So Much Garbage!

I haven't posted in a while...we've been pretty busy at the park! This weekend we had two groups. Cub Scouts stayed in our main group use area, and the Nevada Painted Horse Club stayed in our equestrian area. We also had a busy campground and some day use!

Yesterday I took out three truckloads of garbage (and got covered in "garbage juice")! One load from each group use area, and one from the campground! I'm hoping to be able to walk around today picking up litter and start cleaning sites again. They look really good when the tables and grills are cleaned, and the site is raked out.

I've been taking over the morning rounds and cleaning campsites because our Park Tech is out sick with a neurological condition (painful), and our Park Aid is painting a residence. One Park Aid is in med school so he only works one day a week right now--since school started. Three of our Park Aids are already gone for the season! This summer went by too fast...

Today I thought I was helping with a field trip just outside of Carson City, but it turns out that field trip is scheduled for October and not September! That will free up a lot of time and I can get some campsites cleaned. I'll also be able to get ready for my program at Dayton on Saturday. I was wondering how I was going to do that with two days of field trips coming up this week!

My next post will have some pictures, but I didn't have a lot of time this morning. I'm trying to work 10 hour days now, so in the morning, I'll have an hour to work on interpretation before everyone gets there. Soon there will only be two of us anyway, but it might work out better. It's worth a try!

Labor Day Weekend

We were pretty busy for Labor Day Weekend. The campground didn't fill up, but it was still pretty busy. On Sunday our Day Use Area was pretty full with people grilling, picnicking, and walking their dogs.

I worked in the fee booth Sunday and Monday mornings; Monday most people that came in just wanted to use the dump station!

I also walked through the campground all three days--Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, picking up litter and checking everything out. I found one fire that hadn't been put out all the way. The ashes were still hot, so I walked over and got a bucket of water for it.

Picking up litter. For some reason, this is one of my favorite things to do in the campground, and throughout the park. I like catching the small, hard-to-see litter like nut shells (they don't decompose in this desert environment), food scraps (same as nut shells), those little square plastic things that come on loaves of bread and packages of hamburger buns...things like that. I know visitors appreciate a clean campsite, just like I do when I go camping!

Most trash that I pick up is cigarette butts. I'm not sure why, but people tend to put all their garbage, including cigarette butts into the fire rings! It is better than leaving trash spread around the campsite and throughout the campground, but if you pay $15-$17 for a campsite, I would expect to find a garbage-free campfire ring! This is one thing that really bothers me when we go camping...

More cigarette butts...and yes, I do take the time to stand there and clean them all out of the fire rings! (Time consuming, but worth it!)

I also found several sites with used toilet paper (yup) around the perimeter of the site, and hidden back in the sagebrush. I did not take a picture of that....you're welcome.....