On July 8, we cleaned the Pine River from Dobson to Peterson Bridge. The Dobson access is presently under construction and there is no parking there, so we parked at Peterson and we, our canoes and gear were shuttled back to Dobson by Pine River Paddlesports Center (owned by club members Mark and Val Miltner). Paddling were Roseanne Bowman, Henry Eckhardt, Norm Fred, Lois Goldstein, John Heiam, Marlene and Marv Puska, and Judy and Fred Swartz. (Editor's note: Norm and Roseanne paddled a tandem canoe graciously loaned to us by PRPC.)
The day started cold and foggy but soon turned sunny and warm. The river was so beautiful, it was hard to keep your mind on looking for garbage! But we did, and managed to collect quite a bit, including a wonderful sword, along with the usual flip flops, beer cans and pop and water bottles.
The campers from Lake Ann Camp were on the river in their inflatable rafts, and bounced their way back and forth across the river and, on occasion, down the river as well. Despite their youth, they were a very polite group. One girl had disregarded the instructions to wear shoes that would stay on her feet. She came in flip flops, so they were duct taped to her feet!
Some of us learned that we should never rely on someone else to carry our lunch for us. Three of us arrived at the lunch spot long before our lunches. We also discovered who gets very irritable when hungry!
This was a lovely and very successful trip, and left us saying that the Pine was, perhaps, our favorite river.
Written by Fred and Judy
