Competing in their first ever Pro Tour race, the BMC Pro Cycling Team proved that they hadn’t come to the Tour de Romandie in awe of the other teams, as Martin Kohler took an impressive 10th place in the 1.9km prologue. Kohler’s ride put him in the company of some of the strongest riders in the world, as he used his power to finish a mere 2 seconds behind the stage winner, Great Britain’s Mark Cavendish. With a well-rounded team of sprinters and overall race contenders present, the Clif Bar and Clif Shot-fueled BMC team plans on bringing its trademark…

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Kristian's back with another update from his travels up the coast... Well Marina and my great adventure continued from San Diego into the huge metropolitan area of Los Angeles. For our small-city Berkeley ways, we were definitely two fish out of water. I must say Marina did quiet well managing me through the vast highway systems and interconnecting city streets. We did end up accidentally driving onto a movie set, but I'll take the blame for that one. Throughout our travels we've seen a lot of smiling faces, a couple of celebrities, met some amazing people, filled up with Bio-Diesel…

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Fresh from qualifying for the USA Wildwater Kayak team, Jeremy Rodgers, Colorado Clif Bar athlete SMOKED the competition at last weekend’s Salida Pole Pedal Paddle! He and his teammates (Team Clif Bar/KEEN) not only won the entire event as a CO-ED team but they knocked out the OVERALL course record which, according to Jeremy, should stand for a few years! Their skier was 6 minutes faster than the field, while their awesome mountain bike DIVA placed 4th overall on the course that day; Jeremy brought in the team with a 7 minute lead over the next paddler! You would think…

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Last week, I started my four and a half month-long journey with Marina—my companion for the long road ahead (pun intended). Marina, one of Clif Bar's biodiesel-loving Dodge Sprinters, and I will travel the highways, byways, interstates and country roads together, visiting coffee shops, deli's, smoothie/juice shops, and a bunch of other places, talking about our bars, and seeing all the sights along the way. We'll start our journey at the sandy beaches of San Diego and, if all goes as planned, make our way up to the rocky cliffs of Seattle. With the back of my truck filled with…

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Low and behold...more goodness from Mike and the Save Our Snow Road Trip. It's still winter in a lot of other parts of the country and the SOS crew is experiencing it in full force. Snoqualmie You know that feeling where you drive up to a ski area late at night, sleep in a comfortable bed in the back of your vegetable oil-powered motor home and then wake up, light a Java-Log in your wood-burning stove and cook breakfast on it...in a cast iron skillet? No? Well, it's a great feeling and I highly recommend it. This is the way…

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I declare this day to be the funnest day in the history of the SOS tour. Let me start with the night before... We had a delicious dinner with Peter and the NorCal Clif Bar crew at a Mexican restaurant. We then hit the bars with the posse and finally retired to a spacious cabin with a hot tub on the porch. The previous night I had slept on the counter, in the RV with my feet in the sink. So these new accommodations were not just a step-up, but a magic-carpet-ride-to-the-top-of-the-mountain-up. Well rested and ready for anything, we made…

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On our longest leg of the trip, 1000 miles from Durango, Colorado to Lake Tahoe, California we were greeted by an unlikely inconvenience which the SOS tour has never come across…an avalanche. That's right, you try and save the snow and how does it repay you? By covering the entire road in a twelve foot wall of the stuff. The sun was just coming up over Red Mountain Pass near Ouray, Colorado when the slide occurred. Lucky for us, we weren't caught up in it. We were only the second vehicle to arrive on the scene so we probably missed…

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Well I hate to say it, but today disaster struck. On Speer road, in Denver I was in the right lane as a truck passed me on the left, I hugged the curb in an effort to give the big guy some room, but I guess I hugged a bit too close. The passengers-side wheel grazed the curb and caused the steering wheel to cut hard right. It ripped out of my hands and before we knew it we had popped up onto the empty sidewalk and into a concrete wall. Lucky for us, the motor wasn't affected since it…

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The SOS tour, live from the Campus Rail Jam. Today the Cricket Wireless Campus Rail Jam made it's way to the DU campus and we were there to meet up with the event. I gotta say, these events are pretty fun to attend. We just hang out, chat with students and watch kids huck themselves down all kinds of weird rail set ups. Sometimes it's just a mess of skis and boards tumbling down and you'd swear someone just broke a rib, but every once in a while someone gets it just right and that's lots of fun to watch.…

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Mike fills us in on some more adventures from the SOS Road Trip. Telluride: Day 1 After an overnight drive from Denver, we rolled into Telluride groggy but excited. Neither Ben nor myself had ever been to the actual mountain before, and with such a legendary place as Telluride, you can't help being curious as to what the mountain has to offer. Somewhere on I-70, our turbo had stopped working so we weren't very psyched when we found out that the actual "Mountain Village" is practically on the top of the mountain. Regardless of turbo boost, Marty McFry slowly powered…

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The latest and final installment of Emily's St. Baldrick's adventure... What an amazing experience. Neither Michael nor I were prepared for the electricity surrounding the St.Baldrick’s event on Monday evening. We each came with an armful of Zbars thinking four boxes would be sufficient. Upon entering the outpatient area of the Children’s Hospital in Oakland we realized we had grossly misjudged the numbers. There were folks everywhere. Kids, mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, aunts, uncles, grandparents, friends, people who were just there to show support, volunteers, news crews and hospital staff. Nonetheless, I am sure that our meager gesture made its…

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Emily has only a few more hours left before she chops off all of her curls; and she's got a lot of them. Let the countdown begin... It’s here! Saint Baldrick’s Day! I’m sooooooooo excited. The fundraising efforts have been astonishingly successful. People were so incredibly giving and supportive that I reached my goal in 2 weeks! Then out of the blue, Michael (our Category Insights Manager) upped the ante by offering to shave his head as well if we doubled my goal. “I’m not exactly sure why, but there seems to be an abundance of people with a vested…

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You may know her by the voice on the other end of the phone when you ring the office. Or perhaps by the accurately hand-drawn self-portrait that appears on clifbar.com. Why is this drawing so right on? Well, for one, the hair. Come March, however, Emily may just have to take another stab at this self portrait. Why, you ask? Emily fills us in. So... I’ve been meaning to do this for a while. I've always been identified by the gi-normous pile of curls perched atop my noggin. It’s been my M.O., my calling card and even my alter ego…

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Marty McFly: Wait a minute, Doc. Ah... Are you telling me you built a time machine... out of a DeLorean? Doc: The way I see it, if you're gonna build a time machine into a car, why not do it with some style? We couldn't agree with you more, Doc Brown. With the passing of Soy George last winter, we had to go out and get another vehicle for the Save Our Snow Road Trip. And if you're gonna convert a vehicle to run on waste vegetable oil, why not do it in style? This year we found a DeLorean-inspired…

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It doesn't snow in Berkeley, but you can get your fill at the CB&C office on 1/30. We're hosting an evening event to benefit Protect Our Winters (POW) with legendary pro snowboarder and POW founder Jeremy Jones. The evening begins at 6pm with lots of delicious Cheese Board pizza, beer and other tasty beverages, and a silent auction for some killer winter gear before we kick into the programming. Jeremy starts things off with some talk about his big mountain experience and reasoning behind founding POW, and then he’ll introduce the world premiere of the Save Our Snow (SOS) Winter…

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Our office is up and running after being closed down for the last week or so. There's nothing like returning to work after a week off celebrating the holidays. While I stuck around San Francisco, some of us decided to ship off and explore the great-wide world...like Dean, our PR Guy, who went ALL the way down to the Southern California. Inspired by the shopping trip that ensued during his time off, Dean shares his words of wisdom on creating a sustainably-themed living room. Oh, and Happy New Year! Ever try to find sustainably-made furniture? My wife and I have—unsuccessfully,…

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Elysa, our sustainability guru, has some good news for us—support for Focus the Nation just keeps growing. Read on for the exciting news (and details on how you can contribute to the grassroots movement). I'm thrilled to report that one of Clif Bar's non-profit partners, Focus the Nation: Global Warming Solutions for America, reached a milestone this month. More than 1100 college, high school and civic groups have now signed up to participate in a national teach-in on global warming on January 31st, 2008. That means that more than one million people will participate in a day of climate consciousness—something…

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JAC's back with some food for thought from the world of nutrition... Why is it that the only place I can get a proper glass of juice is at my grandma's house? It's not because her Minute Maid tastes better than my Minute Maid, it's because she has juice glasses!  They're small, cute, fit perfectly in my hand and hold just enough juice to be satisfied. The juice glass is a lost piece of common dishware and I'm embarking on a campaign to bring it back!  Besides being cute and fun to drink out of, as a dietitian I'm…

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Whether or not she was inspired by Jessica's record-breaking commute yesterday, Elysa shares some pedal-power factoids. "When I see an adult on a bicycle, I do not despair for the future of the human race." —H.G. Wells I love this quote by H.G. Wells. His words embody my own fondness for bikes—not just a love-to-ride-on-two-wheels kind of love, but the sense of hope I get from watching cycling grow as a transportation alternative in our car-dominated nation.  To do my part to promote more pedal power and less fossil fuels, I've been writing my mayor for the past several…

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Elysa knows her fair share about the planet...makes sense given that she's our ecologist. Consider yourself one lucky duck because she's about to share with you the wonderous concept of Zero Waste. November 15th was America Recycles Day and that got me thinking beyond recycling to Zero Waste. I love the power of the term Zero Waste. This sparks the imagination and inspires new ways of thinking about how we live and relate the world around us. Zero Waste means just what it sounds like––producing, consuming, and recycling products without throwing anything away. Zero Waste challenges us to rethink the…

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Paul fills us in on the Furnace Creek 508—yup...that's 508 miles that he rode all himself. He doesn't like to toot his own horn, so I'll do it for him—he got eighth place. The race went well. Of course I had the best crew in the world! I can't explain why I was slower than I wanted to be by about 3 hours! But other than that, the ride went well. The highlight for me was riding through Death Valley during the middle of the night with no concept of time, when my crew suddenly started singing happy birthday over…

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Jessica, our nutrition intern, felt inspired by all of her sniffling and coughing gym-going office mates, to give a go at whipping them (er, us) into shape and give a little reminder of all that does a body best when the seasons change and those pesky, and annoying, colds take over. I could learn a few things from her...  Is it just me, or is every other person sick? Sniffling co-workers frequently ask me, "I'm sick, should I exercise?" Most of us feel under the weather at some point and we all should exercise, so I thought the answer…

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You'd think the internet connection high up in the mountains would be stellar—no buildings, bridges, or other cable lines to get in the way. But Colleen has proven me wrong. She's back home now and finally able to send the last three race reports from her Trans Rockies run—albeit a bit late due to the lack of internet service she had (not to mention being just a wee bit tired after running marathons, ultra marathons, etc. high up in the Rockies). Congratulations, Colleen! DATE: Wednesday, September 19th, 2007 If you had told me at any time in my life…

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Day 2 and Day 3 are over and done with and Colleen's got some words to catch us up on her Trans Rockies Run adventure. Colleen and her running partner/teammate Glen (plus a third member as added Day 2) have been running marathons for the last three days so the last thing I could think about doing was cutting her storytelling short, not to mention the fact that her stories are stellar and I wouldn't want to risk leaving any of the fine details out. So, here we go—race reports from the front line of the inaugural Trans Rockies Run.  P.S…

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Colleen, our Rockies field rep, is off and running in the GORE-TEX Trans Rockies Run. When I spoke to her last week, she seemed pretty stoked on running 118 miles over 5 days. I think she's crazy but I'm totally convinced that she'll rock those Rockies like no other. As if running just about a marathon a day isn't enough, she's going to muster up enough energy to send us "race reports" from the trail. Here are two entries to catch up on all the news I missed over the weekend: Date: Saturday, September 15th, 2007 So it's 7:30…

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Just got back from two weeks of epic cycling in the French Alps! Our group started in Neydens, France, near Geneva, Switzerland. From there, we headed south, climbing (and descending) many of the famous cols of the Tour de France. Cols such as Roselend, Iseran, Telegraphe, Galibier, Allos, Vars, Izoard, and Mt. Ventoux may ring a bell for some readers. And, little out of the way cols such as the Defend and Corobin may not be household names but nonetheless offered great challenge and quiet cycling on narrow, one-lane roads. With my cycling friends we traveled briskly, hammering the climbs,…

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As you might imagine, the mid-day Clif Bar bike rides can get pretty intense, so when someone new shows up, we’re generally licking our chops while waiting to put them in a world of hurt.  Lately though, we’ve had a new rider coming out who definitely has the skills to hang. Ginger, the English Bulldog, isn’t generally regarded as a strong rider here in the office. In fact, Ginger's usually sleeping in her pod, beside her food bowl, with her tongue hanging out of her severely wrinkled face. Or stealing other dogs’ toys. Or attacking random employees for kicks.  Ginger must be putting…

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Here's a take-action nugget from Shauna, our stellar sustainable food systems manager. Shauna grew up on a rural farm in Saskatchewan; she knows what she's talking about so don't take what she says lightly... Every five to seven years, our Congress passes a legislative bill, coined the Farm Bill, that makes some hefty decisions regarding our country's food and farm policy, affecting everything from food stamps to commodity payments to conservation programs. And when I say 'hefty', we're talking about nearly $100 billion in funding allocated each year to various programs. Oftentimes these decisions are made with little public scrutiny ……

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Ricardo, who claims to have won the 2000 Bay Club "Indoor Triathlon," felt inspired to write a little entry on the Escape from Alcatraz Triathlon that happened Sunday in San Francisco. He didn't want to risk ruining his record by participating in Escape but he did get filmed for a television spot that will air when the tri shows on nbc. Maybe, if he's this excited to write about it, we can get him racing next year...Here's his take from the sidelines. Ok readers of the Blah Blah Blog…this entry requires you to lower your voice like the booming baritone…

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June means lots of different things to lots of different people. Some people celebrate the summer solstice, Father’s Day, or perhaps even Flag Day. To an ultra-endurance cyclist, however, June means it’s time for Race Across America. And for those cyclists who are a bit lacking in both the “ultra” and “endurance” area, June means it’s time for the Race Across America 24-Hour Corporate Challenge. Pitting man against the elements, other corporate teams, and eventually his own teammates in the support vehicle, the RAAM Corporate Challenge is a 24-hour relay race beginning in San Diego and ending in Flagstaff, Arizona.  This year,…

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For those of you who followed our Save Our Snow Road Trip last winter, you’ll recall our veggie-fueled RV, Soy George, didn’t quite finish the journey. His transmission fell off in Whistler on the last week of the tour. End of story? Hardly! Mike—(the SOS tour Captain) is determined to have Soy George back on the road for next Winter’s tour. Mike found a similar RV in Seattle with what appears to be a working transmission. Problem is, it’s been sitting so long it  won’t start…  I headed up to Seattle on Friday, determined to make that old RV run and…

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Last weekend, Ricardo, winter sports guru, was down in Southern California for the Golden Eagle Awards, hanging out with folks from a bunch of North American ski resorts. Read on to hear more about the awards and his weekend in balmy SoCal...  This past weekend I cruised down to hot & sunny Palm Springs to present the ski area environmental achievement awards at the annual National Ski Area Association conference. I know it seems odd. Ski area conference in Palm Springs? But if you lived with 6 months of winter a year, wouldn't you want to celebrate the end of the…

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This is what happens when you sneak out of the office for an afternoon ride in the Berkeley Hills. Jeff fills us in on their adventure... knot: noun 1: an interplacement of the parts of one or more flexible bodies forming a lump or knob. 2: something hard to solve. 3: Scott W's chain after descending down Wildcat Canyon Rd. It's a beautiful, sunny day, with a small amount of fog expected to burn off—perfect for our morning ride. There's something about getting out mid-week for a nice 2-hour bike ride. Once past Inspiration Point in Tilden Park, we're greeted with a…

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Come NCAA Tournament time, things can get pretty heated up around the Clif Bar office, and 2007 was no different. This year, with a huge pile of loot up for grabs, the bracket betting was as intense as ever. Although the competition went down to the wire, the clear winner at the end was none other than our own C.O.O., Kevin Cleary.  Kevin picked every Final Four team correctly, and despite a huge charge at the end by Shot Brand Manager (and college sports expert) Chris Randall, in the end it wasn’t even close. Given Kevin’s quiet demeanor and love of country…

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So our beloved podmate, Amy, walks into work on Monday with a distinctive looking bruise on her neck. I know it’s been a while since high school, but who can forget what a hickey looks like. Despite her claims of innocence, we were suspicious. Apparently the war wound was not administered during a lip-lock but while swimming in the bay over the weekend. Training, as it were, for the upcoming Escape From Alcatraz Triathlon. The technical term is wetsuit chafing. However, I’m not convinced. Notice the position and size. Plus, there have been no other known cases at Clif Bar. With…

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On Monday, April 9th, 2007, five of Clif Bar's NorCal reps embarked on an experimental journey, riding their bikes from Clif headquarters in Berkeley, all the way to Monterey, CA for the annual Sea Otter Classic. I didn't receive Peter's emails until yesterday, apparently the hotel had a pretty dodgy internet connection. He promises to write a whole recap of the experience in the next few days. Until then, these will have to do. Better late than never. April 9th, 2007—The humble bicycle For all of the amazing things that people do on bicycles, I swear, the power of a…

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Nick, Clif Bar Northwest subrep and master mind behind the Green Rail Project is back with an update on how the propane tank is doing up on the mountain. Check out his videos on YouTube—and don't worry, you aren't losing your hearing; the videos don't have any sound. I'm sure most of you are out running or pedaling in the sun thinking that winter is finally far behind us.  In Seattle, we're still making the trek out to the mountains.  The Green Rail Project's been a hit for spring riding, providing a few unconventional features that cater to the…

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This just in from our staff ecologist, Elysa. She's always got little nuggets to share. Have you measured your ecological footprint? The ecological footprint is a metaphor that describes the amount of land area needed by a population to meet their resource needs. It's a sustainability indicator that takes into consideration things like how you get around, your living arrangements and the types of food you eat.  But how much land do we really need to live? Biologically, there are about 4.5 acres of usable land available per person in the world.  Our current way of living in the…

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Nick, CB&Co. sub rep for the Northwest, is back with an update on the Green Rail Project. It's been a long road, literally. After a few months, a million phone calls and a stack of emails, I drove one of Clif's Dodge Ram Biodiesel 2500s about 3 hours through the Cascades to Terry's house in Wenatchee, where the completed Green Rails waited to be picked up. We hired one of Washington's top fabricators to work on the production of the rails, and Terry jumped through every hoop to make it all happen as planned. I wolfed a sandwich, and…

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After several different attempts to get Soy George back on the road, Mike and co-captain Luke make the tough decision to leave him behind and head to a very snowy Washington for the last leg of the SOS winter roadtrip without the RV. Check out Mike's lastest video and see more photos from the tour. Before heading off to our Washington stops in Snoqualmie and Stevens Pass, we decided to take one last stab at getting Soy George back on the road. With the transmission falling off and the bolts that were supposed to be holding it on snapped in two,…

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Elysa, our staff ecologist, explains that small steps really can make a big difference. Two years ago, Tom R. had his "Styrofoam Epiphany." After participating in a company-wide 2080 day to clean up the shoreline, he realized he had to do something. Tom recounts: What was so profound for me that day was that styrofoam was everywhere!!! It had never dawned on me until that day what an evil substance it is. As a direct result, I began sending essentially a customized form letter to any vendor that ever sent us ingredient/product samples packed with styrofoam peanuts. I recounted my…

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As the SOS winter roadtrip is nearing the end, Mike takes on Whistler with Marie, Giselle and Gord. Armed with Cool Tags, this A-Team (minus an under the weather Luke) does a stellar job teaching snowgoers about ways to reduce their carbon footprint. Check out Mike's latest, and quite possibly greatest, video on YouTube. The tour has only one more stop after this weekend but for some reason Soy George must have missed that memo because he checked out early. Remember that broken bolt that we noticed on the way to Jackson? Well, a few more bolts snapped so our transmission…

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Yesterday, I posted Mike's latest video from the Save Our Snow winter roadtrip. Late last night, our trusty driver was able to muster up some free time to sit down (find an internet connection) and send us an update on the Jackson Hole leg of the trip... After stopping by Channel 2—Denver for a quick interview and a display of Soy George's ability to run on cooking oil, we departed with five hundred and thirty miles to Jackson Hole. We found some clean grease in a dirty alley behind a PF Chang’s, which lasted the entire drive through the night. At…

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Nick, CB&Co. subrep for the Northwest, has been working long and hard on the Green Rail Project. Don't know what the Green Rail Project is? Read on to find out... I've been working as a sub-rep for Clif up in the Northwest for about a year and, of course, kept hearing about all their efforts to promote global cooling. And I thought, "How can we get all the skiers and snowboarders pumped about joining the effort?" Some of these kids never watch the news, only ski films; some never pay energy bills, they still live at home; some never think…

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Mike and Luke are still driving Soy George, spreading the Global Cooling love with the Save Our Snow winter roadtrip. With just a few weeks left of the tour, trusty Soy George needed a break. Until Mike has some time to write another little somethin' for us to read, check out this video from their visit to Jackson Hole. If you're jonesin' for something to read, check out Alison Gannett's update from Utah on powdermag.com. -----

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Mike picks up where he left off yesterday's S.O.S Tour blog entry—driving to Colorado. He recounts the crew's adventures as they spread the global cooling love to Aspen and Crested Butte. Check out Mike's latest video on YouTube. Want to see more photos from the road? Head on over to flickr.com. Alison, Luke, Adam from Backcountry Magazine and myself made it to Aspen in Soy George without burning more then a cup of diesel.  Our grease from Salt Lake held out 'til Grand Junction where we found about forty gallons in a downtown sushi joint. The first night in Aspen was…

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Alison, Luke, Adam from Backcountry Magazine and myself made it to Aspen in Soy George without burning more then a cup of diesel.  Our grease from Salt Lake held out 'til Grand Junction where we found about forty gallons in a downtown sushi joint. The first night in Aspen was spent at Alison's friends place. Deb and Jim were welcoming and intrigued about the RV so we sat by their fireplace and talked all about vegetable oil, biodiesel and renewable energy. The next morning we had a hard time starting due to the extreme cold at night. Once we had…

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Mike, Luke and the S.O.S tour get a taste of an inverted weather phenomenon hitting Utah. Check out YouTube to see the latest video and flickr.com for more photos from the trip. We escaped from the Salt Lake smog layer as we ascended to Alta. When we were down in the city just about every person we came across said there was a crazy inversion going on, meaning it was warmer up at the mountains then down in the city. It was sunny and pleasant at Alta, which seemed a little strange. Nonetheless, we were there to have fun and…

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Here's the latest from Mike and the S.O.S Winter Roadtrip. Check out YouTube to see footage from Mammoth and snowboardermag.com to read about other adventures from the road: On our drive from Tahoe to Mammoth, we enjoyed burning 100% waste vegetable oil 100% of the time. Sometimes in the winter it's hard to run on all veggie all of the time but with our heated filtration system, we were able to make it happen. Luke and I rolled into town late at night with no idea of where to stay, so we thought we'd tough out the cold and sleep in…

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This just in from Mike, one of the many folks behind the CLIF BAR Save Our Snow S.O.S Tour. Mike will be driving Soy George, his 1986 veggie RV, for seven weeks, snowboarding with TCB athletes and spreading word about how to limit our impact on the environment and start global cooling. This weekend was cold, real cold. My favorite joke/quote from the weekend was: "Oddly enough three CLIF BAR employees froze to death on the global cooling tour. I guess their efforts were pretty effective."  When Ricardo and I got up to drive the RV to Sugarbowl, it didn't enjoy starting…

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Working for a natural food company that makes mostly vegan, organic energy bars and food, it’s easy for me to forget that there’s a lot of bad stuff in our food system—stuff I don’t want in my body. Seeing a screening of Fast Food Nation (based on the acclaimed investigative book by Eric Schlosser) was a vivid wake up call. The movie isn't a documentary, but is instead a fictional story with characters in the very real-world of American fast food and the meat-packing system. While the plot could be described as chaotic—throwing a lot of people and issues at…

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Paul, director of LUNA Pro Team and die-hard cyclist worked at BORP's Revolution Ride Fundraiser on Saturday. Here's what he had to say: "What do you want to eat? Do you want a PBJ sandwich? How about a banana? Can I fill your bottle?" I'm speaking to Alejandro, a cyclist tackling a hard 65-mile course, pedaling only with his hands. You see, Alejandro has no legs. He's a disabled cyclist participating in this year's Bay Area Outreach Program (BORP) Revolution Ride fundraiser. In this unique event, disabled and able-bodied cyclists participate together on courses that will challenge their fitness level and…

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So I have to admit that it isn’t often I’m happy with our politicians, but yesterday even the Governator made me proud. I was lucky enough to be at Treasure Island when Governor Schwarzenegger signed into law AB 32—a bill that will reduce California's global warming emissions. There were lots of legislators, agencies, nonprofits and businesses present that worked tirelessly to make this happen—even Tony Blair was there live by satellite! —and it was really cool to see everyone come together. The bill will establish a statewide cap on global warming pollution and dramatically curb greenhouse emissions from California. I’m…

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Recently, my department took a trip to work on two local farms. We started the day at Gospel Flat Farm. It's been owned by the same family for 25 years and they grow all kinds of different fruits and vegetables. They're part of the local school lunch program that's trying to get organic local foods into kid’s lunches. They also sell weekly organic veggie boxes to the community and sell their produce at the local farmer’s markets. While there, we planted some seedlings and spent some time picking weeds from the tiny carrot plants. We also got to harvest some…

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Boston is enduring its first week of class for the many, many colleges that reside here and we've been at the center of the action. We spent the official first day of class at Boston University where instead of grassy lawns and walkways, BU has busy streets and T stops. In conjunction with the "College Theme" we spent last weekend at a College Fair at Hynes Convention Center where new students arrive to get lots of free stuff and listen to great bands. We had no idea what a huge weekend this was going to be and aside from a…

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During the past two weeks we have had quite the adventure adapting to the bustling metropolis, fast-paced life that is New York City. I love the cabbies in New York, they are so eccentric from all over the world and with most of them, I would like to stay in the cab and hear about all the things they have seen in the city. In a one night span of cab rides we felt like we visited the Caribbean, Bombay India, West Africa, a sweet jazz club and a Nascar race. As we opened each new cab door we had…

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A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of meeting Chef Al Chase and his partner Donna Benjamin. Together, they’re running the Institute of Culinary Awakening based in Portland, Oregon. Chef Al is a classically trained chef who’s worked all over the country creating and preparing meals. He’s worked in just about every type of eating establishment you could think of from fancy hotels to corner delis to private homes. While working in San Jose, he began to change his own eating habits and made the decision to go vegan. This means that he would no longer eat meat or…

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While its 96 degrees in the shade, and rising, we spent what felt like our first truly relaxing day off in New Paltz, NY, climbing in the "Gunks" and taking multiple trips to the spring-fed swimming hole. Touring through Philly, New Jersey and New York City is definitely a ton of work—between finding parking, navigating the labyrinth of highways and conforming to the crowded streets. We were relieved to arrive in the small town of New Paltz and get back to our "Jackson life"—climbing, swimming and enjoying the hills.   We’re honestly giving our best effort to make friends with…

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I've been reading Michael Pollan's book The Omnivore’s Dilemma. Never before have I been involved in a book that's drawn so much attention! Almost every time I bring the book to a public place, someone will approach me to ask about it, either they've heard of it, or just finished reading it. Regardless, they have something to say about it! I'm enjoying the book immensely and would recommend it to anyone—if you eat, then it will directly apply to your life! Pollan does a terrific job of investigating various styles of food production and processing, giving a detailed account of…

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As of this very second, 19:44, we're rushing down the highway with some GIANT isolated thunderstorms in our wake. With temperatures toping out at 110 in the shade, we headed for the biggest water park in both the Carolinas, Wet 'n Wild Water Park in Greensboro, NC. Our search for water, slides and perhaps a pirate ship was successful. Just after numerous jumps off the bow of the sunken ship, lightning struck and the storm clouds were in full force. Our third Guster show brought us back down to North Carolina but as of tomorrow, we head back north to…

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We just finished our second Guster show here in Philly, and after doing a few handstands in the hotel room I'm inspired to update you all on the last week. A couple of crazy things come to mind. First, can I just say that the mountain biking in York, PA is awesome! Beyond that, we learned that if the hotel receptionist likes you, you might land a room with a hot tub in the center of it—crazy! I had fairly low expectations for the mountain biking in "Pennsyltuckey," but arrived to find a nice long loop with some unexpected obstacles.…

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“There's something...something on the trailer!” Ashley screamed. I quickly maneuvered the van and trailer to the side of the highway. Both of us sprint from Roxie to apprehend the perpetrator. To our amazement, we discovered a gremlin helping himself to a large hunk of rubber formally attached to the rear tire of the trailer. Ashley calmly asked our new stowaway “what are you doing?" The distinguished Gremlin named Sebastian (after his late grandfather) replied, “ Well I recently decided that eating ducks and small children just isn’t for me. I figured I would try something else and your tire looked…

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What's up CLIF Peeps? Leaving Atlanta and with a few days to spend on the trails in Smoky Mountain National Park was like Led Zepplin playing in the Jackson Hole Tram on a huge powder day—we were stoked! We spent our