I wasn't planning on doing a trip report on this event but I saw that Foo was harrassing me in a different thread to post something so here goes...
I headed down last Friday night and met up with a friend who went down earlier in the day. He stayed at a hotel but I decided to stay at the Landa RV camp right on the Comal to save some bucks.
We met up late at Montana Mike's. This place has great food at cheap prices - the peppercorn steak is awesome. We hung around for a few drinks and then headed out. I wandered around the campsite for a while and met Archman and several of his group from Aggieland. Several were gearing up for a night dive (at about midnight) and I was tired from my drive, so I wandered back to my tent for some shuteye. Not!
The biggest plus about Landa RV is that its close to everything and right on the Comal. The worst thing about Landa RV is that there are train tracks on site and the train comes by regularly, blowing its horn repeatedly as it makes its way through town. I went to Walgreens and got earplugs on Sat night. Landa RV is just that, an RV site, but they allow camping. But don't think of lush grass to put your tent on. Nope, its hard rock, so bring an air mattress with you.
We met up early Saturday morning and headed over to the Fairgrounds where the event begins. There was quite a bit of activity and I think it began to dawn on me at that point that this event was heavily attended by our Houston area compadres (gee, could that be because the Texas Gulf Coast Council of Dive Clubs puts it on?) since most everyone seemed to know each other and there were tons of Houston-area club & shop banners. I still ran into a few people I knew from the DFW area though.
Since it was just the 2 of us, we had to wait around to be assigned to a team of 8. We finally were assigned to a family of 3 and a father & son group (7, 8 whatever). Then all teams drew to see what area of the Comal they would clean up from 11AM - 1PM (You can clean up anywhere from 1PM - 3PM). I believe they divided the river into around 8 sections. We drew the area between the city chute and the Schlitterbahn bridge. Since there were over 200 participants, at least 2 groups were assigned to work each section.
We headed over to our section and promptly lost the father & son who knew some people on the other team working our section (I never quite knew where they were ). Anyhow, the 5 of us proceeded to gear up and start cleaning. But, there were 3 problems. First, the depth in this section of the Comal is about 2-3 feet. Second, the chute and 2 dams create lots of turbulence, so its nearly impossible to scuba in this area. You can, but you can probably see the stuff in the water just as easily standing up. Third, there just wasn't much stuff in the water. I decided to take off my gear and start picking up trash along the steep banks. Got quite a bit, but would have much rather been UW.
The 5 of us agreed to go over to the Last Exit area for the 1-3PM dives. The family of 3 headed over early. As I was taking my gear up, I was approached by a FOX reporter out of S.A. who ended up interviewing both me & my friend about the cleanup. About that time, the missing father & son wandered up saying that they had heard about a huge cache of cans at the Schlitterbahn. My friend & I and reporters headed over to the Schlitterbahn, but were told that the area was about cleaned out. We then decided to stick to our original plan and head to the Last Exit with reporters in tow. Somehow, we lost father & son again for good.
By the way, the 2 of us got about 4 sacks of trash during the 2 hours. Since there was no place to put it, we carried it with us in our SUVs. Others had brought pickups, but I'm still waiting for gas to cheaper before I make a 500 mile round trip in it. Does any seasoned Trashfest person have a suggestion about the trash hauling situation?
At the Last Exit, there were numerous divers, several who had been assigned there originally. We also found the family of 3 again. We did the photo ops with the reporters and then the 2 of us split up. I headed downstream while he headed upstream. He hit the jackpot on cans but I may have got 1 1/2 sacks full. No sign of the family either. Since we really didn't get that much trash during the day, we ended up giving a bunch of it to a homeless guy collecting cans and the rest to one of the CHUM groups. Anything to get it out of the car.
We did a fun dive over at Landa park and then cleaned up and headed back to the Fairgrounds for the awards/prize/food/beer thing. Good food, lots of prizes, free beer, what can you say. Some of the prizes were scuba-themed, many came from the NB area - things like restaurant coupons, toob/raft coupons, etc. I won a rafting trip & my friend won a tubing trip. Guess I'll have to go buy me a hacky sack and a beer bong to go with it. Woo hoo!
We headed out early from the event to grab some drinks and watch some college FB on TV. The next morning, we went and dove the Last Exit again. We went upstream for a ways and hit on two huge caches of cans - you could probably be there all day and not get all of them. So there will be plenty left over for next year. All in all, a very good time.
Lessons learned:
1) Stay at a different campsite or at least bring earplugs if you camp at Landa RV unless you want to be awakened multiple times at night.
2) Sign up for Trashfest as a team and have a plan.
3) Do it for one reason - to clean up the river. You may not get to scuba the whole time and you may not find much trash. But every little bit helps.
4) North Texas needs to have stronger presence in this thing next year!
I headed down last Friday night and met up with a friend who went down earlier in the day. He stayed at a hotel but I decided to stay at the Landa RV camp right on the Comal to save some bucks.
We met up late at Montana Mike's. This place has great food at cheap prices - the peppercorn steak is awesome. We hung around for a few drinks and then headed out. I wandered around the campsite for a while and met Archman and several of his group from Aggieland. Several were gearing up for a night dive (at about midnight) and I was tired from my drive, so I wandered back to my tent for some shuteye. Not!
The biggest plus about Landa RV is that its close to everything and right on the Comal. The worst thing about Landa RV is that there are train tracks on site and the train comes by regularly, blowing its horn repeatedly as it makes its way through town. I went to Walgreens and got earplugs on Sat night. Landa RV is just that, an RV site, but they allow camping. But don't think of lush grass to put your tent on. Nope, its hard rock, so bring an air mattress with you.
We met up early Saturday morning and headed over to the Fairgrounds where the event begins. There was quite a bit of activity and I think it began to dawn on me at that point that this event was heavily attended by our Houston area compadres (gee, could that be because the Texas Gulf Coast Council of Dive Clubs puts it on?) since most everyone seemed to know each other and there were tons of Houston-area club & shop banners. I still ran into a few people I knew from the DFW area though.
Since it was just the 2 of us, we had to wait around to be assigned to a team of 8. We finally were assigned to a family of 3 and a father & son group (7, 8 whatever). Then all teams drew to see what area of the Comal they would clean up from 11AM - 1PM (You can clean up anywhere from 1PM - 3PM). I believe they divided the river into around 8 sections. We drew the area between the city chute and the Schlitterbahn bridge. Since there were over 200 participants, at least 2 groups were assigned to work each section.
We headed over to our section and promptly lost the father & son who knew some people on the other team working our section (I never quite knew where they were ). Anyhow, the 5 of us proceeded to gear up and start cleaning. But, there were 3 problems. First, the depth in this section of the Comal is about 2-3 feet. Second, the chute and 2 dams create lots of turbulence, so its nearly impossible to scuba in this area. You can, but you can probably see the stuff in the water just as easily standing up. Third, there just wasn't much stuff in the water. I decided to take off my gear and start picking up trash along the steep banks. Got quite a bit, but would have much rather been UW.
The 5 of us agreed to go over to the Last Exit area for the 1-3PM dives. The family of 3 headed over early. As I was taking my gear up, I was approached by a FOX reporter out of S.A. who ended up interviewing both me & my friend about the cleanup. About that time, the missing father & son wandered up saying that they had heard about a huge cache of cans at the Schlitterbahn. My friend & I and reporters headed over to the Schlitterbahn, but were told that the area was about cleaned out. We then decided to stick to our original plan and head to the Last Exit with reporters in tow. Somehow, we lost father & son again for good.
By the way, the 2 of us got about 4 sacks of trash during the 2 hours. Since there was no place to put it, we carried it with us in our SUVs. Others had brought pickups, but I'm still waiting for gas to cheaper before I make a 500 mile round trip in it. Does any seasoned Trashfest person have a suggestion about the trash hauling situation?
At the Last Exit, there were numerous divers, several who had been assigned there originally. We also found the family of 3 again. We did the photo ops with the reporters and then the 2 of us split up. I headed downstream while he headed upstream. He hit the jackpot on cans but I may have got 1 1/2 sacks full. No sign of the family either. Since we really didn't get that much trash during the day, we ended up giving a bunch of it to a homeless guy collecting cans and the rest to one of the CHUM groups. Anything to get it out of the car.
We did a fun dive over at Landa park and then cleaned up and headed back to the Fairgrounds for the awards/prize/food/beer thing. Good food, lots of prizes, free beer, what can you say. Some of the prizes were scuba-themed, many came from the NB area - things like restaurant coupons, toob/raft coupons, etc. I won a rafting trip & my friend won a tubing trip. Guess I'll have to go buy me a hacky sack and a beer bong to go with it. Woo hoo!
We headed out early from the event to grab some drinks and watch some college FB on TV. The next morning, we went and dove the Last Exit again. We went upstream for a ways and hit on two huge caches of cans - you could probably be there all day and not get all of them. So there will be plenty left over for next year. All in all, a very good time.
Lessons learned:
1) Stay at a different campsite or at least bring earplugs if you camp at Landa RV unless you want to be awakened multiple times at night.
2) Sign up for Trashfest as a team and have a plan.
3) Do it for one reason - to clean up the river. You may not get to scuba the whole time and you may not find much trash. But every little bit helps.
4) North Texas needs to have stronger presence in this thing next year!
