Fulfilling a dream! Desert bikepacking to Slab City (SoCal Ep.4)

Good morning. I'm all packed up, ready to go. This is day four. Let's do this. That-a-way! And just like that, I'm out of the canyon, Sin Nombre. This took about an hour and a half to cycle through. A lot of pushing. I'm feeling absolutely exhausted. It's the first bit of decent ground I've found in a while. Probably why I've decided to film. It won't last long, though. Been a very sandy day, a lot of pushing. It's 11 a.m. and it's hot. It's non-stop. This is tough. I was able to see my nose has started dripping blood. It's not a good sign. I'm nearly out of water. Trying to ration it, but I am very thirsty. This has been incredibly challenging. Oh, and this is the end of the desert. Hello, tarmac, my old friend. That was one of the hardest things I've ever done. I am exhausted. I'd love, though, just to be a tap right now. I've got to cycle down here, 10 kilometers. It's actually closed. Closed on a Tuesday. I managed to fill up with water. There's a little tap just here on the side of this pub, which is called the Iron Door. It's pretty windy here. I am exhausted. I worked pretty hard to get here with the idea that I'd get a nice, cool pub. Instead, it's warm, closed water. So we're just gonna take a moment to look at the route that I've just taken. So going through Canyons in Nombre is a 30-mile route through the desert. And this is the point where I got to the tarmac and made my way to Octillo Wells. Or Octillo Wells. You can see the Iron Door Bar, that point on the map that says Spigot. That is the tap that I filled up, the hose water tap for my water bottles. But the route's meant to take me past Borrego Springs, Octillo Wells, and to Salton City, and then along this road down to the town of Westmoreland, just very close to the Salton Sea. I, at Octillo Wells, decided to head east. Rather than doing that loop, I went down this road. Rather than going this way, all the way round, in that direction, it saved me a couple of days, and I went straight towards Westmoreland. I think we've got date palm. I've got a date with a shake. A date shake, my first. That is outstanding. Oh, that is good. Thank you, America. I'm all clean, refreshed. I'm in a hotel room. That's my bed. I've just been lying down. It's just gone six. I've got a belly full of food and dates, and I'm charging all my stuff. It's just been an absolute beast of a day. You can see my face is burnt. Today was up to 37 degrees. Oh, that's a bed. Good night. I'm all packed up, ready to go. Bike is good. Let's get out of here to Slab City. It's pretty windy again today. Going against the wind, so I'm not going quite as quick. I've got vast open fields. Not an awful lot to see, to be honest. A lot of farming. Trying to make my way to Slab City. That's the next place of interest. Salton Sea. Not a lot to talk about. It's a bit grim, isn't it? This is strange. So I'm just cycling along, and there's a dead cow just on the middle of the road. That's what context is. In the middle. That's a bit of water here. Irrigation ditch, but. Farewell, dusty stuff. Back to town. Let's go to a grocery store. Resupply. This is what I love about the US. It's a normal food. Chuck steak, hoyo, asada, ground beef. All pretty normal. What about if you fancy some hot Cheetos with cheese? That is mental. Let's go restock. For today, obviously bought a load of lukewater. Rush, grapefruit, jugo de maracuyo, or passion fruit drink. More black beans. Some mango and chili. Another snack. Peanut brittle. It's a standard sandwich. It comes very weirdly packaged. This is the best thing, to go with the grapefruit drink. I bought an actual massive grapefruit. I'm gonna eat that. Nice. Slab City has been on my list of places to visit for years. Ever since watching the film, Into the Wild, I've wanted to experience Salvation Mountain for myself. Leonard Knight created Salvation Mountain in the 1980s. The scenes in the film, Into the Wild, with Leonard are improvised by him. Adding to my intriguing curiosity of this place. I've just been in the library in here. Got speaking to some really nice people. And the person in there said, go and take a book. Any book. And obviously I need a book that's quite thin. I've got one called Go Ask Alice, which actually looks quite dark. But my girlfriend's called Alice. Thought this would be a nice gift for her. All right, let's get going. Just as I was leaving the library, I was met by a man who asked if I could come and take a look at his bike bag business. I can't for the life of me, remember this man's name, which really annoys me. But his company is called Urban Desert. His bags are all made in his home in Slab City. They all look really well made. And they are a really competitive price. So the next time I need some bike bags, I'll absolutely be ordering them from Urban Desert. Half of the people that I ship to, I get a lot of women customers and stuff. That's one thing I noticed, which is always great. They're great. She had a real good colored one that I really did like. This one I made for a girl that I met while I was riding the stage close to 100. She started in Palmdale. Right. And it was kind of a surprise. I'm from Palmdale and everything. And I made her a set of bags. Cause I get them and get crazy. That's cool. That's cause you put that color, that's one of the color combination and everything. That's very cool. And it just came out, you know. What a wonderful interaction. So cool building his own bike packing bags because they were too expensive and they're better than anyone's I've seen. I think I need some new bike bags. I'll put a link to his website, just at the bottom and in the description. You can spend a lifetime looking at all of the artwork and installations in Slab City. And my interactions with the people I met there was always super friendly. These people live on the edge of society, but actually they are all connected by something they've all got in common, which is their desire to create. Farewell Slab City. That was quite surreal. Wonderful place to visit. Highly recommend it. Just leaving the road. I'm gonna wild camp in around here. Right, let's go find a spot down here. That looks pretty good. That'll do. Here. I'm all fed. I just finished a full grapefruit. It was fantastic. The sun is setting. Good night from day five. It was a good day today. Slab City, wonderful. Interesting place. Tomorrow, we're gonna be heading towards Coachella, in Indio, I think that's what it's called. And then we start climbing to Joshua Tree. Woo! Big climb, I can see the mountains ahead of me. Thanks for watching this video. I hope you enjoyed it. And if you did enjoy it, you can go back and watch the previous episodes I've made as I cycle through Southern California. I'll see you on the next one as I head towards Joshua Tree National Park.