Additional water didn’t make cleanup of island trail easier

To paraphrase John Denver, some days are diamonds, some aren’t. Last Saturday didn’t get close to the diamond category. It was closer to the coal version what with all that rain.

Several of us had headed to South Addison to help in the annual fall cleanup with the Maine Island Trail Association. The orders for the day were that we’d go rain or shine except if it was windy or foggy or if the seas were high. We had a moderate wind, a mild chop, light fog, and plenty of rain that came in waves. Just when you thought it was going to stop, along came another one.

I had Friday off so I headed to Milbridge to visit my folks and spend the night. It also made the trip over to South Addison the next morning a lot easier than having to get up really early and leave from Bangor. It turned out to be a good thing, because it took me a little longer than I thought to find the launch ramp following the set of directions I’d received. It turned out there’s a new sign that points you to the town landing. All you need do is follow your instincts and throw the directions in the back seat.

A steady rain accompanied me on my morning commute and did its best to dampen my spirits and clothing as I changed into foul-weather gear. I figured I’d keep the elements at bay with my paddling jacket and pants.

We were traveling in open motorboats, so seeking shelter was out of the question. I came to rely heavily on the floppy brim of my Sitka Sombrero to keep the needle-like drops off the side of my face as we bounced over the chop on our way between islands.

My skipper for the day was Henri Gignoux of Steuben, a longtime MITA member who knows well the Down East islands on the trail. Phil Perkins of Norridgewock, a new MITA member, joined us on his first island cleanup. We were to head for Stevens, The Sands, Daniels, and Green islands and hit a small mainland campsite as well as to look for remnants of summer’s use or trash and debris that had blown up on these islands. We would pick up the clutter and pack it out. The other boat in our mini-flotilla would head for Little Water, Halifax, Ram, Indian River, and Cross and Sparrow islands.

Volunteers for MITA try to hit most (if not all) of the 135 islands and mainland sites on the 325-mile-long trail spring and fall. Throughout the summer there are island “adopters” who visit “their” islands, checking on wear and tear and spreading the word of stewardship and thoughtful use of these jewels to the folks who stop on them.

This year there are 50 publicly owned islands, 47 privately owned islands, and 28 mainland sites as well as an additional 10 islands in Canada. The numbers change slightly yearly because some islands get closed to visitors due to nesting birds and others are added to the trail by their owners.

Membership in MITA allows one to visit and in most cases camp for free on the islands on the trail. The public islands, of course, are open to anyone to visit. But the overall message, as stated in MITA’s mission statement, is to “establish a model of thoughtful use and volunteer stewardship for the Maine islands that will assure their conservation in a natural state while providing an exceptional recreational asset that is maintained and cared for by the people who use it.”

And while the message is getting out, not all folks who are out there on the waters are hearing it. Aside from the residue left by visitors who have not heard about Leave No Trace, there is the usual barrage of flotsam such as bleach bottles, rubber gloves, oil cans, and soda bottles that come drifting in from the sea. And then there’s an array of commercial fishing gear (mostly lobster pot buoys and pot warp that get severed by passing boats, plastic trap tags, bait bags, and claw elastics) and building materials such as timbers and planks.

I found a five-gallon bucket nearly full of oil that had drifted onto Stevens Island.

And then there’s the usual sampling of white foam pieces of coffee cups, cigarette butts, empty bottled water containers and Mountain Dew bottles, and deflated toy balloons with attached ribbons that get tangled around anything they touch. (I’ve got a small baggie full of them sent to me from a reader who spends a great deal of time paddling and camping on our islands. This person told me she gets extremely agitated every time she finds another one of them. Please say something to remind your readers, she said, that when they release balloons into the air, they eventually come down and trash the environment.)

Drew Wyman, MITA’s executive assistant, said that the 100 or so volunteers who participate in the cleanups sometimes report some strange items found on beaches – like a refrigerator or a couch. How about a message in a bottle thrown from the Scotia Prince with a dollar asking its finder to respond – minus the $1 someone else took before the MITA volunteer found it? And then there was the marble door knob….

We completed our rounds about lunchtime and headed back to the South Addison public landing with about six bags of trash and a couple of bent-up lobster traps – not a huge haul, but respectable. One of those we cleaned, a privately owned island, was just opened up to use by MITA members by its new owners last year. The first time it was cleaned by volunteers (last fall) it yielded a rounded, mounded boatfull. This year, aside from a couple of trashed lobster traps, there was only a bag or so of debris to remove. That is a good example of the effect of the annual spring and fall cleanups on the islands, and of the stewardship message MITA preaches.

Today marks the end of the State Planning Office’s annual Coastweek Coastal Cleanup, which is part of the annual International Coastal Cleanup. The planning office reported that last year 2,886 volunteers helped clean up 94 miles of Maine shoreline, collecting 77,349 items of debris that tipped the scales a t 25,178 pounds.

While there are no numbers yet on this year’s effort, the planning office said that last year volunteers picked up: 27,604 cigarette filters; 1,104 cigar tips; 899 tobacco packages or wrappers; 7,089 food wrappers; 2,815 utensils, plates, and cups; 8,702 bottles and cans; 2,411 bags; 172 six-pack holders, and 54 syringes.

Internationally last year some 450,000 volunteers cleaned 16,000 miles of oceans and waterways removing 7.5 million pounds of debris from shorelines around the globe, the planning office said.

This just in from Cheri Domina of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in East Orland: Runners and walkers are welcome to enjoy the ninth annual Great Pond Mountain Trail Run on Oct. 3, rain or shine. A 1.5-mile walk/run starts at 1 p.m., followed by the 5.5-mile main event at 1:30 p.m. The event starts and finishes at Craig Brook National Fish Hatchery’s Visitor Center on Hatchery Road. Trophies will be awarded in several categories. Registration is $5 for the short event, $8 for the main race. All proceeds will go to benefit the Great Pond Mountain Conservation Trust of Orland. For more information or to register, call John Hunt, DVM, at 469-0604 or e-mail jhhdvm@att.net.

From Karen Francoeur at Castine Kayak Adventures comes this reminder to paddlers who want to sharpen their skills or learn new ones: She’ll be running safety and skills clinics this fall in the Old Town High School pool. There’ll be rolling classes, self-rescue clinics (getting out then getting back in) as well as some open pool time to use as you see fit. Classes and clinics will be limited to just six people each.

Call her at 866-3506 for prices and times and be sure to ask about discounts if you provide your own equipment.

And Daniel Albert, owner of Farmingdale Kayak and Canoe Rentals, would like to invite the families of service men and women serving their country to come paddle for free.

Albert wrote, “I want to give an all-included free rental package to any family with a service member who is serving away from home. I have family and friends who have loved ones on active duty and I realized that the families, who are now single- or no-parent families, don’t do much in the form of recreation. Often money is short or they can’t manage to go on a kayaking or canoe trip.

“I want to offer this to the people and am asking for help on spreading the word. … This is all done at no profit to me and would actually be a loss, but since I got out of the Army in 1996, I want to do what I can to help with the war effort and support.”

You can reach Albert at Farmingdale Kayak and Canoe Rentals, 27 Northern Ave., Farmingdale 04344, or call him at 582-1916.

Jeff Strout can be reached at 990-8202 or by e-mail at jstrout@bangordailynews.net.