Lakebed Cleanup While We Can! Trash or Treasure?

Chris and I ventured out on Monday, June 23rd for a solid 4 hour mud intensive cleanup around the receded lake. Since there is not a clue as to when the water will rise again, we have decided to seize the wonderful opportunity to gather decades and decades of revealed trash and TAR! Yes, there was a mess of tar down very close to the water. We can only hope that this was not dumped recently. Chris and I folded the tar over on itself several times to make it more manageable. The viscous black substance seized all the earth within reach even modling to our arms like pizza dough as we lifted.

We collected everything from ancient 'talking cameras' to boxer shorts abandoned by skinny dippers of the past. Chris and I concluded that the drink of choice back in the day must have been Pabst Blue Ribbon. Pabst barely beat out Coca-Cola as the most popular bottles/cans we found around the lake. There was also an old fence which may have marked low water levels of the past. The steel fence posts had rusted into a rubbery substance. There was also quite a variety of homemade anchors, the most interesting of which being a long piece of phone line strapped to an old brake drum with a leather belt. We also found a giant piece of auto glass, which had been broken in a couple places.

The most challenging obstacle to out cleanup was the black, all consuming, "quick-mud" that immediately surrounds the water. We used some scrap wood from old sunken boat hauls and tossed them ahead in lines to balance beam our way out to recover a rusty can, mucky bottle or shoe!. An incredible treasure that I have noticed among the waste left in the lake are these naturally forming terrariums! Some of the bottles have actually used the greenhouse effect of nurturing seedlings with no assistance from humans other than the act of littering. I have brought one home so far and plan to either drill some holes or score and break the top open to encourage further growth. So maybe the bottles aren't all bad, but the plants will definitely need a hand towards the next step of freedom.

We have also been saving all intact bottles which I am personally cleaning and recycling. I've recently picked up the hobby of home brewing and decided it would be neat to fill these lake bed bottles with my own carbonated beverage. There should be more pictures to come on this topic, and believe it or not I'm sure we will find even more spectacular treasures. I wish we had a camera for the tar and fishing rods we found.

Chris and I also stumbled upon an incredible wildlife encounter while trudging through the mud. There was a small pool with hundreds of salamanders dipping in and out of the lake. This seemed to be very out of character for salamanders to be so social and out in broad daylight! Whelp that's about all I can remember for now. When Chris gets back in I'm sure there will be more to share.

Toodles and talking cameras,
Greg

Dirty Dawg!!

This weekend, as we all know, was the big Dirty Dawg bike race weekend here at Mountain Lake. I was at marshal station 5 and had a great group coming through. Everyone was so psyched for the race and kicked butt coming up those hills. One guy asked me "so, this is the relay point where I pass my bike off to you & you finish for me, right??" :] Everyone did an awesome job & I was excited to be a part of it. After everyone was finished with the race, Kyle and I headed up to the horse barn to check out the post-race festivities. Everyone was in high spirits and having an awesome time. We cooked and provided concessions for everyone, and watched Greg's "Captain Insano" kid's challenge, which looked like a blast. We hung out and listened to everyone swap race stories for the next few hours. All in all, an awesome weekend!!

-Mallory

Hike around the lake

Hey everyone!
Last week I took a very diverse group on a hike down Indian Trail, around the lake - there were about 10 people ranging from 3 years to retired! They had a blast checking out the wildlife, and asked me a lot of questions about the trees which excited me - I love it when groups get engaged. The little guy, 3 years old, was fantastic - he kept everyone going, laughing, and having a great time. We stopped a few times to get great views of the lake and a couple people got some great shots with their cameras, and everyone ended happy and healthy. I had a great time with them!

Mallory

Hello,

Yesterday Greg and I discovered that there are some amazing rocks that you can boulder on the other side of the lake! To be safe we took an older mattress and covered it with a tarp to keep it from getting wet. This gave us the perfect thing to land on if we fell. We have also started scoping out three or four really good climbs that we could take people on. The rocks were pretty easy to clean with a stiff brush and were really great to hold on too! Also I picked up a book called Rock Climbing A Trailside Guide, hopefully this will help us to learn more about the rock and how to climb it. Bellow are some pictures of the supplies we used and the rocks were climbing!

Peace,

Chris

New River Sampler [May 25]

I know it's a little late, but here I am, after figuring out how to sign in to this thing, blogging about the New River Sampler trip Kyle and I took with a family on my first day, May 25. The family of 6 was a really fun outgoing group, and some had experience on a river while some did not. They picked partners and we put in and were on our way - they all had a blast on the small rapids, and about 15 minutes into our trip, one of the girls with less experience said "dad, do you still have that canoe?" and I felt (as corny as it may sound!) proud that they were having such a great time - the first time I got in a canoe I wasn't sure I was going to be too thrilled, but I instantly fell in love with it and I heard that same excitement in this group. It was a gorgeous day without a cloud in the sky, and by far the best first day of work I have ever had. I think the canoe trip set the stage for a great summer - both for Kyle and I, and for our guests.

-Mallory

May 29 Pictures

New River Sampler (May29)

On Thursday the 29th, Kyle and I took two families on a canoe trip down the New River. Both families had little experience but picked up the sport fast. It was a little difficult at first pairing up who should ride with who, but then we got it together and headed out. About 5 minutes on the water and we realized the last boat, which had a child and his mom, needed a guide. So in the middle of the river we "McGivered" Kyle out of the back of our boat and into the back of ours, while switched to the back of our boat with the little boy in the front. The ride down the river was very calm and everyone did a really good job of keeping together. The rapids were small but amused the kids. About 3/4's of the way down we stopped at Whitt-Riverbend Park, in Giles County for some lunch. We had the lunches prepared and boxed from Tangent Outfitters, who also provides us with the water equipment. Before we stopped for lunch we were trying to find a good place to dock the canoes and I happened to step into a mud hole that went up to my knees and promptly lost my brand new shoes I had just gotten that day, specifically so that they would stay on my feet! Needless to say I had to walk around the rocky riverbed the rest of the lunch and when we finished our trip. After lunch the float down the river is only about another 15 min so all in all we finished the trip in about 2 hours. Everyone really enjoyed themselves. Take a look at our pictures as well...

-ash