GLASGOW - “Oh look at this! This is terrible.” Spotting a half-dozen irregular, white shapes dotting the green grass along the shoulder of U.S. Highway 101 near the McCullough Bridge, Pat Miles clambered over the guardrail. Using her EZ Grabber, Miles furiously began to pick up plastic bags and fast food wrappers.

She shook her head, gray curls wavering in the breeze from passing semi-trucks, as she surveyed the grass for any other offenders. Using the long handtool, featuring two suction cups at the end, she expertly stuffed wrappers into her bulging bag of trash.

Dedicated litter monitors, Miles and her neighbor, Marvel Torres, walk several miles a week and pick up more than 45 pounds of trash along East Bay Drive and Highway 101. In the last five years, the 69-year-old women have cleaned up thousands of pounds of trash, and said they've seen it all: clothes, towels, cans, lawn furniture, bottles - even refrigerators and microwaves.

“We've gotten everything from floor mats to computer pieces and car parts,” Torres said, her face crinkling into a wide grin.

“The bigger items that we can't pick up, we try to move away from the road and then convince my husband to come back and pick them up,” Miles added with a chuckle.

Dressed in durable clothes, walking shoes, sweatshirts and bright orange safety vests, the women start out at Miles' house on Bluebird Lane. Traveling up East Bay Drive, past the Glasgow Store and up the first hill on their 3-mile, tri-weekly journey. Neighbors hollered hellos and traffic slowed. Drivers honked and waved at Miles and Torres, who seem to have been adopted as Glasgow's own litter-bug mascots.

“We're the bag ladies of East Bay Drive,” Torres said with a soft laugh.

Looting litter

A habit that started out as a weekly walk for exercise quickly turned into a community service. According to Torres, it's all the “neatnik's doing.”

“We started picking up trash as we walked, but I told Pat I wouldn't pick up cigarette butts,” Torres said. “But before long, I was doing that, too.”

On Tuesday morning, the women walked quickly, stopping every 3 feet or so to pick up a half-dozen cigarette butts and a few bright orange Taco Bell sauce packets. Like egrets searching the marsh for fish and edible creatures, Miles and Torres eyeballed the tiniest bit of plastic, paper or cloth, before grasping the trash and tucking it away.

Near East Bay Drive, neighbors in Glasgow appreciate the time and effort that Miles and Torres provide.

“It's hard to imagine how many people who have actually taken the time to stop their cars and say thank you,” Miles said. “Business owners, people on their way to work, lots of people.”

Their neighborhood notoriety follows the cleaner roadsides and grassy shoulders they leave in their wake; areas Miles said have grown noticeably less littered over the last five years.

“I think it's a big community service. Areas on the highway will note groups that clean up the shoulders, but we don't have anything like that out here,” said Glasgow neighbor Buddy Hincke. “They're past the age most people would walk at all and here they are picking up trash - for free and no credit.”

But to the bag ladies, the trash isn't just trash. Sometimes there are a few keepsakes.

“We've found wedding pictures, keys - we find so much lost treasure,” Miles said. “We try to get it back home if we can.

“We also recycle everything we can,” she added. “Clothing gets washed and we donate it to the church or the Goodwill. We save all the cans for Marvel's church, too.”

“People, don't realize when they throw things ‘away,' there is no ‘away.' It all stays here on earth,” Torres agreed. “And there's got to be a better place for it than on the road.”

A trash trek

Miles and Torres bickered amiably as they trekked down the highway, braving the traffic to cross four lanes to the other side. The pair laughed about former tumbles, scrapes and risky climbs along the shoulder to grab every bit of litter.

The two women have had their share of misadventures, including a tumble during a walk along the highway. Torres fell onto the pavement after a stone turned under her foot, leaving Miles clinging to her by the back of her sweater.

“We scared a driver so bad he thought he'd hit us!” Miles laughed. “He pulled over and made sure we were OK.”

“My glasses went flying - I was so embarrassed,” Torres said, with a self-conscious giggle.

All joking aside, the women work as a team, watching for traffic on sharp curves, helping one another over guardrails and across the highway. Without a partner, picking up trash would be a lot more difficult - and not nearly as much fun, Torres said with a smile.

“We have a really good time. We argue, laugh and cut up,” Miles agreed. “We're great friends.”

Although the hazards of traffic, unpredictable weather and possible health problems might keep some people from walking the roads looking for litter, the bag ladies said they didn't have any plans to give up their trash habit.

“We'll do it ‘till we can't anymore,” Torres said.

“I have no intention of stopping!” Miles agreed, with a laugh.