Minnehaha Creek cleanup volunteers keep the pigs at bay

Someone smarter than a blogger is going to have to explain how a Jerry Garcia “Run for the Roses” cassette tape ends up in the Minnehaha Creek watershed.

It’s one of the pieces of junk pulled out of the waterway from Lake Minnetonka to Minnehaha Falls over the weekend when 2,000 people showed up to try to undo what pigs did.

“They come from all across the Twin Cities because the lakes and our creek here are why we love living in Minnesota,” Telly Mamayek, a spokeswoman with the Minnehaha Creek Watershed District, told KARE 11.

We love the heck out of the venues we hold dear, which doesn’t explain why so many of us can’t be bothered to clean up after ourselves when enjoying them.

The Star Tribune says the effort scooped up about five tons of trash, about a ton more than last year.

Here are some of the items pulled out:

Shopping carts
A 42-inch flat screen TV
A rainbow bow tie
A car door
A molar with roots still attached
A coconut with a carved depiction of a human face

This is the tenth year of the annual cleanup. Six years ago, volunteers picked up a ton of trash.

The effort comes just a few weeks after divers on Lake Minnetonka pulled out 15 bags of trash boaters left behind from the July Fourth celebration.