Week 2 of the Big Muddy Clean Sweep!

Jeff City Results, Race to the Dome and More~!

Week two of the Big Muddy Clean Sweep began with river trips with long time partners and sponsors Missouri Department of Conservation Stream Team staff and Missouri Department of Natural Resource employees to provide a unique place for discussion on the future of resource conservation while experiencing a pretty amazing natural resource in itself.  What better place to meet than on the Big Muddy which flows directly beneath the state capital and many of their offices?

 Meanwhile, the Big Muddy Clean Sweep barge crew continued to make arrangements for the "River Clean-up" barge to move upriver.  Finally, after a number of mishaps and missed opportunities, Hermann Sand & Gravel gave our barge a ride up to Hermann, and then to Jeff City with help from the guys at Capital Sand Co. & the Jeff City River Terminal.  The barge had finally arrived~!  

As things changed minute to minute, and day to day, we hastily made preparations to "move in" and ready the barge.  Big Muddy thanks to the barge team Jeff Barrow, Steve Schnarr, Racin' Dave Stevens, Jodi Pfefferkorn, Daniel Belshe and Anthony Pettit for getting things in order so we could quickly transition into our big clean-up event, the Jefferson City Missouri River Clean-up!

On Friday we began to set-up camp for our crew, organize gear for the clean-up and began scouting the river for clean-up sites to ferry the volunteers to. Our good friend Soda Popp (yes that's his real name!) rolled into Noren Access as other River Relief crew arrived to fry us up some local caught fish, potatoes and bean stew while we attempted to recover and refuel from the massive effort it had taken to get to that point! 

Thankfully the river had been kind to us all week, and blessed us with beautiful Fall weather in all its glory~!  In addition, the Noren Access (aka Wilson's Serenity Point) was looking better than ever thanks to one big hearted river rat, Joe Wilson.  Joe cares so much about providing a beautiful experience on the river, he even had a guy come out there to make the sandy beach smooth as silk.

Saturday morning over 140 volunteers gathered to clean-up the Missouri River in Jefferson City and christen our new trash barge with its first load on river trash on its 170 mile journey.  We had an amazing turnout.  An additional 25 volunteers worked a satellite site from the Mokane Access with Stream Team partner Mark Van Patten and Big Muddy Refuge partner Tim Haller.  The volunteers trickled in slowly, but we filled all 13 boats and sent them all out on the river!  Check out our website for the official results!  You can also acces all of our cool photos from the clean-up on our Flickr page!

A Big Muddy Thanks to Eldon Highschool teacher Jen Wellman for bringing a bus load of courteous high school students in the middle of home-coming weekend.  They were great kids and awesome workers!  One of the girls ended up finding the "Best Darned Find of the Day" for the Trash Contest, a plastic toy "Swamp Thing"!

Trash Tally!

68 Blue Stream Team (ST) bags of Trash

25 Tires (one ginormous tractor tire on the rim)

5 Chunks of Styrofoam

1 Refrigerator

2 Coolers

9 5-gallon Plastic Buckets

2 55-gallon Plastic Barrels

2 Propane Tanks

1 Boxspring

8 Chairs

1 Wicker Table

1 Bean Bag

1 BBQ Grill

30 ft of Metal Cable

Several pieces of Scrap Metal

1 boat-load of wet, nasty carpet (30 pieces)

1 big plastic Culvert (8ft long)

4 Tarps

1 Pet Carrier

1 Large Buoy

2 Toys

Trash Contest Finds!

1 Plastic Swamp Thing toy

1 Mylar Balloon

1 Hockey Puck

1 Nerf Laser Tag Vest

1 Plastic Egg

1 Foam Fortune Cookie

1 McDonald Ball Pit Ball

1 Plastic Hose Guy Toy

1 Playdo Hair Thing

1 Metal Chair

1 Rusty Spray Can

2 Old Glass Jugs

1 Glass Bottle with Glass Stopper

1 Toilet Tank Bulb

1 Fuzzy Toilet Seat

1 Bottle of Personal Lubricant

1 Dog Skull w/ Collar

1 Plastic Dog

Handful of Turkey Feathers

A String of large Christmas Lights

A Flower growing out of a piece of Styrofoam

1 Naturally Feminine Powder Spray

1 plastic Hair Curler

1 Avon Crème Lotion

1 plaid piece of a Shirt

4 Light Bulbs

1 Pacifier

1 Eldon Mustangs Water Bottle

1 Machete Blade

1 Kids Chair

1 Milk Crate

1 Metal Grill

1 Hammer

1 Headlight

1 Seat Cushion

1 Can of Sudden Tan

1 full Can of Milwaukee’s Best
1 plastic Horse with the legs chewed off

Many thanks to the Wears Creek Clean-up folks for providing a wonderful lunch for our simultaneous clean-up, and to Patchwork Family Farms, Clovers & Hyvee for providing inkind food donations for the barge team!  And to our long time partners and sponsors, Missouri American Water for bringing us drinking water and water bottles, providing educational talks on how we get our drinking water from the river and filter it, and of course for supporting the clean-up!  And to the entire list of Golden Mile Sponsors who stepped up to the plate to support the Big Muddy Clean Sweep.  We couldn't have done this without you guys!

We want to also give a shout out to our friends Dave Bandy, Mark Risch and Patty Farrar who showed up with instruments in hand to serenade the volunteers at lunch with some classic river tunes!

On Sunday, we had the pleasure of entertaining even more river enthusiasts!  A record 71 boats and 112 paddlers enjoyed getting out on the water for the 2nd Annual Race to the Dome!  Despite a foggy delay in the morning, participants in this charity canoe & kayak race helped support Missouri River Relief by enjoying a glorious Fall day on the Big Muddy, as the colors on the trees began to peak. 

The love for this amazing river was definitely flowing~~~! 

Thanks to organizer Patrick Lynn for making the race so smooth and for supporting Missouri River Relief's efforts out of the kindness of his heart.  The official results for Race to the Dome can be found at www.racetothedome.org or check our gorgeous photos we have posted on River Relief's Flickr site of the event.  Also, here's a great news article about the race that was published in the Jeff City Tribune from Saturday.

It was an amazing week, and we have many Big Muddy thanks & praises to everyone who pitched in to help make it happen.  From the bottom of our Big Muddy hearts, thank you and we'll see you on the river as we continue to roll downstream on this awesome Clean Sweep adventure!

 

drawing by Alicia Pigg

Big Muddy Clean Sweep Log Book Vol. 2 - Jefferson City Mooring

diligently recorded by Jodi Pfefferkorn

The second batch entries in the Log, recording our adventures moored in Jefferson City. The barge team continues getting the barges ready for living and working while more crew gathers to get ready for the Jefferson City Clean-up and Race to the Dome on Saturday & Sunday. The Clean Sweep and the barge have finally met up!

Wednesday, Sept. 28, 2011 

photo from the bridge by Bernie Arnold

Early morning wake up for everyone except for Jeff. He was out like a light until 0900 when Habibi finally woke him.
Steve ate breakfast with his computer in front of him. Things are just that busy. We certainly wouldn’t be here without the tireless efforts of Steve, Mel & Jeff.

While I took a can of WD-40 & a bag of rags into the engine room to try to cut down some of the diesel soot, the guys set about moving our small work flat to the back of the house barge. Then they loaded up the propane tanks & headed into Jeff City to fill them.

Habibi stayed behind to get started on the “Great Sand Removal of 2011” After I emerged from the engine room looking like a chimney sweep, I joined Habibi. We monkeyed around with a water pump for a while before finally settling on a system which resembled shelving coal into a furnace. We worked ourselves silly then took a watermelon break.

Jeff, Anthony & Racin’ got back from their propane run (which was a fiasco in & of itself) at 1600. By this time Habibi & I were very exhausted, dehydrated & sun-stupid from shoveling sand all day. But we all rallied to unload the propane tanks, scarfed down some sub sandwiches which Lee Diekroeger brought for us, then packed into the “Jimmy” to head back to Columbia to load the box truck for Saturday’s cleanup (Anthony stayed behind to take care of things on the barge).

We dropped Racin’ off at his van because he’s off the barge for a few days to take care of some things. Then we were mad schlepping fools.

Back on board the barge by 2045. Anthony grilled brats and rocked a mad kitchen overhaul & reorganization. We came back and helped Jeff with the schedule of events for the next 30 days. Better get some rest now, because there doesn’t seem to be and sleep in the schedule…

Thursday, Sept. 29, 2011 

photo by Bernie Arnold

Took DNR employees out for a morning on the river. They were mostly clerical workers & this was a chance for them to get out of the office and get on the river that flows beneath their building.
We took all three plate boats. Steve, Anthony and Habibi all drove boats. I was Habibi’s first mate. The whole outing was organized by Joe Engeln. We drove the boats about 5 miles upstream & tied them together then Joe stood on the bow of his boat and educated his fellow DNR workers about the Missouri River. They seemed to really enjoy it.

Steve & Jeff took management level employees out in the afternoon. This was more of a floating meeting for them, covering topics they might have discussed around a conference table but this time in boats.

Josh Pennington stopped by after lunch. He, Anthony & I motored upriver past Claysville Island to take a tour of the sand dredge moored up there. The dredge wasn’t in operation, so we explored Claysville island where we found a cool zippo lighter and a maglight. Both of them worked! We also accidentally discovered a great trash site for Saturday’s clean-up.

Friday, September 30, 2011 
Today was the big “Jeff City Cleanup Prep Day” Jeff got the morning kicked off right with scrambled eggs, bacon & fried potatoes for breakfast. That was the kind of energy we needed to put up the Flying Nun kitchen tent for the crew camp. How many river rats does it take to figure out an angle? I think it’s safe to say none of us retained anything we learned in high school geometry but we got ‘er up and she’s flying proudly. The Flying Nun is made from a semi-trailer tarp stretched over a frame made from scrap metal tubing (a Racin’ Dave design from 2004).

The Flying Nun - photo by Brian Waldrop

Habibi had the great idea to tie a banner with the MRR logo to it. Now people don’t have to ask “Who are you guys?” Instead, they ask “What does Missouri River Relief do?”

Upstream scout - photo by Bernie Arnold

A quick lunch of sandwiches at the boat ramp, then the scout began. Racin’, John Brady and Gale peeled off to set up the propane system for the fridge. Mel, Anthony & Craig scouted downstream & Habibi, Bernie & I went up. An abandoned homeless camp, a few log jams filled with bottles and the occasional tire were what we found. Plenty to keep a bunch of volunteers busy Saturday morning.

By the time we got back, our crew was starting to arrive. Soda Popp fried catfish – the best darn fried fish any of us have had – and so began the evening. A Lengthy pow-wow around the fire for the clean-up and Race to the Dome. Then it was foshee flying time. It turned into an early evening because of the early wake up call for the clean-up.

Before the meeting - photo by Bernie Arnold

Saturday, October 1, 2011 – 

Today was the Jeff City Clean-up. We sent out over 140 volunteers and had about 30 crew members on hand.

Veteran river cleaners - photo by Steve Schnarr

We rocked and got a good system for loading trash onto the barge.

Hauling one big honking tire onto the work flat - photo by Melanie Cheney

Back to the river - photo by Brian Waldrop

After the clean-up we were standing on the ramp drinking beers when a kayaker coming off the river asked us if we knew Steve. It turns out he was an Australian who had kayaked from Montana. He stayed for dinner but headed out after that. We asked him to stay the night but he needed to put on a few more miles for the day – he had to catch a flight home in St. Louis in just a few days.

New crew members that we had today were Jason (who operated a boat for MDC- Chillicothe shop), Kris and their awesome little boys, Isaac, Ethan & Avery. Jason works for MDC & was one of their boat drivers. He decided to bring his family along & they had a blast. We hope they come back for more!

Sunday - October 2, 2011 
Today was Race to the Dome. Mel trailered one plate boat to the Providence Access and Steve & Joe Englen were the sweep boat for the 26 mile race. Bernie trailered another plate boat to Hartsburg and Habibi & Jeanne were the sweep boat for the 15-mile race. John Brady & I waited for the fog to burn off. Then we took the 150 upriver and met the racers as they were coming down.

Hartsburg start to Race to the Dome - photo by Bernie Arnold

Racin’ & Gale & Anthony stayed on the barge and busted ass with cleaning and organizing. When we returned from safety boating we were blown away by the difference. Then everyone rallied to break down camp and schlep stuff to the barge. Tim Nigh moved in to be our cook and he set to work getting the galley in order.

Fixing the rigging -photo by Steve Schnarr

Habibi arrived in Hermann to pick up Capt. Mike Hanlin. Captain Mike has been the pilot for Living Lands & Waters since they got their first barge (and their tow boat was a Vietnam era push boat with a John Deere tractor cab stuck up on stilts for a wheelhouse. He happily offered to push us downstream for the Big Muddy Clean Sweep. Once a week he would come and move us on downstream to our next location then head home to East Moline, IL.

As soon as he stepped aboard he put us to work moving rigging around so we could move the towboat. It didn’t last long because as soon as Capt. Mike fired up the engines, we discovered that something was jamming up the starboard engine. Capt. Mike mumbled some curse at the Missouri River.

After a bit of standing around, poking around, and a dip in the water by Racin’, we deduced that we needed different tools, but it was too late to go the JCRT yard, so we chowed down on ham and bacon soup that Tim whipped up. It was good eatin’!

After dinner, Habibi, Jeff, Tim and I went to Lee’s to take showers. Did ya’ hear that?...Showers!!! Quote of the day! Jeannie Kuntz referred to the Capital dome as “the ‘space nipple’ where aliens come down and…”

Monday, October 3, 2011 
Racin’ made an early morning run to the Jeff City River Terminal to get a pipe wrench & some extension pipes. He used the wrench to try to loosen the shaft of the starboard engine. Whatever was jammed between the prop & hull was jammed pretty good.

At different points in the morning, Habibi, Tim & I found ourselves standing on the pipe wrench extensions. The wrench itself was attached to the shaft of a 600 HP diesel engine. Racin’ was manually revving the engine. This caused whoever was standing on the pipe wrench to bounce up & down while holding onto anything in the engine room to keep from getting bucked off. But hey…it worked! The log popped out & the shaft spun freely.

As the culprit drifted downriver, we all flipped it the bird and bid it fare-fxxxxxg well.

Once the log was free we were able to pull up to the boat ramp and take on water. The Jeff City Fire Dept. brought a truck and crew down and filled our tanks for us! We were under way by 1215 & heading in the right direction (downstream) for the first time this trip.

We pull away from the ramp and head downstream - photo by Joe Wilson

Steve & Habibi trailered a plate boat and peeled away to pick up the trash from the Mokane Clean-up on Saturday. Going downstream is much quicker than going up, and we were able to average 9-10 mph. This meant that any time a plate boat departed or returned the barge had to slow down. Capt. Mike was happy to comply.

Did I mention how cool Captain Mike is? A world class gentleman for sure. He’s a patient rigging instructor & a fun guy to joke around with on the radio.

We were lucky to have the most experienced river cleanup towboat pilot ever - Mike Hanlin

We arrived in Hermann at 1700. Steve & Jeff met us in a plate boat with a reporter and camerawoman from the Washington newspaper. We finished tying off by 1800 & Capt. Mike immediately left. He was itching to start his 4 & a half hour ride home to Illinois.

We pull into a perfect little spot at the Hermann ramp - photo by Steve Schnarr

Tim grilled up some rockin brats he’d bought at a shop in Hermann. Perfect!

 Quick Links

• Jefferson City Cleanup Page 
• Jeff City photos
• Other Jeff City Blog Entries
• Race to the Dome homepage
• Big Muddy Clean Sweep homepage

Sunrise over Hermann - photo by Bernie Arnold

Clean Sweep Results through September

Kansas City River Clean-up - Saturday, Sept. 10th

Berkley Riverfront Park, river mile 365

We kicked off September with our biggest tradition and clean-up of the year, the Kansas City Missouri River Clean-up! Due to flooding and high river levels this year, we based the Kansas City Clean-up out of Berkley Riverfront Park where 20-year Clean-up Veteran and Kansas City Coordinator, Vicki Richmond made arrangements for volunteer groups to disperse to 11 land-based sites up and down the river.

For normally being a river-based operation, the clean-up was still a huge success and made cleaning up post-flood parks even more efficient.  257 volunteers showed up on a gorgeous late summer morning, to pick up their pumpkin orange Clean Sweep t-shirts, and sign up for one of the many pre-scouted land-based sites

Sites included Berkley Park, Riverfront Park, Kaw Point Park, the Chouteau Bridge, the Riverfront Heritage Trail, Stillwell and more!  Since there were so many separate sites, we are still working on compiling a tonnage estimate. Right now we are estimating close to 7 tons of debris cleaned up from 11 sites along the river. 

• Read More about the Kansas City Clean-up on our Webpage

• Check out our full set of Photos from this year's Kansas City Clean-up

10th Anniversary Celebration - Wed.,Sept. 21st

Cooper's Landing, river mile 170

To celebrate a decade of accomplishments, and officially kick-off our Big Muddy Clean Sweep season, a crew & partners banquet was held on the banks of the Big Muddy Wednesday night at our home port, Cooper's Landing.  Our friends & local singer-songwriters continued their Wed. night tradition of serenading us on the river while River Relief wined & dined our long-time hard working crew with a buffet of smoked pork, homemade coleslaw & apple sauce, and good home brew donated from Broadway Brewery, while watching the sunset over the river on a beautiful late summer day, enjoying boat rides, camaraderie and a program to thank our founding members alongside a special recognition of  long time partner and owner of Cooper's Landing, Mike Cooper.  After dark, we lit 5 memorial paper lanterns (foshees) for those that were no longer with us.  It was absolutely breathtaking and beautiful.

• Enjoy our full set of photos from this long awaited celebration of "10 Years of Good Clean/Trashy Fun!" 
  
  
• KOMU piece featuring 10th Anniversary Celebration & upcoming Jeff City Clean-up
   

Mid-Mo Group Clean-ups - Sept. 17th - 25th

Cooper's Landing, river miles 167 - 173

This river-based series of cleanups brought an impressive 186 volunteers on the river to remove 50 tires, 1/2 a ton of scrap metal and an estimated 2.6 tons of trash from 7 miles of river!  

Partial Trash Tally! 
178 bags of Trash
50 Tires
1/2 Ton of Scrap Metal:
100 lb Propane Tank
4 small Propane Tanks
3 Freon Tanks
1 Refrigerator Door
3 Car Fenders
2 55-gal. Metal Drums
1 Red Buoy
1 Double Cast Iron Sink
1 Fire Extinquisher
2 Sheets of Roofing Tin
1 Sponge Bob Bobber
1/2 of a Duck Boat
1 Cot
3 Lawn Chairs
2 Fishing Poles
1 55-gal. Blue Barrel
3 Deck Umbrellas
1 Concrete Nose
1 small Cooler filled with Oyster Mushrooms
1 Goose Head Decoy
1 Bag of Balls
1 Bowling Pin
1 kids Firefighte's Helmet
1 giant Light Bulb

Groups included:

(click on the group name to see photos from each clean-up!)

9/17 - Friends of Big Muddy & Missouri Master Naturalists

9/18 - EcoArtFest volunteers & RR Crew

9/22 - Douglass High School Students

9/23 - Columbia Resource Home School

9/23 - Garden Gate Home School

9/24 - Walmart Stream Team 4364

9/24 - Sustain Mizzou

9/25 - River Relief Crew Trash Haul

Check out this Great Missourian Article that just came out featuring the Friends of Big Muddy & Master Naturalists Clean-up that kicked it all off!

A Big Muddy Thanks to all the sponsors, crew & volunteers that helped make our September Clean Sweep a rockin' one!

Here's to kicking off October in the same light with one of our featured "big" clean-ups in Jefferson City on October 1st as we continue to roll on down the river.  Sign up today and find out more details about the Jeff City Missouri River Clean-up on our website here:  http://www.riverrelief.org/event/jefferson-city-river-clean-up/.  The barge has arrived!!! as of tonight in Jeff City, and we welcome folks to come check us out via Noren Access (or as we like to call it...Wilson's Serenity Point) or climb on up the new pedestrian walkway on the Missouri River bridge!

Following the clean-up on Sunday is the 2nd Annual Race to the Dome!  Folks can still sign up for this fun and scenic canoe race via www.racetothedome.org, all proceeds from the race will benefit Missouri River Relief and our efforts to reconnect people to the Missouri River through hands-on river clean-ups, education and stewardship.

Stay tuned to our blog here or like us on our facebook page for the latest updates!

Most of all... hoping we'll "See You on the River~!"

Race to Dome Quick Links

Race to the Dome

Hartsburg to Jeff City
July 3, 2010

Here's a few great links from the Race to the Dome:

Race to the Dome Results

Race to the Dome website

Race to the Dome Facebook

Columbia Tribune Article (and slideshow)

Great Blog from Racer Jessica Machetta

Missouri River Relief race page

Race photos

Race blogs

Fast, Fun & Floody

Race to the Dome

Hartsburg to Jeff City
July 3, 2010

text by Steve Schnarr, photos by Dave "the River Slave" Marner, Diana Dexter and Caanan Cowles

Sometimes you finish an event, look around at all the smiling people and realize: this is the first year of big deal.

That’s how it felt for me at the end of the Race to the Dome. People were glowing, and you could see that this thing could be big.

66 boats went in the water. Amazing for the first year! But ever since the MR340 took off, it’s seemed like the growth of paddling recreation on the Missouri River has not hit its limit.

A great diverse crowd showed up at Hartsburg Landing. Some fancy boats were already in the water when I showed up: some folks training for the 340 had put in upstream earlier and showed up for the race by water. Other trainees were planning on heading down to Hermann after the race finish.

There were aluminum canoes borrowed from Jeff City Parks – some folks didn’t have their own boat and had never been on the river. In my opinion, a race like this is a perfect time for people to get their “riverlegs”. You’ve got safety boats in the water in case something goes wrong. You’ve got other paddlers to help you find the safe, fast water. You’ve got lunch waiting for you at the end.

Because of the high water, racers were separated into heats so there was plenty of room in the eddy at the bottom of the ramp. All race heats were launched without issue (except the sucking mud on the ramp left by the recent flooding). It just made things really complicated for timekeeping!

Several spectacles were on hand as well. Big Muddy Adventures showed up with John Ruskey’s handmade Junebug canoe, taking out a group of folks for a gentle paddle downstream for a donation to River Relief. At the Noren ramp, the MR340 Dragon Boat, carrying 20 paddlers (!) jammed up the ramp for a while taking off. What a sight!


Only a couple of boats spilled. One guy self-rescued right in the middle of the river. Another bunch swamped and lost their paddles. Luckily, we had an extra kayak paddle in our safety boat and they could get on their way.

One of our safety boats was able to take a couple of our most dedicated sponsors, Pat Jones and Jamie Coe, out on the river. What a great time to get out there and see all these folks out enjoying the river.

Jeff City’s own Matt Green and Kevin Schwarz of the “Aquaholics” took men’s tandem kayak and were the overall winners (1 hour 10 minutes!!!!). Our neighbor, Jodi Pffeferkorn and her partner Charlie Lockwood (“Pfefferwood”) were the first back to the ramp, winning the mixed tandem class. They’ve been training for the 340 as of late and are looking good! See them at the 340, too. Past 340 winner Bryan Hopkins (“Lucky 13”) took the men’s solo kayak race by a landslide (mudslide?). Carp Target Grannies from Columbia floated in from upstream and ended up ruling women’s tandem. I’ll post other winners as I get them.

Plus, we had several River Reliefers in the race. Janet Moreland (the first person to sign up for the race – “Easy Rider”) took silver in solo female kayak, followed by Allison Kellenberger (“Mother of Pearl”) in her first race. Melanie Cheney and Liz Doubet took second in their class (“Muddy Bottom Gumbo Gals”). David Lackey ("Water Lily") took third place in men's solo kayak! We were all so proud!

Complete results are posted on the Race to the Dome website.

After we finished up cleaning up after the race, several of us loaded up Big Muddy Mike’s canoe and headed upstream to our high sandbank camp. Music, campfire, veggie packs, lots of swimming, sunset boat ride. That’s the way to celebrate independence!

A really cool guy thought up a really cool race...

Race to the Dome
Hartsburg to Jeff City, MO
July 3, 2010

Text by Steve Schnarr, photos by Caanan Cowles & Diana Dexter

This was the inaugural year for a really good idea. A 16-mile paddle race ending across the river from the state capital: Jefferson City on Independence Day weekend. Pulling off even such a simple idea is not quite as easy as you’d think. But when you start with a great idea hatched by a tenacious, well-connected dude with gobs of skills – it looks easy!

For me it all started with a phone call. Patrick Lynn from Jefferson City had hoped to paddle in our Flying Carp race, which ended up (perhaps unwisely!) getting cancelled due to high water and drift in the river. But after the cancellation, he rang us up and said he wanted to organize a race for charity from Hartsburg to Jeff City. And he wanted us to be the charity!

We had recently done a clean-up at Noren Access in Jefferson City, and were starting to develop a great set of friends there. One great couple is Andy and Leisha Neidert – who started bringing their boat to clean-ups in the area and diving in. A real couple of river rats, they live on the bluff upstream of Jeff City, overlooking the river. Patrick is friends with Andy too, so Andy agreed to help and it was on.

As the day approached, our friends at MRCN had to cancel their race due to major flooding in Glasgow, and the river looked like it was going to be high all summer. But then it stopped raining. The week before the race, it was becoming clear that we might be able to pull this off. The projection of 2 feet below flood stage held.

Patrick worked this race with dogged dedication. Hopefully next year this thing will grow enough to pay the dude – but he insisted on taking this on as a volunteer this year. He coordinated everything himself, from food for racers to corporate sponsorship; from organizing race classes to staggering heats; from race publicity to making sure there were water bottles. When something didn’t pan out, he didn’t blink – on to plan b.

He started advertising the race months before – the first news story was back in April. He did Twitter, he did Facebook. He got cool stickers made. If we offered half-baked ideas from our experience, he’d run with it and make it happen.

For us at Missouri River Relief, nothing could have been easier than working with Patrick Lynn on this race.

Where Patrick really shined was the day of the race. He worked his butt off all day long, conducting the race start, answering never-ending questions and solving problems on the fly. Watching his persistence as he recalculated times (an admitted history major) it was clear he was finally going to sleep great that night.

Beyond his unbelievable generosity to our organization and cause, his most admirable quality was among the chaos of hundreds of people dragging boats through the Hartsburg lot or waiting for their lunch at Noren, Patrick would answer your questions with a smile and real appreciation.

Oh, and he’s great with a soundbite: “I grew up near the river and didn’t really start getting out and enjoying it until a few years ago,” he said. “It’s a great resource here in Jefferson City and needs to be utilized more.” Bingo…

Patrick, you’re a truly kind soul, and we can’t thank you enough for what you’ve done for us and for our mission of connecting people to this amazing river by getting out on her.

But he’s definitely not the only one to thank for making this race happen. The list is actually pretty long:

Sponsors –
The Old Brickhouse Deli – donated and served lunches to the racers.
Central Bank
Centurylink
Husch Blackwell Sanders
Jefferson City Convention & Visitors Bureau

Partners -
Alpine Shop – donated lip balm for racers
Big Muddy Adventures – donated proceeds from a ride in the 22-foot wooden Junebug canoe
Dexter crew – showed up, helped patrol the race and took gobs of great photos.
Jefferson City Parks and Recs – donated canoe and paddle rental.
Joe Wilson – the host with the most
Lafarge-Neidert – graphic design
Lynn Family - registration
Mid-Missouri Amateur Radio Club – Set up stations along the route (some in boats, some biked out the Katy Trail, some on decks of friends over looking the river) and kept all stations in communication.
Missouri American Water – donated gift bags
Neidert family – safety boat – and everything that needed doing
Schnucks – donated gift bags & drinks
St. James Winery – prize wine!
And without a doubt the Missouri River Relief crew solid as a rock!

Stories from Mari-Osa

Mari-Osa Dump Clean-up (Take Three)

Mari-Osa Public Access on the Osage River
March 6th & 7th, 2010
text by Steve Schnarr, photos by Alicia Pigg & Melanie Cheney

Every clean-up event is made of a variety of people and stories, each reflecting a different important part of the effort. Here’s a few stories to give you an idea of all the aspects of pulling this off (the true definition of behind the scenes is no one was there to take your picture...sorry for the lack of photos with these good stories...)–

Racin’ Dave and the River Relief Diagnostic Team
Friday morning, we arrived at the Karp Yard – the place we store our equipment and boats. Gear was loaded, boats hooked up, then we realized – our box truck was not starting. Racin’ Dave immediately hopped under the hood with his test light, checking wires and relay switches. He pretty quickly realized that the fuel pump relay was out. He found an extra wire, pulled the plug, and spliced the wire into the mount for the switch. He headed to O-Reilly’s to purchase a new switch while we all hit the road toward the Mari-Osa. “Just don’t turn the truck off until we get this new switch in there – you’ll be fine.”

On Saturday morning, the 160 (our most troublesome boat) shot craps, so a diagnostic team (Scot Heidbrink, Racin’ Dave, John Brady, others) gathered around the motor and went to work. Several problems were revealed and eventually they got the boat on the water. It never worked quite right, but it was proven once again how this clean-up machine can come to a screeching halt if it weren’t for this group of folks keeping things running.

MRCN Americorps and the Clean-up Set-UP Team
Upon arriving at the MariOsa on Friday, we ate lunch and then got to the tasks at hand. Bob Woodward from the Osage Campground dropped off his awesome trailer to serve as clean-up headquarters. Gear was unloaded into it, then we splashed a couple boats to scout the river and set up the dumpsite.

Three Americorps members from Missouri River Communities Network (Julia Karll, Rebecca Spicer and Lance Mallette) were on hand to help with the set-up, along with Sarah and Josh Pennington, Liz and Gabe Doubet, Capt. John Breyfogle, Rod Power, Anthony Pettit, John Brady, Jeff Barrow, Ruthie Moccia, Melanie Cheney and Racin’ Dave.

We shipped the flume across the river and unloaded it. Josh brought some orange hazard fencing and t-posts - Rod and Brey brought their power tools. As Brey fine-tuned the flume, adding a second level to get higher up on the hill, a group of us headed to the top of the dump with various implements of destruction.

The goal was removing big stuff stuck up at the top, kicking trash down, and knocking as much of this plume of broken glass, metal and plastic downhill as possible – closer to the trash flume. We created several trash avalanches, and the dump suffered a massive slump downslope. At one point, I surfed a trash wave, dragging bedsprings and coils of metal cable behind me. My mud boots held up nicely…

It became clear that the dump was increasingly unstable, and that falling rocks and trash were going to be an issue the next day. We decided to post one dump-master to oversee the whole thing, with bosses manning each flume to keep the system safe.

“Osage Bob” and the Campground
If your name is John or Dave or Bob or Joe, and you become part of the River Relief crew, chances are you’ll get a nickname to distinguish you from the others. We just started calling the owner of the Osage Campground, Bob Woodward, “Osage Bob” .

As in – “I’ll see if Osage Bob has a charger for this battery” or “I picked up some ice from Osage Bob’s for lunch” or “maybe Osage Bob’s got one..”

Bob’s campground also serves as a dune buggy/Volkswagon shop and yard, boat repair service, convenience store, water source, cultural headquarters and all around problem-solving headquarters. His pavilion (with overhead lights, electric and water) became camp headquarters. Our tents and vehicles filled up his campground. It was beautiful!

We can’t thank Bob enough for being such a wonderful host for us all weekend, answering our questions, fixing our problems -- always being helpful.

The Hardest-Working Group of Volunteers in Mid-Missouri
As I said before, the only announcement we did of this clean-up were folks that helped last year. So this year’s crew (134 volunteers at least!) was the toughest of the tough. We had three crews from area Wal-Marts – always a tough bunch that can turn their volunteer donation into cash for the clean-up through the Volunteerism Always Pays program at Wal-Mart. They also brought drinks, coolers and gift cards to help pay for lunch.

Lincoln University, once again, came out in force. One of our most dedicated partners is MANRRS (Minorities in Agriculture, Natural Resources & Related Sciences). They come to all of our Jeff. City area clean-ups – and know how to get it done. Not to mention Prof. Adrian Andrei, who has been coming to clean-ups with his daughter for several years. That dynamic duo did both shifts this time. Plus, many of his students came – and one found an old Studebaker hubcap – valued by one appraiser at the site at 250 bucks. Plus, a bunch of members of Lincoln Track and Field came out.

Repeats
Once you spend a Saturday working on that hill, you want to see it disappear. Most people that worked on the Mari-Osa this year had been there before, and they just stepped right in and got to work. A bunch of them worked both shifts. John and Walt Birmingham brought another Birmingham, brother Jesse. The Hearne twins, Leslie and Sarah, were superstars once again. That's them in the picture on the right.

John Van Eschen who lives on the bluff downstream of the dump, met us the day before as we were scouting. He was billy-goating up and down the steep slope, bagging up trash and bringing it down to shore where we could get it the next day. He said all he needed was one other person to climb up and help him the next day, and he could get this massive piece of farm equipment off the hill. The next morning, as John arrived at the clean-up, our clutch performer Nick Recker showed up. They both hopped on the next boat and got that thing down. Nobody knew what it was - someone offered that it could have been a grinder from a mill.

Boat Drivers
We really didn’t recruit boat drivers for this clean-up…until the last minute.
We’ve been working with Andy Neidert on his Race To The Dome canoe race and mentioned that it was starting to look like we’d need another boat for the MariOsa…
He was immediately on it! Andy and Leisha showed up ready to roll, splashed their boat and looked for direction. Finding none, they proceeded to fill the boat with trash. Over and over again….

The same thing happened to Josh Lallaman. Last year, in Jefferson City, he brought a University of Missouri boat to help at our clean-up at Noren Access – and stayed until the last load came in (he got the next-to-last load). So the week before MariOsa I called him and begged for his help. Not only did he come out to help, he hit the river two hours early to sample for paddlefish (there weren’t any yet, water temps still too cold). After lunch, he trailered his boat and went to Osage City for the Great Tire Wrangle.

The Great Osage City Tire Wrangle
We got a call from Cole County Health Dept. Enforcement Agent Mike Sapp in December. He was trying to help a local woman get rid of the tires that had been dumped on her property. Both Missouri Stream Team and Department of Natural Resources employees told him we were doing a clean-up in the area in March, so he called us up to see if we could help. Because we are a non-profit registered with the state to collect discarded tires, we are able to collect the tires, pay a local tire hauler to remove them, then get reimbursed from the Dept. of Natural Resources for a portion of the amount.

We were happy to help.

While we were at it, River Relief volunteers gathered other dumped tires in the area on Saturday morning. Our friend Soda Popp pointed out some areas where the river had brought in piles of tires.

In the afternoon, another tough bunch of volunteers met our loyal mid-Missouri tire hauler, Jim Salmons, back down in Osage City. They loaded all 240 tires that had been collected into his massive trailer. Jim came down to MariOsa the next day to get the remaining 60 tires.
John Brady was the leader of the tire get. From scouting the site, to leading the crews, to rolling tires to helping, eventually, dig the mud out of one gargantuan grader tire – he got it done.

Planting the hillside -
On Sunday morning following the clean-up, a crew of River Relief volunteers stuck around to plant native trees and grass seed on the dumpsite. Although we'll probably return again to work this area, we wanted something in place to hold the soil and reduce site erosion into the Osage River. Missouri Stream Team donated some flowering dogwood, rough-leaved dogwood, false indigo and nine-bark. Nadia Navarette, a native plant researcher at Lincoln University, donated manna grass, canadian wild rye and river oats seed.

It was tough planting the seedlings in the rocky, scrap-metal filled hillside, but we got it done! We are looking forward to checking on the progress of the seed.

Good Eats –
So much work goes into the food at a River Relief event. Jeanie Kuntz cooked up a massive batch of spaghetti sauce on Thursday for the Friday feast. Then, Friday afternoon, she made up the Three Sisters Soup for Saturday’s lunch. Thursday night, Melanie, Canaan and I made up a batch of chicken chili for Saturday. The hardcore breakfast crew put it together early, before everyone else woke up. Wal-Mart donated the sub sandwiches. We purchased the veggie subs from SubWay.

Jim Cooper, the Osage Navy smoker extraordinaire, stoked the hickory fires at 3:30 on Saturday morning to get ready for Saturday night’s feast. Even though I’ve sampled Jim’s fare several times, this was the best BBQ I’ve ever had….hands down.

Each one of these people poured love into this rolling feast. That love is a major part of what sustains these clean-ups. Thank you food angels!