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Kayakers clean up Lake Tahoe

Emma Garrard
Sierra Sun

Many consider the East Shore the most beautiful part of Lake Tahoe. Shots of giant granite boulders, white sand beaches and clear water, make up many a Tahoe photo album.

But what most Lake Tahoe calendars don’t show are the beer bottles, golf balls, mattresses, potato chip bags, flip-flops and even an abandoned bicycle ” items left by beach-goers. Or the garbage stuck between the rocks and submerged underwater.

Employees of Enviro-Rents, a sport rental shop in Kings Beach, organized a Kayak Cleanup day last Sunday morning.



Volunteers left Sand Harbor and headed north in their kayaks past three miles of rocky shore to Hidden Beach, collecting more than 3 cubic yards of trash along the way.

Trash accumulates on the East Shore because southwest winds carry garbage across the lake to the lee shore, said Enviro-Rents owner Harry King



“It’s one of the prettiest parts of the lake,” he said. “It’s just unfortunate it’s where most of the trash accumulates. It’s sad people don’t care enough about the lake to take care of it.”

King said he was exhausted after paddling through waves and 30 mph winds to the Sand Harbor meeting spot, eventually parking his kayak and carrying garbage to the road because there was no place to fit it on kayaks.

“I think I’ll be finding a chiropractor,” King joked.

The youngest member of the crew summed up his surprise at the amount of trash he found.

“It was really fun, but what we found was really gross,” said Truckee resident Jackson Motarex, 10. “We got into places you can’t get to by trails.”


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