by Mike Carey, January 11, 2003

Blue Creek Clean Up Day



January 11, 2003

Blue Creek is well known as one of the premier "combat" fishing zones in our state. For years it has kicked out more steelhead than any other spot. So two weeks ago I was very excited to take a couple friends to this spot to show them the craziness that is Blue Creek. It had been about seven years since I'd fished Blue Creek. The fishing wasn't too good the day we went, but what was even worse was the trash. I did not remember Blue Creek as being this trashed out in the years that I fished there. It was a pig sty. I felt a sense of embarrassment for having brought my friends to such a filthy place to fish.

So thus was born the kernel of idea. Clean up time! I'd participated in a clean up two years ago for a small alpine lake through readers of WashingtonLakes.com, so I knew what needed to be done. The notices went up on Piscatorial Pursuits and WL.com and soon enough we had a group of people willing to donate their time on a Saturday morning to clean up someone else's mess.

We met at 9am and hiked the quarter mile in to Blue Creek. My thoughts at this time I will admit were rather negative. "Why am I cleaning up for a bunch of jerks that don't care enough to clean up their own mess?" was one thought that ran through my mind. But here we were so lets get this job over with and we can go home. We started cleaning up and a funny thing began to happen. Instead of getting smirks or questioning looks, guys would stop fishing and started to help pick up the trash. Several asked for bags of their own. One steelheader, a little boy who must have been around nine or ten, spent the next 30 minutes with us picking up trash! He was so in to it that my earlier negative mood faded away. For me, that was the defining moment of the cleanup. My faith in humanity being restored, we completed the cleanup and hauled out a dozen plus bags of trash to a trash bin set up by Tacoma Power (thank you Tacoma Power for coming through on such short notice!). We didn't get everything, but when we left the creek area was probably 80-90% cleaner than when we started. And, hopefully, more of the anglers that go there on a regular basis will take it upon themselves to keep the area clean.

I'd like to give special thanks to the cleanup crew - Jack, Mark, Rick, Sue, and Carl for donating their morning to this worthy cause. Special thanks also goes to "CowlitzFisherman" for giving me Tacoma Power contact numbers and also helping with the clean up. It was great meeting all of you! I'd also like to thank the many anglers at Blue Creek who took a few minutes to put down their poles and pick up the trash. You guys came through as well.