The date is 18 April 2021 and the event is the Salton Sea 400, an endurance motor scooter event that circumnavigates southern California’s Salton Sea. The Motor Scooter International Land Speed Federation is the group that put the event together (they do this sort of thing regularly), and I can tell you from personal experience that Alan Spears and the MSILSF crew are a good bunch of people. I rode a 150cc California Scooter (along with good buddies TK and Arlene) in a similar event around Death Valley a few years ago and it was a hoot.
The contact info is in the poster above and here (and you should register to run in the event). If you have a scooter and you’d like to run it around the Salton Sea, you might consider participating.
Absolutely love reading and watching videos on the history of the Salton Sea. This would be an awesome event to participate in! If it only wasn’t a 36 1/2 hour ride of over 2,300 miles…I hope you or Gresh is going so I can live vicariously through one of you….
Alan and the MSILSF crew put on a good show. I thoroughly enjoyed the Hell’s Loop Rally through Death Valley. There is a rumor that the winner gets a free bottle of Yoo-Hoo.
I visited the Salton Sea once on a rented Triumph. I rode out as close as I could to the water in the parking lot of an abandoned night club. There were a lot of abandoned clubs and restaurants around the sea. People didn’t seem to grasp that without inflowing water that the sea would eventually dry up. The smell was reminiscent of the floor of your first car after your buddies got drunk on cheap beer and hurled.
It is an interesting area. MSILSF has a knack for picking good locations for these loop endurance events.
Dang it seems all the cool stuff is on the Left Coast! I guess I better get busy and have a event that rides around Lake Okeechobee or something like that! Please do have a follow-up article on this so at least we can vicariously enjoy what you guys are doing out there!
Thanks, Terry. Yeah, I just got back from a walk. It’s gotta 80 degrees and sunny out here in the People’s Republik.
I love the Salton Sea. Knowing its history from the beginning will make you appreciate it or at least understand it more. And if it doesn’t stink to high heaven you hit a good day.
Don’t miss the Sonny Bono nature reserve.
You can rent an ATV in Salton City and ride the desert and arroyos. I had a blast.
There’s also a beach in Salton City. If you go there, post up if they’ve finally removed that armchair from the water.
I live New England but have been around it twice on a motorcycle and once by car.
Will do, Marcus, and thanks for posting.
Hi All! We started the Salton Sea event in 2011. We missed a couple of years when we ran coast-to-coast Cannonballs in 2013 (New York to CA) and 2016 (Imperial Beach, CA to Madewaska, ME). There is a State sponsored restoration program underway. Hopefully the Sea will be rejuvenated to some extent. Thnx, Joe, for this blog.
Our pleasure, Alan. Keep these events going, my friend!