iPhones, purses, skateboards, scooters and nitrous oxide containers — these are just some of the items that Sue and Darrell Kupka find on their morning walks on the Los Gatos Creek Trail.
For about 18 months, the husband, 71, and wife, 69, quietly took up pickers and grocery bags and collected trash along the trail. While they weren’t interested in any publicity for their actions, they became familiar faces to other regular walkers.
“They seem to be very supportive of us, of what we do,” Darrell Kupka said.
The cleanups started after the Kupkas made a New Year’s resolution to walk every day. When they would go out in the morning, Sue Kupka said, they saw a lot of trash on the trail and thought that they “might as well pick it up” and help those who oversee the parks and trails.
The Kupkas said they have found helmets, clothes and IDs while walking their regular loop from Oak Meadow Drive to Lark Avenue and back. After picking up some of these lost belongings, they would try to return whatever IDs they found to their rightful owners and donated any clothes that were left behind to Goodwill if they weren’t picked up after a few days.
They often found litter by the fishing holes near Vasona Percolating Dam. Under the dam, they found fishing poles and line, empty cans and bottles and bread wrappers.
“A lot of fishing line,” Darrell Kupka said. “The geese, every now and again, it gets wrapped up in their legs and it’s not a good thing.”
Sue Kupka said they collect one or two grocery bags of trash every day, with the most trash they collected in one day filling four or five bags.
“We actually have people saving bags for us,” she added.
The couple credited their environmental streak to backpacking and camping campaigns that encouraged people to not litter in natural environments. They echoed Woodsy Owl’s motto, “Give a hoot, don’t pollute,” and “pack it in, pack it out,” which is associated with Leave No Trace principles promoted in the 1980s and 1990s.
The couple encourages others to help keep Vasona and other Los Gatos parks trash-free.
“In our situation, the park, they do such a great job,” Sue Kupka said of Vasona staff. “We just feel like it’s such a beautiful park that if we can do something to help out and maybe ease their load a little bit, why not?”
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