, we were paddling back on our knees because there was no leg room. I think that was when we were dubbed, "Team Tippy".

While we were cleaning up around this bridge, two bicylists asked us what were doing, then decided to help out with the cleanup. That was great!

My trusty geocacher-sidekick, "First Mate" Cusmith. Well, I guess I forgot to mention that I was at the CITO without the rest of the family...

You know, it figures that Captain Biggins would find a beer keg during the cleanup.

So, we had to call for 'Keg Transport' assistance.

The rep from the "Keep Our County And Parks Clean" department named "Team Tippy" the MVPs of the event for all of the laps we made in the canoe, bringing in the stuff everybody else had stuffed into bags and placed on the shore for us to pick up. Cusmith here was even awarded a brand new geocoin for his efforts. Way to go!

Yeah, we pulled a bunch of junk out of the area. The stuff in the purple cooler is actually a 10-speed bike somebody chopped up and threw off of the bridge. I guess you can say we found a 'Box-O-Bike'

And here we are, getting all of this stuff thrown into the back of the truck.

And the sad part about this is that even though we were here for about 4 hours and really hauled some stuff out of the water and the shoreline, we only put a dent in the amount of junk that could have been cleaned out of here. At least the shoreline looks better and the local agencies that sponsored this event were very pleased with how much we got done in such a short amount of time.