{"id":1778,"date":"2014-06-13T18:24:43","date_gmt":"2014-06-14T01:24:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sbbch.org\/?p=1778"},"modified":"2025-04-26T16:31:30","modified_gmt":"2025-04-26T22:31:30","slug":"national-trails-day-2014-steck-park-trash-pick-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sbbch.org\/?p=1778","title":{"rendered":"National Trails Day 2014 – Steck Park Trash Pick Up"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The<\/a>

The gang picking up trash<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

National Trails Day 2014<\/p>\n

What: Trash pickup<\/p>\n

Where:\u00a0 Steck Park to Crazy Lady Gate<\/p>\n

When: June 7th<\/sup> \u2013 National Trails Day 10:30 AM \u2013 completion<\/p>\n

Potluck at my place after the project<\/p>\n

Latex gloves = highly recommended<\/p>\n

BYOB (bring your own bags)<\/p>\n

\u00a0 View more pictures<\/a><\/p>\n

This was our second year spending National Trails day picking up trash along the Snake River from Steck Park to the red gate \u2013 or as I now call it: \u201cCrazy Lady Gate.\u201d\u00a0 It would be hard to top last year\u2019s adventure and frankly, that would be perfectly fine with me. If you would like to know why – follow this link to last years story of “The Crazy Lady of Steck Park”<\/a><\/p>\n

Janine, Lou Ann and Nancy trailer-pooled to my house Saturday morning. I had spotted Rob\u2019s trailer heading for the park at 8:00 AM while on the ditch setting my irrigation water. He was either real excited to start this project or he miscalculated the traveling time. Either way, he took advantage of his early arrival by napping.<\/p>\n

The girls and I were a little late in leaving my place.\u00a0 A cool breeze billowed through the open windows \u2013 the fridge jammed full of delectable food temped all to skip the project and head straight into the pot-luck. Surely we could come up with some excuse as to why we didn\u2019t show up on the river. Conscious got the better of us, however, and the girls followed me to the park on a road made of washboards and dust.<\/p>\n

There was a slight failure in communication at the trail-head. Rob and Bob parked at the old Dutchmen\u2019s corrals on the hill before the boat-dock. I figured since we weren\u2019t camping- I\u2018d park at the boat-dock to avoid the cattle guard.\u00a0 Janine parked somewhere in the middle for the sake of democracy. I think she might be running for office in the near future.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s about 5 miles from the boat-dock to Crazy Lady Gate. The sun was high over-head and hot. Hotter than last year at this time for sure or maybe it was the long sleeve shirt I wore. I still had a few spots of poison ivy on my forearms that flare up when exposed to the sun. Whichever it was \u2013 I was crankier than Lou Ann\u2019s palomino mare, Brandi.<\/p>\n

Bob, Rob and Nancy walked most of the five miles to Crazy Lady Gate. Lou, Janine and I rode into coves before dismounting to pick up trash. This year\u2019s winning trash items were plastic water bottles, \u00a0bait containers and used toilet paper (hence the highly recommended latex glove).<\/p>\n

Stinking catfish carcasses \u2013 cans of stale Keystone doubling as spittoons and the ever popular streams of toilet paper were about all this germ-a-phobe could handle for one hot, poison ivy covered day.\u00a0 \u201cThis is just stupid. Whose idea was this anyway? This is a dumb project. \u00a0Littering should be a hanging offence right up there with horse thieving.\u201d If the others had known what a bad mood I was in, they would have pinned a red ribbon to the back of my pants as a warning like they do horses that kick. I felt like kicking something!<\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard to stay in a bad mood for long with Janine and Lou for company. \u201cHey Laurie, your hat matches Lou Ann\u2019s shirt,\u201d Said Janine. \u201cIt does, and my hat matches Janine\u2019s shirt!\u201d Said Lou Ann. \u201cHey\u2026 and my hat matches your shirt, Laurie.\u201d Janine says. \u201cI know, let\u2019s all trade hat\u2019s and swap horses and see how long it takes the rest of them to notice!\u201d Seriously\u2026next ride \u2013 we are doing it.<\/p>\n

We stopped to chase a herd of cattle before turning into the next cove. Correction, we would never chase those cows (in case there are any ranchers reading this). We merely moved them to the opposite side of the road from the cove so they didn\u2019t come after me and kill me as soon as I dismounted. I\u2019m telling you \u2013 it can happen. Actually, Janine and Kiger moved the cows. Lou and I hung back and watched from afar. Both of our horses understand the imminent danger lurking within a bovine herd.<\/p>\n

\"Janine<\/a>

Janine moving cows<\/p><\/div>\n

We somehow picked up Bob in the second to last cove. Nancy and Rob had gone on ahead to the last cove at Crazy Lady Gate. \u00a0Lou and I rode on to meet Rob and Nancy while Bob and Janine turned back to spare Kigers\u2019 hooves. The road is five miles of sharp rock that can cause even a shod horse to gimp a little.<\/p>\n

Rob and Nancy had taken care of Crazy Lady Cove by the time Lou and I got there. We rode back toward the park, picking up Janine and Bob on the way. Rob said he would let the park host know where we had left the garbage bags. Last year, the camp hosts were grateful that we had spent the day picking up trash and happily went back after the bags. This year\u2019s camp host was not at all impressed. He let Rob know that it was not part of his host duties and under no circumstances was he taking his four-wheeler out of official park boundaries. Funny, he looked<\/em> like he could use the exercise. I\u2019d go after the garbage later that evening.<\/p>\n

We made it back to my place just in time to watch California Chrome almost become the first horse in 36 years to win the Triple Crown\u2026almost. I sympathized with owner Steve Coburn\u2019s emotional outburst. A Triple Crown winner would have been a huge shot in the arm for a sport that has lost popularity over the last 40 years.<\/p>\n

After everyone left, I hooked my small utility trailer to my four-wheeler and Shade and I drove the 25 miles to Crazy Lazy gate. The trailer bounced and rattled over every wash-board and pot-hole on the planet. Fishermen and campers stopped to stare: \u201cNothing to see here folks \u2013 move along\u2026move along.\u201d<\/p>\n

Several times the jarring bounced the back rail off the trailer and I had to go back for it. One such time I looked back and a group of cows had gathered around it as it lay in the dirt. I suppose they were curious. A big momma cow pawed and gave it a rough nudge. \u201cHey \u2013 I need that \u2026.SHOOO!\u201d Not one of them cows \u201cSHOOO\u2019d\u201d an inch. Now what? I had to have that back rail or all the garbage would bounce out before I got home. \u00a0\u201cShade \u2013 get them cows out of here!\u201d Shade lunged for the cows. Most of them moved. The big momma cow ducked her head and chased Shade back toward the four-wheeler. Here she comes, shaking her head with fire and smoke billowing out of her nostrils. You are on your own dog \u2013 I jumped on the Honda and sped up the hill as Shade clamored onto the seat behind me. Momma cow gave up the chase and meandered back to her mob. Shade and I warily coasted back down the hill to retrieve the rail.<\/p>\n

\"Shade<\/a>

Shade on her Four-Wheeler<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

The trailer wasn\u2019t as bouncy or noisy with the weight of the trash bags in it but that didn\u2019t stop the fishermen and campers from staring as we rambled by the various campgrounds.\u00a0 I secretly hoped I\u2019d meet the camp host when I drove through the park. I had concocted a story to tell him about how, while picking up the bags, I found a duffle bag full of drug money. I sure was glad he wasn\u2019t allowed to take his four-wheeler out of the camp or he would have found it instead!<\/p>\n

Shade and I made it home before dark \u2013 a good thing since the trailer doesn\u2019t have lights. I parked the stinking pile of trash far from my front door where it would sit until the dump opened on Tuesday. I counted the number of bags we\u2019d picked up; 13 bags \u2013 less than half of what we picked up last year. Maybe that was a good thing \u2013 maybe we made a dent in it last year or people were littering less.<\/p>\n

A contest was in order. There would be a major REWARD for the first person to guess the correct number of large black plastic trash bags I\u2019d put in my trailer. Luckily for me \u2013 nobody won the contest\u2026I had no idea what the major REWARD would have been. However, if it wouldn\u2019t have been major \u2013 it most certainly would have been unique. I\u2019m thinking a box of latex gloves and a quart of hand sanitizer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  National Trails Day 2014 What: Trash pickup Where:\u00a0 Steck Park to Crazy Lady Gate When: June 7th \u2013 National Trails Day 10:30 AM \u2013 completion Potluck at my place after the project Latex gloves = highly recommended BYOB (bring your own bags) \u00a0 View more pictures This was our second year spending National Trails […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[40,39,38,37],"class_list":["post-1778","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-work-parties-and-projects","tag-backcountry-horseman","tag-horses","tag-litter","tag-steck-park"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sbbch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1778","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sbbch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sbbch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sbbch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sbbch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1778"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/sbbch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1778\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1786,"href":"https:\/\/sbbch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1778\/revisions\/1786"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sbbch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sbbch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sbbch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}