The Clean Sweep 2026 - Shift 4 Summary
"Learning the Rhythm of the River"
Shift 4 of the Big Muddy Clean Sweep - Monday, August 24 - Sunday, August 30, 2026
By Melanie Knocke, Core Crew Member
Highlights:
8/23 Moving Day: Packed up Mosquito Cove and headed for Baltimore Island (10 miles upstream of Waverly.
8/24 Scouting for Waverly Cleanup and a visit from Kory Kauffman.
8/25 Crew Cleanup Day – a little bit of everything.
8/26 Waverly Community Cleanup - 19 Volunteers
8/27 Moving Day: Said goodbye to Eileen (our food angel) and headed towards Miami. Ended the day watching lunar eclipse by firelight.
8/28 Crew Cleanup Day and a visit by Jim & Ryan Guffy (bearing gifts of gumbo!)
8/29 Scout for Miami Cleanup, a beaver encounter, and fresh fried catfish for dinner.
8/30 Miami Community Cleanup - 33 Volunteers
As we began Day 13 of the Big Muddy Clean Sweep, we found ourselves falling into a rhythm with the river. Before I lay out the rhythm of a typical clean sweep day, though, I thought it would be useful to define some “river terms “we’ve been using a lot around camp. Might make some things easier to understand.
Clean Sweep River Terms
Community Clean Up: 5-30 volunteers meet at 9:00, get briefed on the day, then are taken out to the trashy sites identified during a scout. Groups are usually out picking up trash for 2 hours.
Grab & Go: These are quick trash stops along the bank. It can be as simple as pulling up and grabbing a cooler from atop a wing dike or tying the boat off and spending 15-30 minutes cleaning a small log jam.
Log Jam/Rack Pile: a collection of driftwood/logs that have been caught up along the bank or wing dike– usually a prime source of plastic bottles (that float right alongside the wood). Log jams are Melanie’s happy place. Ryan’s, not so much.
Rip Rap: name of larger rocks covering wing dikes and banks.
Scout: When the crew takes a boat and looks for trashy sites before a community cleanup. Not every place on the river collects trash! So, when a good site is identified, we leave a bright neon yellow sign along the bank to remind us where to park when the volunteers come.
Trash Haul: After volunteers have collected the trash from their site, we usually ask them to leave their trash bags on the bank, and we shuttle the people back to the boat ramp. After the volunteers head home, the crew goes back out on the boat and collect all the bags of trash from the different sites. Back at the ramp, we trailer the fully loaded, trashy boat, pull it out of the water, and drive it up next to the dumpster (that has been dropped off just for our cleanup.) Then, we start tossing everything into the dumpster.
Wing Dike: a long rock pile extending into the river that directs the flow of the water.
A Typical Crew Day
Our days start usually start with sunrise. Tents weren’t exactly designed to block out light, so when the sky gets light, we wake up. Typically, this means between 6:00 and 7:00 am, unless we have a community clean-up scheduled that day and are camping several miles from the local boat ramp. Then, we set the alarm.
If the day is regular crew day, breakfast is informal but filling. Unless it is going to be super-hot, we aim for being in the boats by 9:00. Then, we either do grab & goes on one stretch of the river, or scout for sites for a community clean-up. We are typically out for four hours in the morning. Then, after heading back to camp for a late lunch, we hang out in the shade for a few hours during the heat of the day. (Usually, swimming is involved.) Then, we will head out around for 4:00 for another 2-3 hours of grab and go. Then, it’s back to camp. Whlle dinner is being prepared (thanks Eileen and Alyssa), that’s when the mini count and audit takes place. All of us are really getting good at identifying liquor bottles, something I wasn’t expecting when I signed up for the clean sweep! After dinner, it’s campfire time!
A Typical Community Cleanup
During the Clean Sweep, there are 10 community cleanups scheduled. These are earlier days for us, requiring that we get to the local boat ramp by 8:00. Typically, we are camping 6-8 miles from the ramp, so it takes about 20-30 minutes by boat to get to the ramp. Usually, one boat is loaded with trash from previous crew cleanups, which requires trailering the boat, pulling it out of the water and unloading all the trash into the dumpster before any volunteers arrive. Then, we clean and launch the boat again. Next, we start setting up the registration table and getting out all the supplies (life jackets, water bottles, gloves, t-shirts).
While two crew members are doing orientation and the safety briefing, the other crew is busy packing up supplies. Once everyone has their life jackets on, the volunteers get on the boats and are taken to their trash sites. By noon, everyone is back at the ramp and we then go out of the trash haul. Usually we are back at camp by 2:00-3:00, where we either collapse, or go swimming. Sometimes, if it’s not too hot, the crew will head out and do another grab and go. It’s all about the trash! Then, once again, it’s mini-counting time, dinner, and campfire.
8/24 - Visit by Kory Kauffmann and laundry day
For our first night on Baltimore Island, it rained. After a breakfast by Eileen, we headed for the Waverly boat ramp to pick up Kory Kauffman, who not only was volunteering on the Scout that day, but also provided the crew with dinner and breakfast the next morning! After scout, some of us attempted laundry for the first time this trip. I decided to start slowly, using a Folger’s coffee can to wash out two pairs of pants. It was reasonably successful!
Shift 4 Highlights!
8/25 - Demise of the SeaDoo
After a delicious breakfast by Kory, I really went to town on the SeaDoo that was beached on the bank of the island. It reminded me of the one my parents used to own – which hit a little too close to home. I was able to remove most of the mud from the engine compartment and, after cutting through some wires and hoses, was able to remove several of the mechanical bits as well.
After a morning grab & go and another round of laundry, Kevin got out the battery operated angle grinder and he, Matt, and I tackled the SeaDoo in earnest. It only took removing one bolt (and cutting a side out of the engine compartment) to pull the engine out. Matt and Kevin had the body cut into bits in about 30 minutes. It was so satisfying!
After a second grab & go, we brought the boat right up to the lip of the bank where the SeaDoo pieces rested – and pushed all the pieces onto the boat. End of the SeaDoo on Baltimore Island
8/26 - Waverly Clean Up - 19 Volunteers - 25 Bags of Trash - 3 Tires
One highlight for the kids from Malta Bend was finding a tire on a rim. They were most perplexed. There are no cars around here? Where did it come from?
8/27 - Moving Day and an Eclipse
Said goodbye to Eileen at Waverly (she will be back in a few days) and made our way towards Miami. Because of the remote location of our next camp, there were no volunteer shift crew joining us, only the five core crew members. Ended the day with a campfire, watching the partial lunar eclipse. Nice!
8/28 - Log Jams, Rack Piles, and Gumbo
Today started at a massive log jam. We took two boats and all five of the crew worked on this one log jam for almost 3 hours. We ended up with 25 bags of trash, a large propane tank and a few other large goodies.
As we worked, we were visited by Jay, a paddler who was making his way down the entire Missouri River. We shared a cold drink and some stories.
Took a small break for lunch, then did grab & goes on three more log jams. All in all, we collected 31 bags of trash. That night Jim Guffy and his son Ryan stopped by camp on their pontoon. Jim brought a big pot of gumbo for dinner. Delicious!
8/29 - Scouting for Miami Cleanup, Beaver Encounter, and Catfish for Dinner
Jim and Ryan stayed overnight and helped us scout for the Miami Cleanup the next day. We found four great trashy sights. It was hot, so we came back to camp for lunch and a break in the shade. Around 4:00, we all went back out for a grab & go. Dropping Ryan and Kevin off on the side of the bank, the rest of us tackled a floating trash eddy. We ended up with 6 bags of trash, a mini fridge, a huge bucket and an overflowing bucket of minis bottles.
When we picked up Kevin and Ryan, they told us about a beaver Ryan had spooked out from under a root ball along the bank. The beaver came barreling out and face-planted on Ryan’s blue bag. After some scuffling, the beaver escaped the tangle of the bag and slid into the river, leaving Ryan stunned, but unscathed.
For dinner, Jim cooked up some fried catfish that he had caught earlier that day. Delicious.
8/30 - Miami Community Cleanup - 33 Volunteers - 68 bags of trash - 9 tires
We were up at 6:00 and on the water by 7:20 to make it to the Miami boat ramp by 8:00. The ramp was busy with fishermen launching and pulling out their boats, which made our trash haul a little interesting. Parking was also a challenge, but everyone was understanding and got where they needed to go. We had a total of 33 volunteers. My boat took out students from Rockhurst College in KC – and they all got into some serious mud and 12 bags of trash!
8/31 - Moving Day – On to Dalton Bottoms and Shift 5.
Stretch Results:
- Miles: 27
- Volunteers:
- Shift crew: 7
- Waverly Community Cleanup – 19
- Miami Community Cleanup - 33
- Trash:
- Bags: 191
- Tires: 21
- Refrigerators: 1
- Mini bottles: 1,723