Volunteers clean up treasured hill the day after Fourth of July

COEUR d’ALENE — You name it, Rick Lohman probably found it at Tubbs Hill Sunday morning.

He picked up the usual array of cans, bottles, plastics, cardboard and papers during the annual cleanup the day after the Fourth of July.

But he also discovered socks, shoes and even a sleeping bag left behind.

“It’s surprising what you find. It’s surprising where you find it,” the Coeur d’Alene man said on a beautiful sunny morning. “You find places and think, ‘No way anybody would be here,’ then you find all the trash.”

About 30 people turned out for the effort organized by the Tubbs Hill Foundation.

There was good news and bad news.

Foundation President Dave Yadon said there wasn’t as much trash as in previous years because the fireworks display over Lake Coeur d’Alene was canceled, and that always drew big crowds to watch from Tubbs.

“But there is trash,” he said.

“It’s a bittersweet thing,” Yadon said. “People feel really good when they bring back this big bag full of trash, but if they don’t bring back a lot it means you’ve got a good, clean hill, which is a good thing. That’s the purpose.”

The volunteers scattered around the hill, going well off the beaten path and focusing on the shoreline. Some of the garbage left behind was strewn along steep hillsides, which required some climbing skills to retrieve.

“I wish I was more surefooted, because the really surefooted people are getting a lot of trash,” said Maryjo Brooks.

Some of the trash was hidden in the brush, she added, and you had to really look for it.

“If you go to the trouble to hide it, why don’t you just pack it out?” she said.

Pam Lohman walked up a hill from the shoreline with bottles clattering inside her black trash bag.

“The kids were drinking illegally so they had to leave it,” she said.

She said she spends a lot of time on Tubbs Hill and wanted to be part of keeping it clean.

There was a reward of sorts in the form of bottled water, coffee and frozen treats. But for most volunteers, that wasn’t their motivation.

Volunteer Charles Buttermore said offering to help, “seemed like the right thing to do.”

Rick Lohman said the trash needed to go and he was glad to do his part to set an example for the younger generation.

“We want to do all we can to protect it for our kids, our grandkids,” he said. “It’s just important to do.”