Motorcycle Mojo – September 2019

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2019 MOTORCYCLE MOJO 11

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Story by Clayton Bellamy

Photos by Travis Nesbitt

J ULY 2 0 19 MOTORCYCLE MOJO 25

MOJAVE DESERT

Situated between the Great Basin

Desert a

nd the Colorado

subdivision of the Sonoran

Desert, the Mojave is considered

the smallest of North America’s

deserts. A land of extremes,

temperatures can range from

freezing to above 50

C; elevations

range from 85 metres below sea

level in Death Valley’s Badwater

Basin to higher than

3 , 630 metres above sea level

on

Charleston Peak.

IN THE HEAT OF THE VALL

EY

Death Valley is the lowest,

hottest and driest place in all of

North America. In 1913 ,

a temperature of 56. 6 C was

recorded, the high

est temperature

ever recorded on earth. July is the

hottest month of the year with an

average temperature of 46 C.

Average annual rainfall is 60 mm.

PAPPY & HARRIET’S

Pappy & Harriet’s Pionee

rtown

Palace is located, fittingly enough,

in Pioneertown, California.

It’s a permanent 1940 s western

movie set created by

western-mov

ie star investors

Roy Rogers, Gene Autry and

Russell Hayden and the Sons of

the Pioneers, a western-genre

singing group. The eatery was

o

nce the town’s cantina and

owned by Harriet’s par

ents, who

opened it in 1972 as an outlaw

biker burrito bar. I kid you not.

ARE YOU CHOKING?

According to

healthre

searchfunding.org,

choking is the fourth leading

cause of accidental death and the

Heimlich manoeuvre has saved

the lives of 100 , 00 potential

choking victims.

24 MOTORCYCLE MOJO JULY 2019

’

it in

TRAVEL CALIFORNIA AND NEVADA

Achieving a higher state of

consciousness and spiritual

awareness amid the

unpredictable desert sands

FA

ST FA

CTS

I

f Los Angeles is the City of Angels, then the Mojave Desert

is her dark mistress. Hot, seductive and mysterious on one

hand; cold and dangerous on the other. The Mojave holds

secrets that many men have gone in search of – some never

to return. The Eagles, the Doors and the Band all went in search of

her magic and muse and shaped a generation. The Mojave indig-

enous people would take devil’s weed and wander her endless

plains in a rite of passage to achieve a new state of consciousness.

But we, we are a different breed. We seek wilder things: not just to

wander, but to conquer. We seek to achieve a new consciousness in

only one way – we ride.

On paper the plan looked simple: three friends, four days, four

stops, four amazing adventures. And as a professional musician,

travel is pretty standard fare for me. After 15 years of making

records and touring the world, I would hope I got this travel thing

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British custom Triumphs provided by our friends at International

Motorsports in Vancouver and go for a ride, right? Wrong! On the

map, Los Angeles to Joshua Tree National Park, then to Las Vegas

and on to Death Valley, then back to L.A. looks like four easy days

of riding. But we found out nothing is easy in the desert and you

never know what you will get one day to the next.

DEATH VALLEY ADVICE

As someone who has gone to Vegas umpteen dozen

times and who has rented bikes and ridden out to

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No, I have never achieved a higher state of con-

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great place to visit and enjoy. I’ve visited and seen most

of the places and pictures in the story. Brought back

many memories.

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wind-blown sand on the road. You can see most of the

sand and ride it out, but in the corners, you have to be

really careful. Never went down, but came close a few

times.

The real reason I am writing is the pictures of

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I’m afraid I am old enough to remember when you didn’t need to wear a helmet when riding a bike. I think it was

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I’d be interested to know if the helmets in the pictures are new or have been around for a few years. Back then, the

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ROSS HELPS VIA EMAIL

REMEMBERING BRUCE REEVE

Thank you for giving notice of the passing

of Bruce Reeve. I suspect a lot of his readers

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through back issues of CC from during his

tenure as editor. He set a high standard,

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fun annually at the industry and its journalism (e.g., “Bad

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magazine while sitting on the toilet. But he could write

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tribute to his assistant editor, Piero Zambotti, who had

been killed accidentally while on their annual fall tour. In

such circumstances, words could express only so much,

and Reeve left off the prose and let an uncaptioned photo

essay tell the story of their last ride together.

BRADEN K. VIA EMAIL

RIDE UNPLUGGED

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Her message is so true. It’s great to unplug from our digital

world for a small while, perhaps while you enjoy riding

your motorcycle. The maps comment was excellent.

I thoroughly enjoyed her article!

MATTHEW ANDERSON VIA EMAIL

Jenn Martin’s August article has pointed out how

wonderful it still is to do things the old-fashioned way. I

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Brunswick through the Virginias, over to the Ozarks,

then on to the mountains and gorges of Colorado,

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numbering the maps, highlighting the planned route and

noting on each fold the distance scale.

Technology has advanced so much that I believe it has

taken away some of the thrill and the unknown when

heading out on a major excursion. Yes, Google Maps is

great at home to calculate distances, and GPS helps when

approaching a town to know where a motel is located.

But, otherwise, there’s an excitement in exploring and

discovering, in not knowing where restaurants or gas

stations are.

As a trip progresses, you get a sense of where you are

and how far you still have to go during the course of each

day as you adjust the maps’ display on the tank bag.

I am sure that many others still enjoy seeing the larger

picture and their progress unfold day-by-day by using

reliable, old-fashioned, always accurate paper maps.

JAMES STOKES-REES VIA EMAIL