Sometime back around 1975 four of us friends ventured deep into the woods north of Millinocket, I think it was into Coffeelos Lake, in pursuit of brook trout. I remember the long, bumpy, muddy dirt road made the trip an adventure. We were testing the limits of two tiny Toyota two-wheel drive pickups as we pushed into the woods way past the place where the black top ended.

Looking back now I realize how dumb lucky we were not to have buried those little rust buckets up to the doors in primeval ooze.

We lucked out, though, and found a place to set up camp where others before us had, and we settled in for a day or so of fishing.

I have two distinct memories of that trip. One was that the fishing was mediocre to bad (I learned later that meatheads from the city had descended on the place and pretty much fished every living organism out).

The other is an image I can still see in my mind to this day. As I looked down through 10 to 12 feet of crystal clear water, there laying on the bottom was a beer can, discarded no doubt by the same meat fishermen who had cleaned out the fish population.

That can, the epitome of despoiled wilderness, formed a lasting disdain for others who would plow through our environment leaving in their wake a trail of trash and destruction.

Perhaps that’s why, years later, I’ve gone along with others who feel the same way to help clean up islands along our coast. At first it was out of curiosity, later because it felt good to do it.

But it’s also frustrating. You can scour the shoreline of an island one day in the fall and come back the next spring and wonder whether you’d been there before. Cigarette butts, foam cups, plastic drink bottles, bleach bottles and oil cans (I’ve even picked up two five-gallon pails full of used motor oil) are some of the most prevalent items. Then there’s a goodly portion of commercial fishing gear, mangled fish pens and wharf parts. I swear I could have built a nice vacation home with all the lumber I’ve seen over the years.

Every year when I see what volunteers at the Maine Island Trail Association drag off the islands during the spring and fall cleanups I’m amazed. One trip to the Canadian side of Passamaquoddy Bay with the New Brunswick Nature Conservancy produced a large dumpster full of trash from just a few islands!

Perhaps one of the more unusual finds in recent years was a mass of some 150 used tires that were chained together with high tensile chain. The mass had washed ashore on Inner Sands Island off South Addison. A friend, Dave Morrill, was among nine people who ventured out to the island Sept. 25 to attack the mass, cut it apart and bring it back to the mainland for recycling. The ugly pile had washed ashore about 10 years ago, and storms had pushed it up to the tree line on the island’s eastern shore.

It was a mess, Morrill told me. He had to use a cutting torch to break the chains.

I wish I could have gone along, but my broken ankle likely would have made me a liability. Besides, I didn’t get wind of the trip until it was over and done. But MITA’s Tom Franklin and Morrill filled me in.

“Inner Sand is a seabird nesting island and a part of the Maine Coastal Islands National Wildlife Refuge. The raft of tires, presumably once belonging to an offshore aquaculture operation or fishing vessel, had washed high up on the shoreline several years ago. The motivation to coordinate the cleanup effort came from MITA volunteers who regularly monitor the condition of nearby Sand Island, which is part of the Maine Island Trail. As [MITA Stewardship Manager Brian] Marcaurelle recalled, “They said to me, ‘It’d be nice if we could plan a work party to get those ugly tires off of that beautiful island.’ So that’s what we did!”

Franklin said staff members of the Maine Coastal Island National Wildlife Refuge partnered with MITA and Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife on this project, “as the derelict tires were not only unsightly but also diminished the natural character of the island. The refuge supplied staff help and a large, front-loading vessel to carry the tires to the mainland. MITA volunteers provided additional labor and helpful equipment, including a torch system used to cut through the thick metal chain.”

The high tensile chain would have defeated bolt cutters, Morrill said. As it was he said they had to cut the chain in some 25-30 places to free up the tires, which then had to be carried to the waterline to be loaded onto the Maine Coastal Islands National Wildlife Refuge boat and transported back to the public landing at South Addison. That took three trips, Morrill told me.

The Maine Coastal Program, which has been a strong ally in marine debris reduction efforts, helped MITA dispose of the tires, Franklin said in a press release. MCP arranged for dumpsters to be brought to the launch ramp and a recycler, Corcoran Environmental Services of Kennebunk, hauled the tires away.

“One objective of the coastal program is to foster partnerships along the coast to help us successfully achieve our goal of reducing debris from the marine environment,” Franklin quoted Theresa Torrent-Ellis, a senior planner with MCP. “This project fit perfectly with our mission and capped off a series of coastal cleanup efforts as part of Maine Coastweek,” he said.

The project also fit perfectly with MITA’s mission to preserve the character of Maine’s wild islands through volunteered time of its members and through partnerships with other coastal organizations. “With a paid staff of only six and more than 160 islands under our care, we really can’t afford to reinvent wheels and we don’t. Partnering with land trusts, Maine Coast Heritage Trust, Maine Audubon, Chewonki and many more is the only way we can care for the islands and continue to provide access to them for our members and the public,” said MITA’s Executive Director, Doug Welch in the same press release.

I applaud MITA and its volunteers and their efforts to try to stem the tide of crud washing up on our shores. It’s a valiant effort, but only a drop in the bucket when you consider there are thousands of islands and thousands of miles of shore line along our coast.

It would be nice it they had some help from everybody who uses the ocean as a playground and workplace. Pick up that plastic water or soda bottle and recycle it. Don’t flick that cigarette into the ocean or throw that foam cup overboard. If you are a commercial fisherman and find it necessary to use bleach out there to clean your traps, bring the empty bottle home. Ditto for those oil cans, those wide-mouth soda bottles you use to relieve yourself, and those ugly blue or orange rubber gloves – I know they don’t just fall overboard.

Adventure club seeks members

I heard from Peggy Markson the other day who said that the eastern Maine chapter of the Maine Outdoor Adventure Club wants to get the word out to new potential members about MOAC’s activities in this region of the state. People of all ages and abilities are invited to participate.

Each month a member or guest speaker does a presentation on a recent outdoor adventure – trip topics vary from Maine-based trips to those in faraway places, she said.

The next monthly meeting takes place at 6:30 p.m. on Oct. 30 at Epic Sports in downtown Bangor. The meeting will feature a presentation by George Elliot and Gail Downs on their recent adventures in Belgium while bicycling by day and traveling by barge at night.

In addition to trip reports, future meetings will include “hands on” presentations on topics such as ski waxing, preparing for your first winter camping trip and bicycle maintenance, Markson said.

MOAC activities take place statewide and members communicate via e-mail lists to announce volunteer organized trips and also spontaneous outdoor adventures. MOAC activities include hiking, water sports, biking, skiing, snowshoeing and everything from extreme sports such as ice climbing to gentler sports such as walking or birding.

Each month, Markson said, a new member hike is held in eastern Maine and each week members meet in Bangor’s City Forest for a brisk walk. A local series of progressive hikes for 2008 is also being discussed where beginner hikers may participate and progress from climbing small peaks to tackling a 4,000-foot mountain.

For more information about MOAC, visit www.moac.org or call Markson at 947-9906 (home), 973-3245 (work) or drop her an e-mail at oronopeg@earthlink.net