West Coast Art Tour 2006: Slab City and the Great Ride

We have entered into an new realm. Arriving in the evening with wary light, we traverse a landscape of campers, and dogs in this rugged landscape. Slab city was a comfort to me after being near the Salton Sea. We set up camp and proceeded to eat some of our consumables while a nice campfire was set to burn for a while. Slab city you should know is an abandoned military base of which the only thing left is the concrete slabs after the buildings were taken down. Off in the distance you can hear the sound of a training scenario takng place in the now occupied military base just over the mountains. Its an interesting experience to know that the place you are about to sleep in, is now abandoned and not governed by any formal institution. We are truly free here. In the morning we find ourselves riding through the local camps to get to a canal where we were to go swimming. However this was empty and we quickly sought after the thrills of speeding up and down the steep walls. What fun!

Grape poachders that we are, we get up somewhat hungover and tired from staying up late at night riding our bikes around Slab City in the buff. Night time bike ride
The road system at the Slabs is labyrinthian and of course we got lost for a while and got chased by dogs. Just a little bit scarier than normal when you have no clothes on....

Slab City seems to be a place where people come to get away from whatever is troubling them and there are many stories about people gone missing from the slabs. Probably the most notable tale being that of Chris McCandless in Into the wild by Jon Krakauer
The only thing dividing the Slabs from the active bombing range to the west is the Coachella Canal, a main water supply way for Southern California. It's surreal camping there at night and hearing the distant thump of heavy artillery and other tools of warfare being put to test.