THE BAG THAT SHALL BE FORGOTTEN

I decided not to drive to the parkway this time but instead, take the train.  The weather wasn't too bad but something sinister was brewing. 

What was that delicious smell???
Sort of like...pancakes.  I'm not sure what it was exactly, but it was coming from the Blue Diamond factory.

How horrible...I'm allergic to tree nuts but live near the worlds largest tree nut processing company.  And today they smell like delicious pancakes.  It didn't help that I got there early and sat there...in a cloud of deliciousness.

Thanks immune system

Where we met.  Parkway was a little further up

Now this trail didn't seem that bad at first.  There were a lot of active camps but not a lot of trash.  In fact, most of it seemed like it was bits and pieces that just happened to blow into the area.  Many of the people living there had trash bags.  The exception was two abandoned camps which I will get to in just a minute.

I would have taken more pictures but I think I accidentally picked up my first I-wish-it-was-questionable-but-I'm-almost-positive-that-is-human-poop aka THE BAG THAT SHALL BE FORGOTTEN. 

and once you reach that point in the cleanup, you don't really want to touch anything else.  The question becomes "is this mud or leftover poop from those gloves I just threw out?"

We found the first abandoned camp near a...uhh..pond?  Hole?  Large puddle?  Not sure what exactly you'd call it but the poop gathering was still fresh in my mind and I just didn't want to touch my phone.  There also didn't seem like a safe way to get to this area.  Maybe it was somewhere else and got blown down there during the last big storm?

This part of the bike trail has a questionable fence.  Why is it questionable?  Glad you asked! Because it isn't really blocking anything.  It is just...there!  Granted, there is a train that runs close to that area but the fencing is closer to the tracks.  Makes sense as you don't want a bunch of people crossing.  However, this particular part of the fence wasn't near the railroad at all.  It almost looked as if it were to keep people away from the river.  Silly because there is a footbridge that connects this bike way to another one and underneath said bridge is an obvious way to get to the side of the river fenced off. 

Ok then.

The questionable fence was clean on the side the bike way was on but absolutely filthy on the other.  There was a gate but it was locked and the top had barbed wire.  Good thing my will to clean was greater than my will to listen to this stupid fence.  It was all a matter of finding the entrance which was a very large hole.  Win for me!  Ranger didn't see me enter but at that point, I didn't care (and they probably wouldn't have either.)  Besides, angels don't make history.  Filled up 3 of those large yard bags or whatever by myself.  Take that #trashtag!  Just kidding.  Please continue to clean up your areas.  It doesn't have to be a competition...unless you want it to be.

Where the tiny camp/extension was.

Anyway, when I came out of my hole, I saw one of the younger volunteers exhausted, looking as if she was about to collapse from fighting in a war all day.  Then, I found just about everyone else down there attempting to clear out an abandoned camp.  I cleaned up some other stuff first (possibly part of said camp, or a smaller camp.)  Why oh why do people bury those devil bags (which is now what I'm going to call reusable plastic bags.) They weren't just full of water, but sand too.  UGH.  Although I went fishing for some that were trapped in the river and they were much easier to pull up than single use bags I imagine.

It wasn't so bad besides a bag full of a real questionable item that soft like fat but the color of chicken.  What on Earth did I touch this time!?!  I'd like to think it was just weird chicken that maggots didn't get to yet.  Yeah...that is what it was.

Ok not that extreme but pretty similar, kind of.

Oh so that camp, right.  Somehow the campers got their tent on the side of a steep hill.  Like, I hope they went on to be professional mountain climbers because that is the only time I have ever seen a tent set up like that!

No way it fell down there.  Trees were blocking it and the tents were still upright.  Someone deliberately put them up there!  And honestly, the way the water was rising just a few weeks prior, it was probably an emergency.  The stuff I found at the small camp was probably their stuff that they didn't move in time.  The stuff we cleared together was probably stuff that fell from the camp above.  And the camp was probably vacated because of the crazy rising waters.  As the above pic shows, they were literally right on the water.  That part floods all the time hence why the bridge is so tall.  Hopefully they moved out in time!

About half just from that camp alone!

It is always nice when you have young, first timers, that get to clear out a camp.  The exhaustion on top of the success of having made a visible difference shows on their faces.

One thing did confuse me though. I had a lot of time to think which is exactly what I wanted to do to forget the touching of THE BAG THAT SHALL BE FORGOTTEN.  I don't like to dis schools especially ones that encourage various community engagement.  However, a lot of these schools are also college prep.  Nothing wrong with that.  I technically went to a college prep too.  However, one of the things my school (and my cousins' schools) all pushed was that college is the way you wanted to go so you could make money!  I mean they aren't wrong.  A neurosurgeon makes a hell of a lot more than a store manager.  However, isn't this just pushing capitalism?  Isn't the extreme amount of homelessness possibly a symptom of a capitalist society that is ruled by elites that don't care about their pawns?  After all, most jobs see us as expendables.  I remember working at Large Blue Store which frequently suggested that if we didn't want to work 35 hours a week without the possibility of full time, we could simply be...replaced.  Are we not just teaching these kids "if you don't go to college, this is where you will end up!" and that a lot of these house-less people deserve where they are??

And so it Begins....

American River under the Guy West Bridge

I didn't want to get out of bed this morning.  It was cold and my blankets were already warm.  I didn't help that my animals, also full of warmth, were snuggled up against me.  Alas, I arose from my bed, grumbling but excited to start off this year fresh.

Today’s service was for American River Parkway Foundation.  This amazing group helps keep the American River beautiful by supporting the preservation of the American River Parkway.  We met at the Cal Expo RV park to clean up a nearby stretch of the river.  Our group consisted of a handful of high school kids doing community service, and some wonderful seniors that had been doing this a while.  A couple of the seniors are mile stewards, volunteers that keep an eye out for an assigned mile along the river.  

Chloe and Vet Tech me
Circa 2012

One of the high school kids was from a different school and was sort of a co-leader.  He was doing his senior project on pollution.  Shout out to you, buddy!  I was terrified to present to my class of about 20 people and here you are leading a group of strangers!

My first satisfying moment was when I volunteered to hold the sharps container.  A sharps container is used to hold needles and such that we might encounter on the way.  The only requirement was if I had handled used needles before.  Of course I have!  The second, and last, time I dropped out of college, I was a vet tech student.  I am all too familiar with sharps containers for that reason.  

The American River Parkway is home to quite a few house-less people in the city.  I don’t judge for I have been in their shoes in one way or another.  We were first greeted by a dog guarding a tent.  It wasn’t barking or growling but had a defensive stance.  Good dog, protecting your family and such. 

One of the mile stewards happened to oversee the area we were cleaning and led a small group, me included, to an abandoned camp.  It was a mess but what can you expect?  A storm had come through a couple of days ago which made the trash difficult to pick up.  One of the volunteers found a bucket full of feces and water (thanks rain!)  It smelled awful, but I can thank my experience working as a vet tech for not being phased by it (as vet techs often find themselves covered in waste as well.)  

The site was shockingly full of books destroyed by the rain.  In fact, I think most of the waste consisted of books!  Whoever was here was a reader.  I unexpectedly became emotional.  Years ago, I had a good friend that struggled with mental issues and, eventually, drug abuse.  Last time I heard, she was homeless and abandoned her family.  What if this was her camp?  What if she was here?  What happened to whoever was here?  Why did they up and leave all their stuff?  Are they even still alive?  My heart ached for whoever used to call this place home.  How did they end up here? What can I do to help people not end up in the same situation?  

Another thing that got me thinking was all the multi-use plastic bags.  These are the only bags available in California since the ban on single use bags.  The whole thing seems confusing since some stores still carry single use bags!  What?!  Anyway, there were both single and multi-use bags at this camp.  The difference was that the single use bags were incredibly hard to pick up since they were starting to decompose.  The multi-use bags were still in perfect condition.  That is good…I guess.  Except that we switched to multi-use bags to help with pollution.  Is it really helping the pollution problem if the bags take even longer to break down than they did before?  Are multi-use bags possibly worse??  I could tell that the camp wasn’t abandoned that long ago.  There were Monopoly pieces from Safeway, which just started their game on the 6^th of this month.  

Today was a great day even though it remained cold.  The seniors really worked their butts off.  I hope I can be that active at 60 and 70!  We worked until we ran out of bags.  We agreed that we wish we could have cleaned the site 100%, but we’d have to settle for only 80%.  It’s better than nothing!