Potomac Canoe Cleanup

This year’s cleanup event was Sunday, August 3rd, 2025, rain or shine.  (There will be NO RAIN DATE).

We will meet at 8:45 am at the McKimmey Boat Ramp, just off Rte 15 before you get to the Point of Rocks bridge. We will put in and paddle down the Potomac River picking up trash and tires.  The trip will end at Riverside on the Potomac, in Lucketts, VA, around 1 pm where we will haul the trash and tires from the canoes into dumpsters.  The day ends at 2 pm with a pizza lunch.

Drivers will drop off their passengers at the McKimmey Boat Ramp and drive to the take out location at Riverside on the Potomac to park their vehicles.   A driver shuttle van will be waiting at Riverside on the Potomac to take drivers back to the McKinney Boat Ramp.

The event fee is $30 per person.  There will be 2 persons per canoe.  The event fee includes the canoe, paddle, safety vest, river guide, cleanup supplies, and a pizza lunch.  The event fee helps to defray the cost of putting together the event and to avoid “no-shows”.

Volunteers must be at least 18 years old to participate.

Please wear closed-toed shoes and clothes you don’t mind getting wet.  Bring a reusable water bottle, sunscreen, a towel, a hat, and a change of clothes.  **This will be a plastic water bottle-free event.**

There is a limit of 18 canoes for this cleanup event, so sign up to reserve your canoe/spot before they’re all filled up!

This year we also need additional volunteers at the Riverside on the Potomac take-out point starting at 1 pm to help haul trash and tires from the canoes into the dumpsters.  Please consider helping out if you would like participate in this river cleanup activity, but don’t want to be on the water in a canoe.

2025 Potomac River results:

37 volunteers collected 76 tires, eight 55-gallon drums, 1 corrugated plastic culvert, 4 plastic pipes (10 ft long and 20 ft long), 6 bags of trash, 2 full-sized doors, 1 plastic chair, 1 plastic jug, 2 plastic traffic cones, 1 fishing rod, and 1 small toy car.

A huge thank you to Riverside on the Potomac for allowing us again to use the boat ramp on their property again.
A big thank you to Pack Rat for donating two dumpsters again for our canoe cleanup this year – one for trash and one just for the tires. And Gainesville recycling for taking the tires.
Thanks again to Mike Dudash for leading us down the river for another great float and cleanup!
Kudos to the teens of the VT Seva Virginia youth club and Karthik Uppalapati and his crew for helping us haul the canoes and tires out of the water when we were all tired at the end of the float.
A big shout out to Heather and her untiring pick-up truck, making trips back and forth from the trash pile to the dumpsters, until the very end, not stopping until the piles were gone.

2024 Potomac River Cleanup Results

The Potomac River was a bit murky with the recent rains, but with your help, we pulled out 34 tires, six 55-gal plastic drums, 2 lawnmowers, 2 plastic lawn chairs, 1 traffic barrel, 1 inflatable raft, one 5-gal plastic portable gas can, 1 recycling toter, 1 metal lid for a BBQ grill, a portion of a plastic backyard playground set, and 5 bags of trash.  We couldn’t have done it without you!

A big shout-out to Mike Dudash, our river guide and canoe outfitter; Riverside on the Potomac, for allowing us to use their boat ramp.

Thank you to Pack rat hauling of Leesburg for your donation of 2 dumpsters for our canoe cleanup. And covering the costs of the dumping.

Thank you to Gainesville VA Recycling for covering the costs of all the tires we collected on our canoe cleanup.