Come help clean up one of the trashier areas of Golden Valley,
the Western Avenue Marsh. To get a sense of the amount of trash in
the area, read some of the logs on
this cache. The terrain rating on this cache is no joke.
It's a tough area to hike through, there are probably a lot of
ticks, and a lot of the trash includes broken glass. I don't
recommend bringing young kids to this event.
To get cachers to help out with this worthwhile project, I plan to
offer a few incentives. First, I will provide some puzzle
solutions. At least a few of these will not have been part of the
Puzzle Packet. Second, I
have hidden a few caches and plan to offer some pre-publication
FTFs. After we pick up trash, we will go on an FTF run. Third, we
will socialize after the event.
I was able to get some help from the City of Golden Valley.
Specifically, they offered to provide trash bags and haul away the
trash once we've collected it in one location. In exchange for
getting this help from the city, you will asked to be sign a
liability waiver at the beginning of the event, so that they know
you won't sue them if you twist your ankle or get Lyme's Disease.
This should be a minimal annoyance, and you have the legal
profession to blame. :-) But, in all seriousness, thank you to
Sandy, Rick, and Al from the City of Golden Valley for their
help.
Schedule of Events
- 9:45 AM - 10:00 AM: Meet at parking lot at posted coordinates
in Brookview Park
- 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM: Pick up trash in marsh to east of posted
coordinates
- 11:00 AM - 11:30 AM: Grab pre-publication FTFs
- 11:30 AM beyond: Enjoy food and beverage and socialize at
nearby establishment (maybe Doolittle's)
Things You Might Want To Bring
- Bug spray
- Wheelbarrow for big trash
- Change of clothes for socializing afterwards
- Sturdy work gloves and boots -- There is broken glass in the
area.
There is a lot of trash in this marsh. There may be so much, in
fact, that there may be a subsequent CITO event to finish the job.
Stay tuned.
Announcement Posted on June 15: So here's the deal: I've
managed to squeeze six caches into a fairly small geographic area,
and I have pretty good reason to believe they'll all be published.
So I should be able to offer six (SIX!) caches for the
pre-publication FTF binge after we pick up trash. And they're not
my usual signpost hides either. (By the way, I will disallow any
attempts to brute force these caches, since the people who are good
enough to pick up trash are the ones who deserve the FTFs.)
I've walked into the marsh twice in the last couple weeks, most
recently this past Saturday. The good news is that there isn't much
standing water in the area, so that shouldn't be a problem. The bad
news is that the grass is really high in places, and it's actually
hard to identify where the trash is at times. I've included several
waypoints on the cache page where there is some trash (lots of
broken glass). I walked the area with a nearby resident who said
there was a place with lots of big trash that would be ideal to
pick up. Unfortunately, the area was so overgrown that we weren't
able to find that spot. But, hopefully, the other 5-6 areas should
be sufficient for our needs. She did say that it might be possible
to find the area with a metal detector, so if anybody has one of
those to bring, that might be fun to try out. This event would
probably have been more effective a couple months ago when the
grass wasn't so high, but I wasn't able to get my stuff together in
time, so oh well. I still think we'll be able to get a fair amount
of trash.
I'm not sure how durable the bags the city provides will be, and
there is a lot of broken glass in the area. So if anybody has
sturdier canvas bags that they don't mind putting trash into, those
might be good to have on hand, lest the city-provided bags are
prone to ripping.
I'll try to pick up bottled water from Costco beforehand. See
you on Saturday!