Picking Litter can be EXHAUSTing!

This weekend is ShAFF (Sheffield Adventure Film Festival) and luckily there is glorious weather for the outdoor activities. Trash Free Trails are on a mission to reduce single-use pollution (aka; litter!) on our trails and wild places by 75% by 2025 and (re)connect people with nature through purposeful adventure.

Today a few cycling groups were meeting them at Parkwood Springs to clean up the area prior to some racing on the fun bike trails. We were asked to offer a running alternative to any who might not want to cycle. It ended up just me and Annie running, whilst we met Lan at the task.

The skies were beautiful azure blue, but it was still windy on top of the hill. We nearly lost the gazebo - it caught a gust and did a few back flips before it was secured! After waiting for the remaining cyclists (somehow we managed to beat them from the Workstation), and a group photo, we got picking.

Although it looked quite clean initially, we still managed about 5 or 6 very full bags in an hour or so. Along the way, we marveled at the view across the city from the viewpoint, lamented the burnt out and overgrown old ski slope and inspected the new compost bins and hibernaculum created by fellow Goodgymmers in the forest garden last week.

At the end, Lan and I returned to find Annie sat down with a coffee, exclaiming that litter picking is "so exhausting", whilst gesturing towards an exhaust pipe that had been found that she'd claiming for an "art project" at the allotment. Annie and Lan tried out trail bikes, whilst I enjoyed a little sit down before the run back and the people from Trash Free Trails emptied and sorted the litter as they make an audit of what is picked (rather then than me!).