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Let’s get down and dirty.
Saturday, April 16th, 2011
Breakfast: 8:00 a.m.
Clean-Up: 9:00 a.m. to noon (parking coordinates above)
Cleaning Location: N38 39.093 W121 10.930
It's time to join with our fellow cachers around the country and
clean up our neighborhoods. We are doing this in order to
participate in the local Creek Week Clean-Up Day. Creek Week is
organized every year by the Sacramento Urban Creeks Council.
Similar to previous years, I am the Creek Week coordinator for
the Folsom area. From 2005 to 2008 RCGDS cleaned up Gold Creek
under the Orangevale Avenue bridge. It was a very difficult
location and due to various challenges it would not have been
cleaned if there wasn’t a group like RCDGS. RCGDS is like a
SWAT team (Special Weapons and Tactics) for difficult to clean
locations. As it turns out, I have a location that needs a special
group again this year.
As you know, there are a lot of very nice trails in Folsom and
this allows a number of very enjoyable caches to be hidden. There
is another trail in the planning stages that will connect the trail
by Lake Natoma (near Willow Creek) and the trail that runs behind
Dos Coyotes. I think it will be a very nice trail and will even
have a bridge across Willow Creek at the location shown below.
Unfortunately the proposed route of the trail goes through a
spot that was used as a dumping area 30+ years ago. The Folsom
Senior Trails Planner asked me if I knew of a group that could
clean the area up. I told him that I know one group that can handle
it.
The biggest challenge is poison oak. Poison oak is growing
around some of the old tires. If you are allergic to poison oak, I
think it best to skip this event. Dodging the poison oak will be
very difficult and I imagine in the next couple weeks the poison
oak will grow even larger.
The coordinates for the parking location and the clean-up
location are above. Park at Dos Coyotes and walk down the shoulder
of Folsom Blvd to the clean-up location. The clean-up is from 9:00
a.m to noon. The clean-up area starts behind this gate which is
visible from Folsom Blvd. The entire trail route does not need to
be cleaned, only the old dump area beyond this gate. Or in other
words, no one has to pick their way through poison oak down to Lake
Natomas looking for trash.
The coordinates for our pre-cleanup breakfast rendezvous
is:
N38 xx.xxx
W121 xx.xxx
(If anyone wants to plan a breakfast, post a note and I’ll
update the webpage.)
Trash bags will be provided. Another advantage of being a part
of the Creek Week Clean-up is that we can pile the trash bags and
shopping carts and other large items in the pull out spot about 30
feet from the street and the City will pick it up on Monday. Please
put the pile at least 30 feet from the street so the garbage truck
can pull safely off the street and load the pile of garbage into
the garbage truck.
I won’t be joining you for breakfast, but I will make sure
a logbook and trash bags are available. Here are some photos from
the site.
Rules: To log as a find, show up. sign in, and clean from 9 to
noon. You will also need to sign the Creek Week sign-in sheet
(using a real name).
T-Shirts: If you sign-up in advance on this web page and include
your t-shirt size, you will get a Creek Week t-shirt.
The clean-up in Folsom happens at the same time as the
City’s Trail Days. There will be a variety of Trail Days
activities at Lew Howard Park and the new Nature Center. Creek Week
clean-up participants can attend the City sponsored Trail Days BBQ
held at noon.
For those of you interested, there is a county-wide Creek Week
celebration from noon to 2:00 at Carmichael Park at 5750 Grant
Avenue. Enjoy a hot dog picnic, Earth-friendly exhibits and
interactive displays. You can even enter your clean-up finds in the
junk and gunk contest.
Additional Info about the 2011 Creek Week Schedule: For various
reasons, the Creek Clean-Up date varies in the greater Sacramento
area. Here is the schedule:
April 9th: American River Parkway
April 16th: Sacramento County, Folsom, and Elk Grove
Checklist (From Creek Council – I know these will be
obvious to geocachers.)
Comfortable, washable clothes
Long pants and long sleeves
Hat and sunscreen
Gloves (work or gardening type)
Shoes that can get wet and muddy
Waterproof boots (optional)
Grabbing tool (optional) (Home Depot usually has these for around
$20)
Strategy for dealing with poison oak
All children must be with a responsible adult. There can be
hidden hazards in the debris, plus water and slippery stream banks
can be hazards. Car traffic is also a hazard at this creek. This
creek looks tough for small children. If you bring a child, your
most important job is to supervise and keep them safe. Collecting
trash is secondary for adults in charge of children. Thank you for
making it possible for them to have this experience.
Here are the links to the previous three years if you want to
look at the photos that were posted (or just to take a quick trip
down memory lane):
http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=c552ba59-cfc5-40f3-b04e-bef7c67a408d
http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=be02c9da-85f6-41a6-8bc6-268c6482c6a3
http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=5c21e39c-e8d5-4f57-90cb-342fac74f776
Before and After pictures encouraged and appreciated.