Salton Sea

As someone with more than a passing interest in ghost towns, abandoned buildings and the apocalypse, the Salton Sea has long been high on my list of favorite places to ride. The objective of this weekends ride was to escape the rain in San Diego and explore the South Eastern Shore of the sea.

There are many side roads worth exploring in the area. However, most are hard packed dirt and you should be prepared with 28mm tires or better. Honestly, much of the dirt road riding was more pleasant than the rough paved roads.

My bike for the day was a steel frame Rivendell Romulus with 28mm Grand Bois tyres and a sprung Brooks Champion Flyer leather seat to soak up the bumps. I was joined on the ride by Stephane Beaudry on his Ritchie Breakaway, another fine steel framed bike.

The primary points of interest on this ride were Salvation Mountain and Slab City.

Salvation Mountain is a massive art project started by Leonard Knight back in the mid-80s. Basically it's a huge glaring testament to God. Very, very cool.

Slab City is best described in this quote from viceland.com:

"... It is the place of business for the residents of a nearby compound known as Slab City—a mostly insane coterie of fun-hunting drifters, vets, addicts, artists, and crazies who subsist on sautéed snake, lukewarm Tecate, money earned from scrapping bombshell fragments, and what’s left of their wits. It’s pretty much all that remains of the Wild West..."