WEST BETHEL — A small band of volunteers cleaned the banks and islands of the Androscoggin in the pouring rain this week.

Garin Martin led the group that included Barbara Martin and Stacy Day, both of Bethel, and Brenda VanDecker, of Otisfield.  Doug Schneider, of Texas and Mike Errington of Florida, both work campers, chauffeured the crew in a van to Newt Landing in West Bethel. The four headed east in a canoe and two kayaks, finishing three and a half hours later at Bethel Outdoor Adventure.

In West Bethel, they found a bicycle, a red high-heeled shoe, glass, car tires, plastic and metal. Garin Martin said some of the glass he had earlier found were Squibb’s medicine bottles from the 1930’s. “It’s not necessarily new trash but it’s something a flood might have uncovered,” he said.

Before they began and after life jackets and paddles were distributed, Martin gave them a safety training. If you end up in the water, he said, it’s “nose and toes to the sky.”  Feet down river, that way if you bang into something you hit it feet first, added Schneider.

“Avoid sticks and rocks while we are in the boats. Keep our shoes on at all times. Avoid poison ivy and ticks. Darker water means deeper water… if we fill some trash bags, we don’t want to overflow canoes or kayaks. If we fill all 100 trash bags we can leave them on one of the islands and come back and get them. We’re not trying to be heroes here we’re just trying to make it nicer,” said Garin Martin.

Erin Martin, co-owner of Bethel Outdoor Adventure and Garin’s wife, said they filled a tractor full of trash and hope to do another river trip clean-up at the end of the season.

Copy the Story Link