[chexmix]

Howdy, so the site is asking me to post more so I figured a little trail preservation posting would do nicely

UC4x4 joined up with FOE to help the Eldorado National Forest service cleanup up some trash in the forest and demo an unused building the will be repurposed on the Rubicon.


Here's the recap:

What a fantastic weekend. We could not have asked for better weather or a better time.

...

We woke up at 7:15, had some quick breakfast, threw our shit in the trucks and head for Grizzly Flats to meet with the people from Friends of El Dorado. We got there around 9, and were greeted shortly thereafter by Jerry from FOE. We laid out a game plan and got to work. First up was the removal of an abandoned Jeep Cherokee. We would find out later that the Jeep was stolen over 2 years ago and had never been removed due to a lack of resources.

While Dave hooked up and towed the Jeep off the trail for a tow company to pick up, the rest of us started cleaning trash. Unfortunately several sections of the trail had literally become dumping grounds, and virtually everything that had been left behind became a target for over zealous hunters.

At the bottom of this pile was the melted, bent, and bullet holed remains of an aluminum camper trailer. There was also a lawnmower, some small appliances, and piles of trash.

As we were cleaning these spots we noticed a ravine that had a couple dozen tires in it. As we started pulling out tires we realized the mess didn’t stop there. There was a broken TV, a home stereo, fenders, a hood and other car parts and straight up garbage like bottles and cans.

 

[chexmix]

more...

As the day went on we literally filled this entire dumpster.

Luckily a local church was having a free trash collection day so we started bringing garbage to them.

While some of us were digging trash out of this ravine, other UC4x4 members were removing another abandoned vehicle from the trail. This time the victim was a late 80s Toyota pick up that was thoroughly stripped.

Rich dragged the truck off the trail and some members of FOE used a utility trailer to haul the carcass back to flat ground so it could be picked up with the Jeep.

We were also accompanied by Matt who had his Toyota pick up and a utility trailer on trash duty all day. We filled the bed of the truck and the trailer at least 3 times each with trash.

We spent a lot of time cleaning a particular area were someone had dumped literally thousands of pages of newspaper. Most of it was complete unopened, unread daily newspapers that had been wet, dried and turned into a fantastic mess for us to dig out from under the pine needles.

With our clean up at Grizzly Flats complete we braked for some lunch and enjoyed the beauty of nature on a warm summer day in the forest. Then we hit the road heading for Owens camp to meet the rest of the people from FOE.

 

[chexmix]

...

We arrived at Owens to find a demolition crew hard at work tearing down an old Forest Service building. We put our muscles to work helping to remove the remains of the old building.

With a long day of work behind us, we rested and pot lucked with the FOE. The food was fantastic and friends were quickly made.

 

[chexmix]

...

Here’s my opinion of the food, and our success throughout the day conveyed via a hand signal (note that neither the FOE nor UC4x4 endorses, suggests, or otherwise supports the consumption of alcoholic beverages.)

And here’s someone’s dog

In all I would say the day was a great success. It was a beautiful day and we certainly accomplished a lot. I know everyone at UC4x4 was very happy to be working with the forest service and FOE, and I hope we can all meet again sometime soon to do some more good for the forest, and help keep public lands open to public use.

 

[Kyle]

Well we all appreciate your help in preserving our trails:cheers:

 

[drakan1908]

Great job on the cleanup :thumbsup:

 

[lornix]

It's great to see other groups in other countries doing trail cleanups! We do a fair amount of it around here too. It is a shame that we have to clean up after idiots who dump their garbage and stolen cars, but it seems the only way to maintain access to the back country is to clean up after the idiots.

Good on you guys :cheers:

 

[JeepGodXJ]

Nice Job! Looks great! Thanks for helping keep our trails open. :thumbsup:

 

[TeamCherokee06]

Outstanding Job,I can't believe how people treat our country!

 

[TrueBlueXJ]

Excellent work. Keepin' the sport, and the Earth, alive.

 

[ZackXJ]

great job its terrible how people could just dump stuff off there! Thanks for keeping the trails open and helping the enviroment.