Report: Someone Else to Pick Up Discarded GU Packet

Photo by Taylor Swayze on Unsplash

Someone else will pause to collect an empty energy gel packet lying on a local trail, Dumb Runner has learned.

The packet, which appeared to be a GU brand gel in strawberry or strawberry-banana flavor—"something red," a witness said—was spotted on the Lower Amigos trail, around 2 1/2 miles past the trailhead. The top of the packet had been ripped open. It was unclear who dropped the packet or how long it had been there.

Joseph Tribbiani, a local trail running enthusiast, saw the packet during his run this morning.

"It was red, so I noticed it right away," he said. "I didn't bother stopping to pick it up. Someone else will grab it, I'm sure."

"I mean, it's not like it's gonna be there forever," he added. "Right?"

A string of successive trail users encountered the piece of litter and arrived at the same conclusion.

"Ugh," another runner, Rachel Green, recalled thinking when she noticed the garish piece of garbage, a stark contrast to its verdant surroundings. "Who does that? Probably the next person who sees it will pick it up."

Subsequent runners, walkers, and at least one cyclist who saw the discarded packet asked themselves why they should be the ones to pause and collect someone else's trash; why the person who dropped the packet didn't pick it up himself or herself; and, rhetorically, were they supposed to pick up every single piece of litter they saw?

None bent down to pick up the GU packet.

In a related story, Dumb Runner has also learned that someone else will stop to pick up a knotted bag of dog poop on the same trail.

"Maybe the dog's owner is coming back for it," said a source, who asked to remain anonymous.