JUNKRAFT

June 26th

“Only 100 miles to go!” No sooner were the words out of Marcus’s mouth, when I felt my bike sag - flat tire number 9! Fortunately, this was to be our last. We had just met with our friends at the Surfrider office in Dana Point, to discuss some future projects with Algalita and Surfrider’s Rise Above Plastics campaign.

With thoughts of Mexican food on our minds, we quickly fixed our flat and pushed on towards San Diego, to put up our last display at the International Surfing Day event hosted by Revolt In Style. Here, we had a chance to chat about solutions to pollution with a host of surfers and onlookers. For example, avoiding plastic bottles, a common offender at outdoor events,  by using stainless steel bottles. Ecousable, our favorite, offers a bottle with a built in filter - which we’ve been using throughout our journey.

We then satisfied our Mexican cravings in Old Town San Diego - some of the best guacamole yet, and set out on the last and final leg: to Tijuana.

2,000 miles cycling, 9 flat tires, 40 talks, meeting with 5 mayors, and many joyful (some painful) hours in the saddle later, we finally crossed the border!

We wheeled our bikes through the teeming throngs of Tijuana craziness just far enough to grab a celebratory Margarita, toast our amazing journey, and head back home.

Its been an amazing adventure, and we are incredibly grateful for of the essential help we’ve had along the way - from friends and strangers,  from our wonderful sponsors, from the Surfrider chapters and local non-profits all working towards the same goal as we are - trying to create a more livable legacy for the future.

Here’s a video wrap up of our 3 months on the road:

Now back in Los Angeles, we’re readjusting to life in the fast lane, and beginning to think about our next projects: A host of new school outreach programs based on JUNKride, synthetic chemicals in our bodies, organic/local food, and bike culture. A research expedition to the North and South Atlantic gyres in Jan/Feb. Further research into plastic particles in ocean sediments. And our future goal of starting a school/museum/sustainability center here in Los Angeles. Stay tuned, and keep in touch!

May 18th, Chico CA. Temperature: HOT!

After 6 weeks of wearing every single item of Patagonia gear donated to JUNKride, we’re quickly shedding layers. Goodbye temperate coastal rainforest, hello inland California – mid May, and its already upwards of 100 degrees!

Since our last talk at Humboldt State, we’ve been in travel mode, crossing the Trinities to get to our next round of events in Chico, Sacramento, and San Francisco. We’re in for a busy few weeks, so this period of riding, climbing, hydrating, and climbing some more has been a great time to reflect. Especially on all of the amazing supporters/friends that have allowed us to get here.

The first 6-mile climb had us silently thanking Ecousable, one of our key supporters. Ecousable founder Joey

Ecousable bottles w/ filter

Mendelsohn kept Marcus and Joel hydrated with 150 stainless steel bottles on JUNKraft, provided generous financial support, and didn’t hesitate to offer the same for JUNKride. We’re both carrying his latest product on our bikes – a stainless steel bottle with built in filter, allowing us to fill up at any gas station or roadside fountain, and instantly sip filtered water. Note: this photo was weeks ago, thus the warm weather gear.

“Thank god we at least took some spin classes in LA!” panted Marcus during climb number 2. Though we were too crazed to train as we should have, we were able to get in decent shape thanks to Revolution Fitness in Santa Monica. Revolution sponsored us with as many spin classes as we could squeeze in  highly appreciated during these monster ascents.

The next 2800 climb turned our thoughts to food. “Kashi granola and peanut butter sounds pretty good about now”, mused Marcus. During JUNKraft’s 3-month epic journey, Marcus and Joel lived for a few weeks on Kashi cereal, before running into Roz Savage. Kashi continued their support by sponsoring JUNKride. Sadly, we couldn’t fit 10 pounds of granola on our bikes….

Instead, we stopped for a typical picnic of tomatoes, avocados, peppers and cheese wrapped in a few whole-wheat tortillas, and reflected on our JUNKride to date. We’ve had a chance by now to speak with thousands of people, give gyre samples to two Mayors, speak with a dozen reporters, and share our message with hundreds of school children. And we’ve come to a few conclusions about what we think needs to change to truly tackle this throwaway plastics issue, a symptom of  some basic flaws in our consumer culture. Stand by for a detailed account: in a nutshell: education, legislation, industry cooperation, smarter consumer choices, and cradle to cradle design. No one said it would be easy…..

We finished the day with a glorious 7-mile descent into Willow Creek, the Bigfoot Capitol of America. We stayed at the Bigfoot Motel, shared a bottle of Bigfoot Red, and took a few pix with Sasquatch himself before

Made it to the top!

logging in at least another 7,000 feet or so of climbing. Some of the most spectacular riding of the entire journey, through terrain that made us want to disappear into a small town, pan for gold, play music at the local pub, and revel in the scenery.

Our next talk however beckons, so we continue to Chico, where we’re hosted by the GRUB collective on an amazing 40-acre farm. We begin our talk in less than an hour, and then hop right on our bikes to make 20 miles of night riding towards Sacramento, so details will wait until the next post!

Watch the first few weeks of our ride here - through Washington and Oregon, meeting the Mayor of Portland, having Anna’s blood drawn for toxic analysis, and meeting a sea lion entangled in fishing line.

We’re now gearing up to cross the California border - been a few days of raging winds and light rains, recap to follow. First, 40 miles to make to Klamath!

April 29th, Florence, Oregon

Relaxing with our laptops in front of a fireplace in Florence, Oregon after a great event in Newport and a phenomenal 60-mile ride down the coast, we’re both incredibly grateful for this opportunity. A chance to reconnect with real people and beautiful places – and recharge the battery that urban life has a way of draining.

We spent Sunday in Newport, catching up on emails and errands, and reveling in the spectacular setting. Though we were strangers in town, Newport turned out to have a familiar feel – everywhere we went, we saw flyers advertising our event, and met people who recognized our mission, “Are you those plastic folks on bikes? Yeah, we heard something about you…”

This was all thanks to Charlie Plybon, Newport’s Surfrider chair, and tireless organizer. We even heard him referred to as “King Charlie” by John, the owner of a convenience store where we stopped in to take advantage of the “free internet” sign posted outside. John also told us about a Sea Lion that held court daily on the dock, with a fishing line trapped around its neck.

We immediately went to investigate. Sure enough, flopped on the dock, amongst a group of grunting, puppy-faced blubber balls, one Sea Lion had a distinct collar cut deep into its neck – remnants of a synthetic line. Its one thing to state – as we often do in our presentation – that hundreds of thousands of marine creatures die due to entanglement. It’s another thing entirely to watch a beautiful animal trapped in a piece of our garbage.

Fortunately, the fishermen in the area seemed on board with our mission. Fishing is a way of life in coastal Oregon, and those we spoke to were the first to agree that we need to protect marine resources. One even agreed to an impromptu interview on the dock. And doing our part to support the local economy, we bought some fresh crabs and local, wild caught Salmon, which our friend/filmmaker Elan Glasser slow roasted on a cedar plank over hot coals, and paired with a local Pinot. Even activists need luxury at times….

Our final, critical mission before Monday’s talk: outfitting Marcus in some padded bike shorts. The 60-mile ride from Corvallis was the final straw pushing him to set aside pride, and don lycra. Elan and I had a good laugh, as he quipped, “even Marines wear spandex”.

Monday night, we rode over to the Hatfield Marine Science Center for “Synthetic Sea”, the widely publicized event featuring our talk, and 3 other panelists discussing marine debris issues. Charlie’s flyering and

Talking in Newport, with girdled turtle in background

outreach efforts paid off – a great crowd turned out for the event.  And 59 audience members signed Surfrider’s pledge to avoid disposable plastic bags! Little by little, we’re seeing shifts from the ground up.

From Newport, we headed south, perhaps the most beautiful stretch of this entire ride. Lush, forested cliffs meet wild, sweeping coastlines, seemingly untouched in parts. Makes one feel a sense of hope, that there are still unspoiled places, at least to the naked eye….

(MARCUS) “Let’s ride our bikes,” Anna said.
“Nah… let’s leave ‘em.  We’ve got to bring the kids to school,” I replied.  Anna’s two young cousins, Jake and Conner, go to school a mile from here at Catlin Gable School, where we’re due to speak in a few minutes.   We might as well drive because we’re going to the hospital right after that.  Her sister Julie is a plastic surgeon at the Orgeon Health and Science University Hospital.  She’s got a 12-hour reconstructive surgery today, but will scrub out at noon to draw Anna’s blood.

After a couple school presentations, we drove across town, and walked into the Emergency Room to meet Julie.  With camera in hand, I hovered like the paparazzi photographing the drama of it all.  Anna didn’t wince a bit when the needle didn’t stick the first time.  The other arm flowed like a geyser, filling one tube after another.  Then off to the lab to separate the clot from the serum in a centrifuge.  For those who don’t wince at the sight of needles, you can watch the whole thing here: What’s in your blood? We’re sending Anna’s serum to the AXYS Lab in Vancouver, BC to search for persistent organic pollutants (POPs) in her body.

(ANNA) After devouring a big spinach salad (Doctor’s orders, to replenish my iron), we headed downtown for our next event, a big “Ban The Bag” event put on by Wend Magazine and Surfrider Foundation at Keen Headquarters. This one will go down as a trip highlight. Stiv Wilson and his team at Wend put on a top notch gathering - over 300 people showed up, including Portland’s Mayor Sam Adams! We had a chance to give him a gyre sample, shake his hand, and film him stating publicly his interest in pushing the bag ban forward.

The opportunity to hand deliver a gyre sample to an influential legislator is exactly what we’re hoping for on this trip. 2 weeks ago, we gave a sample to the Mayor of Edmonds, thanks to council member Strom Peterson. Next step: a public meeting on April 28th, 7:00pm. Seattle and Edmonds, this is the time to speak out!

If you can’t attend in person (Public Safety Complex, 250 5th Ave N) you can still send an email to the council: (spellman@ci.edmonds.wa.us), and/or to the Edmonds Beacon (editor@edmondsbeacon.com) and Enterprise (edmonds@heraldnet.com)

We’ll be keeping tabs on Portland as well. As Mayor Adams cautioned, this will not be an easy battle, the industry will push back, so public involvement is KEY.

Next up: Salem, Corvallis, and then to Newport for another big event with Surfrider and other panelists at the Aquarium. Join us if you’re in the area!

We’re in Portland for a few thankfully sunny days, gearing up for our big event with Wend magazine and Surfrider on Tuesday. The all ages eco bash at Keen Headquarters will feature singer/songwriter Micah Wolf, beverages from Alaskan Beer and Barefoot wines, with proceeds to support Portland’s Surfrider chapter Ban The Bag campaign.

We’re excited to rock our new “Bike Speak” at the Wend event, a custom built bicycle sound system from our friend Paul aka Fossil Fool, founder of Rock The Bike. The system is designed to work in tandem with our bike blender, so we can pedal to generate the juice to power our microphone and tunes!

Here are a few professional pix from our Olympia Surfrider event, thanks for Surfrider photographer Kathy Greer:

We’re staying now in Portland with my sister and brother in law, Julie and Paul Hansen, both brilliant surgeons who are graciously throwing an informal gathering at their gorgeous home tonight. We’ll have a chance to share our message with a new audience over home made tacos, beer, and lots of cookies.

Julie will also be taking my blood on Monday or Tuesday, to test my body for levels of PCBs, DDTs, and other chemicals known to stick to plastic particles. More news on that to come. Meantime, balancing out what can at times be the sobering side environmental doom and gloom by getting out and enjoying Oregon’s natural beauty. Here are some shots of yesterdays hike with some good friends, off the Columbia River gorge. Amazing, to have this outside ones back door. Lets hope Portland’s stunning beauty can help people pass a ban/fee to keep plastics out of our watersheds!

There is nothing quite like unexpected kindness when you’re on the road. In the last few days, we’ve had our share of spontaneous hospitality, a good reminder to offer this in turn, whenever we’re in a position to do so.

Our soggy departure from Seattle took us down Vashon Island - densely wooded, lush Northwest rainforest. We mostly rode inland, but had a few glimpses of the shoreline, scattered with logs, ferns and pines touching the gravelly beach.

After 20 miles of riding in the rain, the hospitality of Mindy Roberts and Jim Gawel was a warm welcome. They threw together an impromptu dinner party to greet us - salmon and halibut medallions baked in a filo dough, carmelized squash, sautéed young asparagus, and for dessert, warm chocolate chip brownies a la mode, served with ice wine and coffee port. Good thing we’re burning the calories! Mindy and Jim are both experts in the field - Jim is a professor of Environmental Science at the University of Tacoma, and Mindy is a water quality specialist with the city. Needless to say, dinner conversation turned to trash.

Next stop, Olympia, where we gave a talk with Surfrider at the Capitol Theater downtown. Riding into Olympia, we watched oil leaking from a Diesel truck pour into an open storm drain, while a clean up crew scrambled to staunch the flow. This is exactly how our plastic debris enters the oceans. From our streets, to storm drains, to rivers, to the sea.

Later that evening, over a beer at the Fish Tale, we asked Shannon Serrano, chair of the Seattle and beyond Surfrider chapters, where Olympia was in introducing a bag ban/fee.  “People here are waiting to see what happens in Seattle”, she replied. This seems to be true for many smaller municipalities – after the ACC incident last year, all eyes are on Seattle to see if they succeed this time around. Go People for Puget Sound!

Set out the next morning on perhaps our most beautiful ride yet – lazy backcountry roads meandering through pastoral farmlands, cows and sheep grazing on dewy fields, even a few classic red barns dotting the hillsides. We were tempted to stop in Centralia – especially Marcus, who still hasn’t given into the idea of padded shorts (wondering how long he’ll hold out) but pushed on.

From Centralia, the map showed a few more sizable towns where in theory we might find a motel before the final push into Portland. Dark clouds began rolling in. “Lets stop at the next farm and ask for directions”. We both spotted a lone woman, wearing jeans and a flannel shirt, dragging a large wooden fencepost to a hole she had dug.

“That’s not a sight we often see in Los Angeles!” She looked up and smiled, warm blue eyes and an easy laugh. We told her we were looking for a nearby hotel, and stopped to chat for a bit. “If it’s just a place to stay you’re looking for, we’ve got a guest room…” Marcus shot me a look, eager to get off his sore saddle for a bit. “Well….” we played out the hotel scenario – she called ahead to the closest motel, the “Paws Inn”, only to find out that it’s a pet hotel. “So were you serious about that guest room?”

Within half an hour, Marcus was busily digging ditches and stringing up her fence, while I cooked Gumbo (of all things) in her kitchen. By sunset, the fence was fixed, dinner was on the table, and we both felt better about taking her up on the offer. A perfect serendipity! She was equally appreciative of the mini plastics presentation we gave over dinner, and stunned to see our Gyre sample. “I suppose part of the solution is simply educating one person at a time….” She remarked.

Another 70 miles, and we finally made it to Portland!

Here, we with the most luxury accommodations we’ll likely see on this trip. Pam, the owner of a gorgeous B+B called the Heron Haus, had read about JUNKride, and offered up a room pro bono. Having volunteered for years with the Marine Mammal center in San Francisco, environmental issues are close to her heart. She gave us the spa room, cooked us a beautiful breakfast, and took some time to chat debris. A good nights sleep before the next days presentation was the best support imaginable!

One day outside of Seattle, and were finally experiencing the true Pacific Northwest – steady, cold rains, with views spectacular enough to distract (at least somewhat) from the deluge.

6 events in 4 days gave us less time than we needed to keep our blog up to date, so were finally catching up over a toe-warming latte in Steilacoom, reflecting on our jam packed time in Seattle.

We rode in last Wednesday afternoon from Edmonds, stopping on the way for a few orders of spring rolls before heading to the home of my old college buddy Grady Karp, his wife Stephanie, and their little girl Phoebe. I think she’s headed for cutest creature on a bike award….

Our first night here, we gave a talk at Fremont Studios to a group of graphic designers, thanks to AIGA and Mohawk papers. Without a doubt one of the hippest venues we’ve spoken in yet – a huge, funky movie/commercial set space, with an intimate screening room. We were met there by the effusively friendly Kelly Chrey, a woman I’d met months ago at the Go Green Expo in LA, and our link to AIGA. We met a few graphic designers interested in helping out, which we will gladly take them up on!

Spoke the next morning to two big groups of students at Salmon Bay School, a wonderful, progressive Seattle school, which turned out to be a stones throw from Grady’s home in Ballard.

That evening we headed to Bloom Seattle, an extremely cool event that we luckily snuck into at the 11th hour, thanks to Gabriel Scheer, founder of Seattle’s active Green Drinks chapter. Held in a swanky space called “Sole Repair”, the event brought 8 different speakers for a “TED meets Ignite” style event. The idea was for a fast paced, lively series, where each speaker had either 10 or 18 minutes exactly to give their talk.

Bloom gave us an awesome opportunity to learn from the other speakers, as well as spread our message. There was Molly Moon, a hilarious and very endearing organic ice cream maker, who shared her vision to both make delicious ice cream out of local ingredients, and to create a true, sustainable vision by providing good worker health care. Wish we’d had time to sample! Our sweet tooth was definitely sated though by Joe from Theo’s Chocolates, who makes outrageously sinful chocolate “with love”, the most important ingredient. An avid sailor as well, he mentioned in his presentation that he’d had a chance to witness the “plastic soup” while sailing from Seattle to Hawaii. My biggest regret: that we ran out of time to tour his chocolate factory!

The next two days found us at the Rendezvous Theater for a Surfrider event, on Bainbridge Island with Islandwood to speak at Enviropolooza, and back in Seattle for a final “gyre themed” party hosted by Heather Trim, one of Seattle’s great sustainable forces.

Heather works with People for Puget Sound, a local environmental organization pushing for plastic bag legislation. Marcus met Heather last year, during Seattle’s sabotaged attempt to pass a ban on plastic bags. The ACC caught wind of the proposed legislation, and paid people to gather signatures, between $2 and $8 per signature!

According to one article, people were confused about what exactly they were signing – one woman claims she thought she was signing a petition to ban plastic bags. Foul play we thinks?

To make sure Seattle passes the ban this time, Heather has been working on some good old grassroots organizing, such as throwing a house party, and inviting some “on the fencers” to hear us give our talk. And coming up with the following “bag themed” menu and a signature gyre drink:

Blended margaritas, sprinkled with coconut flakes and chopped fruit, which looked remarkably like the gyre sample we gave Heather. Fortunatey no one confused the two….

Menu: Wrapped grape leaves, rutaBAGa puree, CabBAGe salad, vegetable crudite with BAGna dipping sauce, tomato basil BAGuettes, and for dessert, ZaBAGlione, and a lovely fruit salad in a Watermelon carved into a bag.

With Heather leading the charge to make sure the ban passes this time, we feel confident that Seattle will be the next city to join the growing list of cities bagging the bag.

Next up: From Olympia to Portland!

Our 4 days of blessed sunny skies are finally giving way to some ominous rain clouds rolling in – such is the Pacific Northwest. We’ve ridden around 100 miles so far, through rolling, forested hills dotted with picturesque small towns, from Victoria, to Sequim, to our second scheduled talk at the Port Townsend Marine Science Center.

This wonderful organization, headed by local hero Anne Murphy, has developed a partnership with Algalita over the years after inviting Marcus up to speak in 2006. They’ve since launched their own local plastics monitoring program, studying plastic debris on Puget sound beaches, and now looking at the stomach contents of Glaucous Winged Gulls.

Jen Kingfisher, PT

After giving our talk Monday evening, an interesting conversation followed about the challenges their community is facing trying to pass a plastic bag ban. Though Port Townsend is a progressive town, some people – including the business community -  simply don’t like being told what to do. One audience member, our new friend and cycling hero Doug Ross, had a great suggestion:

“As you continue your journey riding down the west coast, you will pass through other communities facing the same issues. Why don’t you keep track of how other people are dealing with this, and let us know what’s working?”

Noted. And we put this same question to you: what approaches to cities wary of more legislation, more government intervention, do you think are effective?

Though our visit in Port Townsend was too short, we met some interesting folks in less than 24 hours: Bob aka “Bagel Guy”, who delivers fresh bagels on his Xtracycle, Rick aka “Salmon Man”, who delivers fresh, sustainable salmon on an 18 foot Xtracycle w/ trailer, and our gracious hosts Liz and Dave, who generously fed, housed, and entertained us.

The following morning we visited Grant Elementary on our way out of town, to speak with an inquisitive group of 5th graders. Talking with young people is always gratifying, our greatest hope for a better future….and then, our first bout of bike issues – a flat tire, a missing bolt on my Xtracycle, and a busted chain for Marcus. Thanks to Doug and a nearby bike coop, all were resolved quickly, and we headed on for a beautiful 34 mile ride to Edmonds. Some views from the ride:

Marcus enjoying a moment of rare WA sunshine

Council Member Strom Peterson had contacted us a few months back, inviting us to speak at a council meeting. Edmonds is just beginning the process of introducing legislation to ban plastic bags, so this was a tremendous opportunity for us to share our research. Full report on this coming soon!

Victoria, BC
After an incredible first few days in Vancouver, we’re relaxing for a few hours in Victoria, reflecting on the kindness of our new friends and supporters. It really does take a village….

As our plane touched ground, the unusual April snow melted into a light rain, and we both wondered how two weather wimps would handle riding through wet, cold rain. Fortunately we met with a warm welcome from Jean Fong at the Vancouver Aquarium, who had contacted us last August about kicking off our JUNKride from their grounds. A perfect location, as the Aquarium is known for their conservation education, and outreach programs.

We spent the next 3 days building and tweaking our bikes, giving a talk at the UBC Fisheries Centre, rising at 5:00 am for a live radio spot on CBC, and enjoying a few Vancouver sights thanks to our wonderful hosts – new friends and fellow chocolate lovers, Steve and Karen Dadson. The Dadson’s opened their award winning home (designed by their son Leland), treated us to Vancouver’s finest java, and made sure we were well fed and cheered before our long journey.

Friday night we gave our talk to a full house at the Aquarium, and had a chance to chat afterwards with teachers, students, and interested community members. Everyone seemed to get the message – that we need to act now to get off of throwaway, petroleum products. We’re encouraged to see a new group of people engaged to make changes.

The next morning, we gathered at the Aquarium for a press conference with our friend and fellow eco-adventurer Roz Savage. Two Canadian stations - CTV and Global – came to hear our messages, along with a crowd of supporters. We shared our junk with the news stations – a sample from the North Pacific Gyre, a string of toothbrushes, lighters, etc pulled from an Albatross carcass, and a blown up photo of the fish Marcus caught this summer, with 17 pieces of plastic in its stomach. And with light hearts, we hopped on our heavy bikes and pedaled away, to begin our first 40-mile stretch to Victoria.

7 hours of stunning scenery later, we’re resting our rookie legs, and digesting the pizza we devoured in record time. And feeling incredibly grateful for the chance to share our message with new audiences along the west coast.