By sundown the day after this year's End to End walk, the Railway Trail was cleared of litter left by walkers.

And the May 1 walk will raise a projected $160,000 in pledged money, its Route Master has claimed.

End to End Walk route master Eugene Carmichael walked the route and cleared the Railway Trail himself, tidying up after water station volunteers policed their surrounding areas.

"I didn't mind. I walked the trail and picked up 37 bags of trash,'' Mr.

Carmichael said on Friday. "Most of that was not trash our walkers had left.

It had accumulated over the year.'' Mr. Carmichael was responding to a Letter to the Editor on Thursday in which the writer "Keep Bermuda Clean'' claimed to be "disgusted'' at the amount of trash left by walkers.

The letter writer was on the trail the day after the walk to find bottle caps, paper, bottles, and trash.

"A sad commentary on these walkers and on the organisers,'' the letter writer wrote, adding they hoped organisers clean it up and use the pledges to pay for the clean up if necessary.

But Mr. Carmichael denied the charity walk's organisers were unaware of the problem.

He said: "It is a big event and they do generate refuse. We are aware of this and from the first walk 13 years ago we try to go the entire route and clean it up.'' However, Mr. Carmichael did condemn the practice of heaving plastic bottles and other trash deep into the underbrush, saying "that attitude is extremely environmentally unfriendly''.

He said in addition to water station crews using plastic trash bags donated by the MarketPlace stores, the Ministry of Works and Engineering provided garbage barrels.

"Unfortunately, people who've walked long distances tend to suffer from fatigue and we find the bottles just dropped by the roadside,'' Mr. Carmichael explained.

Speaking about the walk in general, Mr. Carmichael said organisers were pleased with the turnout of 847 walkers who had turned in $130,000 the weekend of the event.

"We are very, very encouraged by those figures. Those charities are going to get a real big boost,'' he said.

In 13 years, the End to End Walk has generated $1.3 million in donations to 51 local charities.

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