Spring is here! Along with the budding flowers, and warm rains, comes an urge to clean. For some that means going through the garage and tidying up, or doing a thorough wash of all the house windows. If you are a geocacher, it means going to a Cache In Trash Out (CITO) event. And what better place to hold a CITO than one of our wonderful County Parks. So grab your gloves and trash picker, it's time to make this park spotless! And since we're getting together to make the park clean, I thought it would be a great time to hold a Spring BBQ/Potluck. I'll bring charcoal, hot-dogs and fixins to kick things off, and encourage anyone coming to also bring some food so we can have a true feast. Come out, pick up some trash, and then relax and swap CITO stories over some good food. Who knows, you may even earn a Souvenir for doing so. I'm also planning a silver lining prize hunt and prizes. Details to follow.
WHEN: 4 PM - 7 PM April 16th, 2016
WHERE: Melton Hill Park Pavillion.
WHO: Everyone welcome, but please post your Will Attend (and include how many in your group) so we have an idea of how many folks will be there.
CITO DETAILS
For the CITO I would like to send teams out on all of the trails in the park, and along the shoreline as well. The Winter Rains and high flood waters have washed lots of trash down the river, and the shorelines will probably hold the most trash. Hopefully we can make a dent in this flotsam and jetsam. Come prepared to do some walking. I recommend bringing gloves, long pants, bug spray and sun screen. If it is wet out, wet weather gear as well. If you have a trash grabber, bring that too, they're really good for reaching that hard to get trash in the brambles.
I will bring trash bags, and Knoxville County Parks has agreed to help us haul out the trash. But keep in mind we'll still need to carry the bags back out to the main road for pick up. And don't forget to enjoy the area while you are here. There should be good wildflowers and birding, and there are also a number of caches to found throughout the park. The CITO will start a 4:00pm and go until 5:00 pm.
There are 5 geocaches in the park already and one geocache on the nearby Williams Bend Island. If folks are willing to bring canoe/kayaks, I think it would be awesome to send teams out by water to pick up trash along the waters edge, or even do some clean up on the island. It would also be great to allow people to potentially find the island cache. I don't have a boat myself though... just saying... it would be awesome if you bring yours.
BBQ/Potluck Details
The BBQ/Potluck will start at ~5:30 pm at the Pavilion. I will bring hot-dogs and accouterments. If you're planning on staying for the food, please post what you will be bringing in your Will Attend log. After the potluck I'll be awarding prizes. There will be a number of different ways you can win prizes. I haven't quite figured out the details for how to award the prizes, but it will most likely be tied to trash pick-up activities. I also mentioned a silver lining...What is this silver lining I keep dropping hints about? You'll have to show up to find out.
