Yesterday [rowing]
May. 2nd, 2021 11:54 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rebeccmeisterYesterday was utterly exhausting.
In the morning, the club's juniors program had a scrimmage up on the Mohawk River. That meant that coach Y couldn't coach the morning masters practice. We asked another coach if he could step in, but then he hit up against other scheduling pressures and couldn't make it, either. So I did the necessary. I know my teammates were grateful.
Then I came home, got warmed up, and headed back out again for the 10th annual Riverkeeper Sweep.
I figured I'd kayak out to tackle sites along the Rensselaer shore, since it seemed like there was a good number of people helping out along the bike path on the Albany side.
A number of people found a spot to slip under the fence and work on the enormous amounts of litter from the freeway that separates Albany from the river. The sign was one of their finds:
Motor vehicles are damaging in more ways than one.
From the other side of the river, we get a different view of the train bridge:
I like how there's one long vine holding onto the bottom of this fallen-down tree:
Three bags full of trash was about what I could manage, stamina-wise and load-wise:
That was a lot of bend-and-snap.
(The organizer kindly sent me these last two photos)
I had so many Thoughts while picking up the flotsam and jetsam. I can't tell you how many little pieces of styrofoam and how many beverage containers I picked up. I was reminded of that cleanup ages ago in college on the Malden River where all we could do was skim off the top layer of trash. Thankfully a huge number of caring people have continued to work on the Malden and it is transformed from what it looked like when Tufts first started rowing there. A part of me always feels like a one-day effort to pick up trash is so small compared to all of the forces that send pollution into the Hudson River and so many other bodies of water. And yet it's important to keep getting out there, whether as part of a public effort or something done quietly day in and day out.
Not a ton of fun finds, but I did find one sparkly pink slip-on sandal and a suit jacket (not pictured).
I also found a number of golfball-sized balls composed of some unknown substance. They were strange enough that I collected two inside of a glove to bring back and investigate further. But after I took the two photos of them I got grossed out and threw them away.
My best guess is that they are some sort of "fatberg" substance. I was thinking they could also have been clay but I don't know if clay behaves in this fashion. I didn't check their buoyancy, so I'm just not sure. But this section of the Hudson River still experiences combined sewer overflows, and I did pick up multiple plastic tampon applicators. It could also easily be some byproduct of an industrial process from a bygone era. One of those things where you both want to know what it is and kind of don't want to know what it is.
There was also a Ride Against Racism scheduled for Saturday along the bike path. Originally I had told my Bicycling students that I'd meet up with them at the Corning Preserve Boat Ramp for company if they wanted, for completing their bike ride homework assignment. But no students appeared. Instead, one of my colleagues happened by!
We posed for a photo op but then I just headed home because I was so exhausted from the long week.
In the morning, the club's juniors program had a scrimmage up on the Mohawk River. That meant that coach Y couldn't coach the morning masters practice. We asked another coach if he could step in, but then he hit up against other scheduling pressures and couldn't make it, either. So I did the necessary. I know my teammates were grateful.
Then I came home, got warmed up, and headed back out again for the 10th annual Riverkeeper Sweep.
I figured I'd kayak out to tackle sites along the Rensselaer shore, since it seemed like there was a good number of people helping out along the bike path on the Albany side.
A number of people found a spot to slip under the fence and work on the enormous amounts of litter from the freeway that separates Albany from the river. The sign was one of their finds:
Motor vehicles are damaging in more ways than one.
From the other side of the river, we get a different view of the train bridge:
I like how there's one long vine holding onto the bottom of this fallen-down tree:
Three bags full of trash was about what I could manage, stamina-wise and load-wise:
That was a lot of bend-and-snap.
(The organizer kindly sent me these last two photos)
I had so many Thoughts while picking up the flotsam and jetsam. I can't tell you how many little pieces of styrofoam and how many beverage containers I picked up. I was reminded of that cleanup ages ago in college on the Malden River where all we could do was skim off the top layer of trash. Thankfully a huge number of caring people have continued to work on the Malden and it is transformed from what it looked like when Tufts first started rowing there. A part of me always feels like a one-day effort to pick up trash is so small compared to all of the forces that send pollution into the Hudson River and so many other bodies of water. And yet it's important to keep getting out there, whether as part of a public effort or something done quietly day in and day out.
Not a ton of fun finds, but I did find one sparkly pink slip-on sandal and a suit jacket (not pictured).
I also found a number of golfball-sized balls composed of some unknown substance. They were strange enough that I collected two inside of a glove to bring back and investigate further. But after I took the two photos of them I got grossed out and threw them away.
My best guess is that they are some sort of "fatberg" substance. I was thinking they could also have been clay but I don't know if clay behaves in this fashion. I didn't check their buoyancy, so I'm just not sure. But this section of the Hudson River still experiences combined sewer overflows, and I did pick up multiple plastic tampon applicators. It could also easily be some byproduct of an industrial process from a bygone era. One of those things where you both want to know what it is and kind of don't want to know what it is.
There was also a Ride Against Racism scheduled for Saturday along the bike path. Originally I had told my Bicycling students that I'd meet up with them at the Corning Preserve Boat Ramp for company if they wanted, for completing their bike ride homework assignment. But no students appeared. Instead, one of my colleagues happened by!
We posed for a photo op but then I just headed home because I was so exhausted from the long week.
no subject
Date: 2021-05-02 04:23 pm (UTC)There's a motorway running through the area beneath the Wrekin and Ercall forests which gives the same problems. City tourists think the forests are a combination of public toilet and dump then they wonder why we are not all that welcoming!
They'd never have got permission to build that road these days!
no subject
Date: 2021-05-02 07:03 pm (UTC)Taller fences nearer the road make better neighbors. :)
I can't tell you how many little pieces of styrofoam and how many beverage containers I picked up.
Yeah, I keep wondering what to do about disposable cups and bottles, since they seem a very large part of the litter.
no subject
Date: 2021-05-02 08:07 pm (UTC)I have to wonder whether the bottle deposit here actually translates into fewer bottles as litter or not.
no subject
Date: 2021-05-02 08:15 pm (UTC)