Clean-Up Day -- Success!

 

A chilly gray morning in Seattle gave way, as it so often does, to brilliant blue skies and bright sunshine at the pass, perfect weather for tackling the grossness that people leave behind along the trails and roads.  It was a smaller group of Kongsbergers than in previous years -- evidently that chicken barbecue is a big draw! -- so many thanks to each one of you who sacrificed your Saturday and Sunday mornings in the interests of cleaning up our snow-park.  Another big thank you goes to the Momentum team and some of the parents, who showed up in force and provided an extra boost of muscle power.  Together, we tackled all the trails, the upper and lower parking lots and the road between, and the freeway on- and off-ramps and shoulders -- even, on Sunday, the median!  A special thank you to the brave soul who dodged the traffic to make that extra effort to find trash.

We found the usual treasure chest of ski parts, paper trash, broken bits of freeway signs, leaking oil cans (the Momentum kids double-bagged those), beer/soda/water bottles and cans, pee bottles, styrofoam chunks, cigarette packs, fast food wrappers, wood pallets, face masks (a new development this year), tires and other car parts (seriously, did a car explode on the side of the freeway?) and plastic plastic plastic, of every size and shape and color.  We even found, weirdest of all, a display of food, zucchini and mushrooms and peppers, artfully laid out on the ground and quite rotten.  Um, interesting.  Or something.

 But best of all, this year we found a jackpot of chains, seven full sets altogether, which we collected for Nick to pick up later; he'll clean off the rust and re-use them, which is a whole lot better than sending them to the landfill.  Pulling those bad boys along the freeway shoulder and back up the on-ramp and up the hill is one hard workout all on its own!

It was pretty disappointing not to be able to all gather together afterward for chicken and potluck and beers and conversation and catching up with each other, but maybe, if we're lucky and this pandemic calms down, we'll be able to do it for the fall trail work party.  Fingers crossed!

Thank you, every one of you who came -- it was great to see you and your efforts are very appreciated!