The Fall Pick Up
It turned out to be a beautiful day to be outside doing
anything. Seven members of the Onondaga
Ski Club met in Tully at the junction of routes 81 and 80 to enjoy one of the
great fall days we sometimes get. Our
task…the second half of our bi-annual commitment to the community, the
Adopt-A-Highway program we have been doing for quite a number of years now.
With orange safety vests, yellow hard hats, and a bunch of large
plastic trash bags each, Mary Jo Di Nuzzo, Marian Jerose, Remo Bianco, Neville
Sachs and brother Fred along with Marilyn and Michael McCabe headed out. Some went south on Route 81, some went
north. Walking along the sides plus the
median, we found many items that had somehow “slipped-from-the-grasp” of fellow
humans, plus lots and lots of parts from motor vehicles of all sorts. It was hard to identify what particular
vehicle they may have come from, except for one.
Imagine this scene; You’re riding along Route 81 heading
north on your Harley-Davidson just cruising along around 65-70 without a care
in the world. You finally get to the
exit of choice and start to slow down.
Since Harleys have manual transmissions, you use your left foot to
downshift to a lower gear as the speed drops.
Here’s your problem…your foot fails to engage the shift lever because
it’s not there…it fell off in Tully. As
an old cycle rider myself, I can imagine this rider had some real problems
navigating city streets. (Note: Ken K, do you want this spare lever?)
I heard from another garbologist that a high-end mountain
bike pedal was also found, and some huge “thing” that one could purchase at an
adult “toy” store, likely by/or for a female.
Interesting things can be found out there people…
We all agreed the amount of trash available for pick up has
diminished the last few years, but there is always something. Beer and soda cans/bottles used to be big,
cigarette butts and empty packs too.
Not so much now which is good for a lot of reasons. What does appear to be taking the top spot
now is the plastic striker portion of safety flares along with the flare’s wire
stand. This area is “accident-valley”,
and the troopers must set out a whole lot over the course of a year. No problems with that, but it would be
better for the environment if the flare manufacturer came up with something
bio-degradable for the striker, and some other design/material for the flares
stand too (and drivers have less accidents as well…do you suppose that “toy”
figured in one?).
OK, we picked up what was there and moved on to the next
activity…eating lunch. Five of us went
to the local pizza shop, Pizza and More in the village. Someone called it Pizza Amour, but whatever
it’s called, the pizza was good. Our
bellies filled, everyone headed out to enjoy the rest of the beautiful
day. Three of us headed up to Cedar Bay
in DeWitt to do a little kayaking on one of the nation’s first “super-highways”
(from 1825), the original Clinton’s Ditch called the Erie Canal. Paddling a few miles to the east, we turned
around just shy of Green Lakes. On the
way back, we decided to pick up some of the trash floating on the water, sort
of like what we did earlier but on land in Tully. It became quite clear that we needed bigger boats to do the full
job, but we loaded up our “garbage scows” as best we could and brought the
trash back to Cedar Bay for proper disposal (actually this writer brought it
home for regular trash pick-up day).
The photo shows much of the stuff we removed from this earlier-century
main corridor of transportation.
There is still much to be removed, and what we would like to
do next year is to have an Adopt-A-Canal program much like our highway
version…a bunch of kayaks or canoes or rowboats (best) to start at one end
(DeWitt) and head to the Chittenango Canal Museum. It would be great to take along some saws to cut up and take out
much of the deadfall (strainers) too.
What would really be great is for the State group in charge of the Barge
Canal to realize how wonderful it would be to clean up and open this waterway
for paddlers just as they have for the runners/walkers/bicycle riders that
enjoy the original mule path that parallels the original Erie Canal. Maybe other volunteers are out there. From DeWitt all the way to New London where
it terminates into the Barge Canal…just a trickle now. That would be neat.
Michael McCabe
