The Coalition of American Canyoneers sponsored the second Eaton Canyon cleanup on Saturday, October 25. Twenty-five people attended, split into two teams. One team descended the entire canyon. The second ascended from the bottom until they met the first.
There are many ways to deal with graffiti. None are great and each has a trade off. One aspect of the process is to end up with a “graffiti canvas” that is less appealing to the tagger. Rough surfaces don’t seem to acquire as much graffiti as smooth, so by painting on cement and then throwing dirt/sand on it, the canvas is not as attractive. However, the smooth, hard granite does not lend itself to cement sticking very well. In August, we tried chipping the rock with hammers, but that proved to be physically demanding work and we did not make much headway. This time the focus was on covering the graffiti with a mixture of Portland cement and sand. By comparison, we covered a huge amount of territory on the second cleanup.
However, there is still much more in the canyon. At some point in the future, CAC will schedule a third event. For that one, we will need at least 25 people to ascend from the bottom and finish the job.
Thank you to everyone who attended. You are great ambassadors for Eaton Canyon and canyoneering. For those of you would like to help with this and other projects in the future, please join the Coalition of American Canyoneers. It is free.
http://www.americancanyoneers.org/join-now/
Donations to help us cover the cost of materials are always welcome.