Day 31

I’m never sure what I’m going to find once I jump into the bike saddle and hit the road. I follow the trip computer directions, but it doesn’t tell you much except street and highway names, the elevations, and names of towns. The rest just gets colored in as you pedal. I think this type of uncertainty is what makes bicycling the Pacific Coast Route such an adventure.

One such stop today was the Monarch Butterfly Grove at Pismo Beach State Park. There were no Monarchs to see, however, as they fled a few months ago to head north, along the western side of the Rocky Mountains, to seek native milkweed, their sole source of nectar. In 1980, I did see an overwintering group of Monarch’s in Montana de Oro State Park, near Los Osos. If you ever get a chance to see them in the winter, the clusters of butterflies and their behaviors are a sight to behold. 

After passing through another sand dune buggy destination, Oceano, the road turned inland and into specialty crop land. It was here where my mind really started to drift. Among the strawberries and raspberries I could make out the recently closed Phillilps Santa Maria oil refinery. According to Phillips web site, the shutdown “… is related to the planned conversion of our San Francisco Refinery in Rodeo to one of the world’s largest renewable fuels facilities.” Given that petroleum is the feedstock for polyethylene (PE) plastic sheets that cover 80% of the fields, the proximity of the refinery seemed appropriate.

The amount of PE plastic that covers the soil, holding the rows of strawberries in place as well as gets used to drape over the raspberry hoop houses is mammoth. It led me down a rabbit hole to find out when a substitute compostable mulch that mimicked the purposes for using PE would be available. It doesn’t sound like it will be any time soon. The effects of long-term macro- and microplastic particles remains unknown. I have no idea how it all works its way into the solid waste stream when it comes time for disposal. For these and other reasons (Organic is no better) it seems like steering clear of out-of-season berries is likely the best course of action.

Despite it all, the fields provide a wonderful foreground to the spring colors on the hillsides. I look forward to eating our local berries — starting with strawberries — when I get home!