If Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary ask you to join them on a hike in the mountains, or ultra running legends Jim Walmsley and Courtney Dauwalter invite you for a run, or Jack Nicklaus and Tom Watson ask you to help make up a foursome, you should know you’ll be in for one of the best experiences and something special. The same holds true when waterway steward Deborah Dodd asks you to join her for a wee trash mop-up at Riverdale. Her mop-ups are quite the thing, but this River City Waterway Alliance cleanup at Riverdale was really getting the goat.  

On Tuesday evening, nine intrepid volunteers pitched in to tidy some areas which had been heavily cleaned by RCWA before. But if you follow these RCWA tales you know that much trash is hidden on the American River Parkway. And it’s what lies beneath that is really shocking.

We wanted to clear some barbed wire, continue to chip away at a mound of buried trash, and get the small bits of trash leftover after County Parks cleared out some big stuff. But Debbie pointed out a buried tarp to Joe and mentioned that it needed some badgering. The crew dug in, and Lisa and Rudy joined Joe. Some twenty minutes later, the tarp was unearthed. Debbie, Margarita, Mirna, and Sharon covered the perimeter of the former camp tackling the bushes. Meanwhile, Mark and Rick went after some barbed wire but quickly discovered that heavier tools would be needed. A good chunk of wire was removed, but more remains…

After creating a respectable pile of trash for County Parks to pickup, the crew adjourned to Camp Pollock for some beverages. No sooner had we settled down, then the goats decided to bust through their protective fencing and head in the direction of Northgate Boulevard, their Great Pyrenees guard dog leading the way. 

Well, RCWA volunteers are good at doing what needs to be done and instantly became goat wranglers! Debbie made for Northgate to block the goats from accessing the road. Others dashed around like Border Collies until the actual Border Collie showed up. The goats were successfully corralled back into their enclosure after munching their way around Riverdale for a bit.

You never know what you’ll get when you go to a RCWA cleanup…but it will never be boring.

(google the Monty Hall Problem for insight into the title of this piece)