Katelyn Yanchuk loves Lake Nipissing. She moved to the area in 2011, and bought a home in Sturgeon Falls with endless waterways to explore.
Her job is as a manager at a local Winner's store, but her passion is the 900 sq. km lake, the third-largest lake entirely in Ontario, that contributes so much to the economy and recreation of the area.
She spends hours on her Sea-Doo, cruising the shoreline, searching for trash. It's a passion she's had since childhood, growing up on a remote lake west of Sudbury where the community would contribute to shoreline and road cleanups every year. Now, living here, Yanchuk has utilized her Sea-Doo to clean up the shores of Lake Nipissing every spring and fall for the past four years.
"This is our lake, nobody else is going to take care of it for us," she told BayToday. "My friend's children also make memories on these beaches. The last thing I would want is them to need a hospital visit from broken glass."
Yanchuk's faithful companion, Cole, is always by her side on the Sea-Doo. He's a five-year-old Rottweiler-Labrador mix who's been riding with her since he was a year old. Together, they scour the shoreline and collect any trash they find.
Over the years, Katelyn has found some unusual things, including rusty pieces of metal and artifacts from the Manitou Islands. But her favorite finds are "Oakley sunglasses." She also finds Mason jars with cooking grease and oil left over from campers.
She collects the most trash after the spring breakup. Last year was her busiest, with over 30 bags of trash collected off the shorelines. This year has been a later start due to the poor spring, and she's only collected six bags so far. She usually starts in April and finishes in November.
"I always pack a garbage bag even in the summer," she says. "After I spend a day at one of our remote beaches, I always walk down the shoreline and pick up any trash I see."
Yanchuk's clean-up efforts extend beyond just the North Bay shoreline. She also covers the Manitou Islands, Goose Islands, French River area, the back channels of the Upper French, and the Upper Sturgeon River. Last year, she was able to do parts of the West Arm as well. She hopes to spend more time there this summer.
For her, the most puzzling part of what she does is the realization that some people don't respect or aren't grateful for the beauty of the area. She says, "There's nothing in place to clean up these areas. A lot of the garbage is from our fishing season. Our shoreline is full of garbage every spring. I couldn't even imagine what the bottom of our lake looks like."
Her efforts have not gone unnoticed. She says the community of boaters on Lake Nipissing is great, and everyone is super-positive and always thanks her when they see her cleaning up. The amount of garbage collected each year has improved, which Katelyn takes as a sign that others are also cleaning up.
Transporting the garbage on a Sea-Doo can be a bit of a challenge. Katelyn loads it up in the footwells, and sometimes she has to do multiple trips to bring all the garbage to shore.
Both the main marinas in North Bay and Sturgeon have garbage bins, so she is able to dispose of the trash right away.
Yanchuk says her clean-up efforts are uplifting.
"It makes me feel good knowing I'm keeping my dog safe on the beaches, and when my friends come and visit, we can go tan on clean beaches and enjoy the beauty of what is Lake Nipissing "
For her, it's a small price to pay for the love of her lake.
And she has a message for those that litter the lake.
"Every time you litter, Remember a girl and her dog on a Sea-Doo spend their vacations together cleaning up your trash!"
