17th Annual Nolichucky River Cleanup & Celebration

Saturday, June 22nd, the Appalachian Paddling Enthusiasts gathered again for the 17th Annual Nolichucky Cleanup. The APEs have been hosting this event nearly every year to help keep the Nolichucky River clean for paddlers, fishermen, and river-users alike! The summer is a very popular time for people to frequent the rivers for recreation and the APEs are proud to help everyone see the beauty of the Nolichucky by keeping it clean the way nature intends to present it.

We had 25 volunteers put blood, sweat, and tears into removing garbage along a 5+ mile section of the river below the gorge (USA Raft to Devil’s Looking Glass). Paddlers loaded up their kayaks, rafts, or canoes with trash collected from the banks and maneuvered their loads to drop off points where the land crew picked up the garbage and transported it to the dump.

In total we hauled out 4 truckloads of trash, cleaned up several hobo camps and dozens of tires were removed from the river! After several hours of hard work in the rain, volunteers enjoyed barbeque donated by Southern Craft of Johnson City. A second part of the celebration was a raffle for many great prizes from our event sponsors.

Overall the cleanup was a good success and a great time of fellowship with all the volunteers.

Big Thanks to Shawn Stanley (APE Conservation Officer) as the event coordinator/director and thanks to USA Raft for hosting us!