Despite rainy weather forecast in the afternoon, the day dawned brightly with lots of sun and good prospects for the removal of a lot of debris and logs caused by the recent heavy rainfall and high water levels. That didn't stop the FLG crew, though!
Ray and Gayle Jimison, Don and Nancy Ross, George Dalzell, and David and Lynn Leach met at 9am on the Pine Creek ramp to the right of the dam, complete with coffee, OJ, water, and donuts, all donated by Ingles.
Dock Floats
One of the many dock “floats” pulled out of the lake
George Dalzell and Ray Jimison on their jet skis and others continued to drag in large floats (eight in all) that were dutifully removed.
Most of these floats were heavily water logged and of great danger to boaters as they floated at or very near the water surface. Being black, they would have been very hard to see day or night before the boater hit them.
Don Ross’s strap, attached to the hitch on his truck, enabled us to yank them out of the water and deposit them along the road leading to Pine Creek Road where Duke will remove them.
How these behemoths detach themselves so easily from docks is anybody’s guess but we extracted 22 last year as well. Our team of garbage collectors reported that the 8 floats we removed this year represents only a few of those that are still out there so be careful folks!
Floating Logs & Other Detritus
Around 10 a.m., Terry Walsh along with Bill and Karen Hess from Glenshore arrived with a plethora of logs and debris. Mike and Carolyn Chabora with Bryan Phegley also came in with a full load.
Ron and Sheila Wilcox along with their daughter, Dawn Wantuch and her children Emma and Matthew brought in the longest log of the day. Matthew has been swimming and collecting lake debris for the last couple of days from his Grandparents’ home near Hurricane Creek.
David and Ray attached it to another large log that Ray had found floating in the channel and together they swam these logs to the left of the ramp and tied them off to the shore to prevent them from floating back into the lake.
We are especially thankful to Terry, Bill and Karen, as well as to Nancy Ross for making multiple trips to the take-out.
Left: Carolyn & Mike Chabora with Brian Phegley, bringing in dangerous floating and partially submerged logs; Right: Nancy Ross unloading debris at the take-out point.
Chris & Regina Hunter of Lakeshore Marina take the prize for most unusual object
Most Unusual Item
Chris and Regina Hunter (and Copper, their lovely little rescue dog) arrived with a grill and table from Ralph Andrews’ Park shore. They are the winners of the most unusual item award for 2018!
Right at the end of the day, Terry and Rebecca Wiler came in with a boatload to round out the successful four hours of collecting.
Our thanks to those who participated in the collection and to those who removed the debris and logs from the lake and to The TrashMan and Ingles for their contributions. We hope for a much larger turnout next year both from the FLG membership and from the general public and the fisher men and women who all benefit from a lake clear of floating logs, debris, fishing lures, cans, bottles and other detritus.