About 45 volunteers met at Wildwood Inn, were transported upriver to Buckaloons, and started paddling their way downstream from there, picking up garbage along the way.

“Beautiful weather, wonderful people, and lots of trash pulled from the river,” organizer Nate Welker said. “The water is very low this year, so we are finding a lot of new old stuff.”

At one point, a group of paddlers located an old, corrugated metal pipe on the bank. They decided to haul it out.

The 20-foot-long rusty pipe was longer than the volunteers’ canoes. And, those canoes already held numerous heavy items – a television and a Keurig were found not 100 feet from the pipe.

Times Observer photos by Brian Ferry Allegheny River Cleanup volunteers (from left) Piper VanOrd, Steve Bastow, Juliet Lande, Kyle Yaegle, and Phoenix Lindell wait for help with a 20-foot-long section of corrugate metal pipe.

The volunteers hauled the pipe across two canoes and called for Welker to pick it up with the effort’s motor boat.

The event continues through Saturday, focusing on sections of the river that bracket the miles covered on Thursday.

On Friday, volunteers will put in at Wildwood and work their way downriver to Tidioute. The work on Saturday will start at Allegheny Outfitters in Warren and move downstream to Buckaloons.

Welker said he is hopeful that the weather will continue over the next two days of the cleanup.

Allegheny River Cleanup volunteers (from left) Phoenix Lindell, Kyle Yaegle, Juliet Lande, and Chris Check work on moving a television from the riverbank to a canoe.