Skip to main content

Hello, Old Friend: Meadowdale Beach Park Revisited

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 as before, we would nevertheless be hesitant to say that our faith in humanity is restored. Sure, ten is probably an order of magnitude less than what we found some two odd months ago, but ten is also ten more than zero. Therefore, we recommend that the domestication of dogs be abolished so that their fecal matter may never find its way onto trails.

Other than the bags of dog poop, and the two water bottles, we didn't really find much else. Only Disney Princess gummies come to mind. The car battery, however, made a cameo this time as well—sporting its signature look and style. Overall, the trail was surprisingly cleaner than our expectations, or rather people are less trashy than our expectations. While ideally we'd have liked to see no trash, an accumulation of less than twenty items over the course of two months at a popular spot is rather passable.

We hope that you continue to follow us in the next hike!

Click here for more photos from this hike!  

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Carkeek Park: A Must-See for Seattleites

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...

In for a Loop: McCollum Park Forest Loop

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...

On Human Consumption and Forest Litter: A Walk in the Meadowdale Beach Park

When we first arrived at the scene, we did not expect to find nearly as much litter strewn about the trailhead as we had originally believed. Though, to be fair, this was also our first excursion, and thus we did not really know what to expect in the first place. Yet, in spite of our naiveté, we marched onwards down the length of the trail—trash bags and grabbers in hand—hoping to restore order and cleanliness to the woods that had since been tainted by human corruption. Thus, when the minute hand struck half-past nine, we embarked on our valiant journey through the local trail: the Meadowdale Beach Park. Of course, this is merely an embellishment of our activities. At the core of our efforts, we were simply picking up trash along and around the trail and maintaining elevated heart rates. However, we were truly shocked by the amount of litter, both human and animal, that we were able to gather during our hike. I myself remember encountering so many empty plastic water bottles along the...