Not a bird in the sky. Not a plant in the ground. No trees rustling in the breeze. In fact, no breeze. Just silence. Absolute silence. But soon to be disturbed by the cackling exhausts of a dozen or so raucous motorcycles shattering the quiet and bringing you to earth with a bump. Back on earth but in a biking heaven. You are sitting in the middle of Death Valley, California and you can’t quite take in the heat or the atmosphere. You are just a few days into our West Coast, Mountains and Canyons Tour, USA with so much to do and so little time to do it in.
We (normally) start in San Francisco, the city with an atmosphere you can lean on, collect our bikes and head North East towards Lake Tahoe, prettiness personified. The weather tends to be just about right. Hot enough to melt your ice cream but not hot enough to melt your helmet.