Spaces available on volunteer trips to clean up Lake Powell

If you don’t mind some hard work, here’s a chance to secure a spot on a free houseboat trip on Lake Powell on the Utah-Arizona border. But act fast if you’re interested, volunteer trips are filling quickly.

The program is called Trash Tracker, and it’s organized by the National Park Service and Lake Powell Resorts & Marinas.

Here’s how it works: You volunteer to pick up garbage and debris that collects on the shore of the dammed lake in Glen Canyon National Recreation Area and you receive free accommodations on a houseboat.

Trips take just four volunteers each and last five to seven days anywhere along the lake’s 1,960-mile shoreline. Participants bring their own food, sleeping bag and personal supplies.

The park’s online website shows just a few spots left on trips from May 12 to 18 and Aug. 11 to 17. Trips leave from the Wahweap Marina in Page, Ariz., and the Bullfrog Marina on the Utah side of the lake.

Volunteers must provide a doctor’s note of fitness (which has to be included in your application), be at least 18 years old and be willing to work picking up trash around eight hours a day.

The National Park Service’s website tells volunteers to expect “to be exposed to rugged, rocky terrain and extreme weather conditions.”

Download the application, doctor’s form and volunteer agreement at the website.

Info: Trash Tracker