TrailsBro

We arrived back to the scene where it all began, now armed with the trash collecting skills of previous hikes. Being the cynics that we are, we of course expected the trail to once again be polluted with myriad bags of dog poop, water bottles, and other miscellaneous waste that wouldn't have otherwise been on the trail if society didn't suck. What we found—or rather didn't find—blew us away; there was actually not that much trash. Since we've already elucidated this spot before, we won't bore you with the same details.  A Mountain to Climb, a Hill of Trash This time, the beach was even nicer due to better weather; the same goes for the amount of trash—albeit not due to the weather because that's kind of not how things work. Rather than finding almost thirty water bottles on our excursion, we only happened to find two. None of them were even filled with pee! In addition to the water bottles, there were precisely ten bags of dog poop. While not nearly as many bags...

When we first arrived at McCollum Park, the northern terminus of the North Creek Trail, we were greeted by a pleasant sunny day with clear, open fields full of green grass. However, things started to look a lot more gloomy when we approached the trailhead. One of the first objects we found was a syringe lying on the grass, an ominous sign for what was to come. Then, we entered the first wooded section, and the amount of trash we uncovered grew exponentially. There were dozens of assorted bottles and bags in a very small section where the trailhead was still visible. Our endeavor was not assisted by the dense brush with thorns that we had to venture through to pick up the litter. And of course, there were a multitude of dog bags that added a distinct scent to our adventure. Bad Omen Our greatest find of this trash cleanup was an old Forever 21 bag that contained the materials necessary to grill. This peculiar discovery demotivated us even more, for the people who frequented this trail h...

Ah, Carkeek Park, next to the Carkeek Creek (actually named Piper's Creek, but that doesn't sound as cool), home to one of Seattle's more popular parks and trail systems. On one fine and sunny morning, TrailsBro and Co. headed here to pick up the trash that we all believed would be strewn along the trails. However, much to our surprise and pleasure, the amount of trash that we collected was limited to only two bags. It seems to be that Seattleites are more conscientious of their impact on the environment, or perhaps the higher population meant that there were already people that had collected garbage prior to us.  How to Deal with Needles One discarded item that some of our members found and that we are cautioning people to look out for is used needles. Seattle has a large homeless population and some of those people are known for being drug addicts. When you spot an unsheathed needle, never touch it, even if it is interfering the aesthetics of the surrounding nature. Handl...