Yellowknife (June 11/03) - The Ingraham Trail is now sparkling clean, but those who cleaned it say it won't last long.

Norah Higden shows off some garbage she and others collected on the Ingraham Trail recently. - Cheryl Robinson/NNSL photo

Members of the Ingraham Trail Land Holder's Association and several volunteers were out over the weekend ridding the highway of garbage, but as they cleaned, more appeared.

France Benoit said in the time it took her to clean her two-kilometre stretch of highway, people had already thrown more garbage into her freshly cleaned area.

"These people had seen our garbage bags and knew what we were doing, but still there were three beer cans dropped on the side of the road," said Benoit.

The land holder's association and volunteers filled two pickup trucks of garbage.

"I found it very dirty this year," said Benoit.

Because the highway is now paved, Benoit said, people are using it more often, resulting in more garbage.

"I found a loaded diaper," said Norah Higden, who worked on her day off from Con Mine to help clean up.

Besides the reappearing garbage, Benoit said, there was an excellent amount of participation in this year's cleanup.

She and several others even went through the stacks of garbage to salvage all the recyclable materials.