FITNESS AUTHOR
Emily Effren
KEEPING AUSTIN TRAILS CLEAN n How one new group of runners is working to Keep Austin Clean.
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n the morning on a couple of Sundays a month, a group of Austinite runners gather along one of the many trails in the area — not to run or make their new PR, but to pick up any trash that lines the trail. After having to stay inside during the beginning of COVID-19, RAW Runners and friends Jordan Whittle and Collin Findlay formed a subgroup of the running group dedicated to cleaning the trails: the Clean Trail Club. “We figured it would be a great way to give back to the community that has given us, as runners, so much. So, we started picking up trash every other weekend, and it’s
NOVEMBER 2020
just such an easy way to give back and take care of the trail that has taken care of us,” co-founder of the Clean Trail Club, Jordan Whittle, says. The Clean Trail Club normally picks up trash along the Ann and Roy Butler Hike and Bike Trail around Town Lake as well as parts of Shoal Creek, because both are heavily frequented and central to the city, Whittle says. “We pick up probably like 10 big trash bags full of trash each time we go out,” Whittle says. Over the course of the last few months, the group has grown to have around 25 to 30 regulars for each cleaning day, Whittle says. To
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be respectful during the pandemic, everyone in the group wears a mask and practices social distancing. In addition, once everyone gets to the meeting location, the group will split up into smaller groups, and everyone will meet back up at a designated time — to figure out who wins the Golden Bucket. To conclude each meeting, the Clean Trail Club member who finds the coolest or most interesting piece of trash will receive the Golden Bucket, and the winner will get to choose the clean-up location for the CTC’s next meeting. Over the course of one cleanup, Whittle says, even though they only cover about a one-mile radius
