Freshly cleaned roads were the work of some 700 volunteers from Eagle County and beyond

Today may be the most beautiful day of the year to drive through Eagle County, thanks to the efforts of roughly 700 volunteers who spent the weekend cleaning up local roads.

Or perhaps the best views will come a bit later this week, once the bright orange bags — filled with an estimated 10 tons of trash — are cleared away.

The Eagle River Coalition’s Community Highway Pride Cleanup saw 63 teams hit the streets on Friday and Saturday, and they were thankfully greeted with good weather for the 26th annual event.

Some teams are well-suited to such a task. The Epic Mountain Express team loaded up a dozen workers into an Epic Mountain Express van, parked it alongside the interstate in Edwards and unleashed the team onto the highway, workers from Glenwood to Dillon included.

Rich Hargarten, from Summit County, said he wondered if passers by on I-70 thought they were prisoners out on work release.

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“Do people think I’m taking a day off from my prison cell?” he joked.

Hargarten said he filled five garbage bags full of garbage, which was about the same as the rest of the 12 or so members of his team.

“The little stuff adds up quick, and there’s a lot of it out here,” he said.

Volunteers who didn’t have a team to join were assigned to a team of free agents led by Gary Brooks with the Eagle River Coalition. Milly Soza and Kimmi Hellman participated for their second year. Hellman said she found much more garbage this year than last year.

Also a free agent, Linn Brooks found one of the most interesting combinations of items — a piece of wheat toast alongside some marijuana paraphernalia.

“I think the bread was able to be as preserved as well as it was because it was toasted,” she said.

Lut Ryckaert with the Epic Mountain Express team found two dollars.

“So I got a little tip today,” she said.

The next community cleanup event held by the Eagle River Coalition will come in September with the annual river cleanup event.