Since my initial cleanup of the areas around my campsite here in the Gila NF of NM, I sure enough found even more trash scattered around the nearby roads and trails, the weirdest being an old shoe tied to and dangling from a tree branch - seen above - which I found while collecting firewood one morning...
In total I only found another grocery bag full, compared to the 3 previous bags the week before.
I think I got most of the litter in this area now, but having noticed some scattered trash at the forest road turnoff from the highway, I decided to do a little cleanup in that area. Turns out there was a lot more than I initially noticed, so after getting a bag so full it was almost overflowing I would have to return another day to finish...
So I returned yesterday on December 22, this time with several bags and plenty of time. I found everything from beer cans and bottles, to napkins, to water bottles, and so much fast food litter like styrofoam cups and containers and empty bags and ketchup packets and the like.
An example of the scattered litter before:
And after, looking a little better...
I got the the bulk of it, but ran out of bags so missed a little bit right along the highway. But it was a good day, getting 3 more bags full and a large plastic scrap.
Hopefully with the entrance area to the NF looking cleaner now rather than a trash dump, it will discourage people from littering so much in the future...
Then this morning, time to take it all into town and get rid of it all. Thankfully, the Silver City Welcome Center has a large dumpster, so I was able to get rid of it there.
In total, 5 bags of trash, a large plastic scrap and a rusty old car part of some sort! Probably the end of my cleaning Up this area, but there will surely be more to do as I move on to other areas in the country... Until then, merry Christmas to all!
