For Michael D. Loftin, the outdoors is an endless gym to explore. He would rather run up Diamond Head Road, swim in the ocean or hike than be inside a crowded, sweaty fitness center.

Koko Crater is a giant Stairmaster — with a view — that Loftin climbs in about 15 minutes, which he considers a leisurely trip to the top.

“There’s great weather year-round, so why not get out there and enjoy it?” he said.

The beauty of Hawaii motivates Loftin, the 34-year-old co-founder of 808 Cleanups, which organizes beach, hiking trail and marine debris cleanups. It’s a natural extension of his personality.

When he’s out swimming or scuba diving, he’ll retrieve a plastic bag if he sees one, and when he gets to the summit of Koko Crater, he’ll haul away litter he finds when he heads back down.

Loftin, who is also project manager at the solar power company RevoluSun, has always had an affinity for the outdoors.

As a child growing up in Richmond, Va., he explored the woods, and in college he participated in wilderness backpacking trips. It’s where he first adopted the “leave no trace” ethics, a set of seven principles promoting conservation in the outdoors from the Leave No Trace Center for Outdoor Ethics.

Once, after a 10-mile leg of a weeklong trek in the Talkeetna Mountains of Alaska, Loftin and a few other hikers spent the night backtracking to the last rest point just to pick up a can of bear spray that had been left behind. They continued hiking the next morning.

While he often lifts weights and climbs a 12-foot rope in the backyard of his Palolo Valley home as a way to relieve the stress of sitting in traffic, most weekends Loftin is out and about, joining volunteers at cleanups on Oahu’s shorelines and hiking trails.

One of the best workouts, he said, can be found at a beach cleanup: hauling out wooden pallets left behind by bonfire revelers. The pallets can weigh 60 pounds or more, and sometimes Loftin carries them on his head. The burned pallets are a problem because they litter the beach with blackened wood and nails that can easily be stepped on.

When Loftin first moved to Hawaii 10 years ago, he was an extreme hiker, navigating the narrow ridges of Pali Notches, Bear Claw in Waimanalo and Kalihi Saddle. After he and some friends nearly lost their footing one day, he decided the thrills weren’t necessary.

“It wasn’t important to me to push my boundaries, but to enjoy the hike,” he said. “I don’t want my fate determined by one loose rock.”

For him, fitness and stewardship of Hawaii’s natural beauty go hand in hand, whether it’s in the ocean or the mountains.

When 808 Cleanups first started in March, Loftin and co-founder Wayde Fishman were part of a small group of avid hikers out to clean the growing number of nature tags, or spray-painted graffiti, they encountered along trails. The first one they removed was along the side of the famous Koko Crater arch.

They would soon discover the problem was of a much larger scope.

“We realized we probably need to be more proactive,” said Loftin. “The real problem is the mindset people have making (tags). … That’s where we got the idea of stewardship.”

A cleanup doesn’t always have to take place over multiple hours, with a large group, according to Loftin, but can be as simple as friends picking up trash for as little as 10 minutes.

Today 808 Cleanups has a core membership of about 100 individuals who are actively cleaning shorelines and parks throughout the week. It has nearly 2,000 followers on Facebook.

The group encourages individuals to adopt a site, in addition to posting their efforts on social media. The idea, according to Loftin, isn’t so much to brag as to inspire others and pinpoint places that need help. It’s also a way for volunteers to link up with one another.

Loftin personally spends weekends meeting up with individual volunteers at their adopted site. It’s also about giving back.

“If you don’t incorporate some facet of community service in your life,” he said, “you’re missing out.”

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