Rowan County Big Sweep

The "Flat Creek Gang" was treated to a visit from "Mighty Kayak Dog"


You couldn't have had a more perfect day for Rowan county's "Big Sweep". Participants met at Dan Nicholas Park. Mike Lambert and Bob Pendergrass of Dan Nicholas Park welcomed the volunteers as they arrived. Mike was the coordinator for Big Sweep and gave us assigned areas we could go to. Since I was familiar with the "River Road Area" along Tuckertown Reservoir, I elected to go there.





Somehow I became the default "sweep leader" of what I dubbed as our "Flat Creek Gang".(the name being derived from the "Flat Creek Access Area" off River Road we were assigned). I was only the leader because I was the only one who knew the location of our destination. I don't believe it had do with any leadership skills, other than my sense of direction on how to get there, so others could follow me in their cars.





We had a lot of good people helping and everyone seemed to know what to do. The group made my job easy and it even looked like I knew what I was doing once I got there. All that was required of me was to act the part of a leader for a few hours. I even left our troops alone for a few minutes to see if they could function on their own. I was able to pull this challenge off by helping shuttle some kayakers I befriended at the Flat Creek access area. Would I see a mutiny when I returned? The lesson I learned when I returned was, a leader really isn't required when you have a good group of workers. I had 16 "good ones" who didn't didn't need me other than lead them to the Big Sweep site.


Once we got to our destination we broke up into groups of 4. This allowed us to cover more area a lot faster, including an access area on the Davidson County side of the Tuckertown Reservoir. Our "Flat Creek Gang" decided it had no boundaries, I think they all were inspired by "Mighty Kayak Dog" who hails from the Kernersville area. We learned their are no boundaries from "Mighty Kayak Dog", who kayaks waters all over the world. "Trash is Trash" no matter where you find it. Our new group adapted this philosophy and learned to work outside the box. No one gave it a second thought as to what county we were in. Our goal was to help clean up, not county lines.

Most of our group was new to Big Sweep and that included me. We were provided with plenty of work gloves, trash bags and even a tee shirt. Mike Lambert, this year's Big Sweep director, had suggested people bring "tools". I had no idea what kind of tools to bring, so I grabbed an assortment before I left home. For future reference, a "garden hoe" is a wonderful tool!!! A pitch fork, shovel and potato rake(if tool end is nailed on to stay in place) also are good tools to bring. You learn very quickly what works and doesn't work when picking up trash. I would highly recommend rubber boots or waders for wearing in the mud in the future. Charlie was the only one in our group dressed appropriately for the task at hand. He's only 5, but he was ready and raring to go. Just check out his photos in the slide show below.

Our finds included a lot of plastic bottles, small propane canisters, bait boxes, fishing line, tires, carpet, Styrofoam cooler chest lids, reflectors, glass bottles and tire rims. The strangest find of all was a "chicken foot" with a nail through it, I don't even want to guess what that was about.

We all found it very disturbing that people wouldn't even walk 10 feet to dispose of their waste in a nearby trash can. There needs to be a return deposit of 5 cents on each plastic bottle or the litter problem with plastic bottles will never be resolved. You don't find many aluminum cans because of they are worth about 3 cents a can at the recycling center.

The "Flat Creek Gang" did a wonderful job and had fun doing so in the process. I hope all 17 will return the 3rd week in September next year. It will be fun watching Charlie grow up. Let hope he makes this an annual event in his life. I look forward to seeing everyone next year or sooner if they decide to paddle with HRL Paddlers. My friends know I invited almost anyone I meet on or near water to go kayaking with our group. I handed out plenty of HRL Paddlers cards which have phone contact numbers and web address.

Listen to some good music while you watch the slide show, click forward until you find a song you like.