SETTING SAIL IN A SIDECAR

Back in 1921, a pair of wildlife photographers took ingenious measures when they found themselves stranded on a motorcycle trip – as documented in The Enthusiast^™

Images courtesy of the Harley-Davidson Archives

Readers who flipped through The Enthusiast^™ magazine back in September 1921 may have found themselves intrigued by the headline “An Amphibious Sidecar Tour of the Salton Sea,” and even more intrigued when they saw photos appearing to show a man paddling in a rather unusual-looking canoe.

The man depicted was one Philip Johnston, who along with his companion John Edwin Hogg had set out from Los Angeles a few days earlier with a plan to photograph the abundant birdlife of Pelican Island, located around 30 kilometres into the saline Salton Sea.

The Salton Sea is California’s largest lake, located in the lower Colorado Desert. Conditions there are challenging and changeable, and temperatures can be extreme; indeed, were it not for the fact that the pair wanted to capture photos during breeding season, they would not have considered making the trip in high summer. Nevertheless, they set out well-equipped for the journey on their respective Harley-Davidson^® models, each fitted with a sidecar stuffed with camping equipment and supplies.

The duo found themselves constantly removing and adding layers of clothing as they made their way to Palm Canyon for their first overnight stop. At one point, they reached an elevation of 790m on the San Gorgonio Pass before descending to Palm Springs – losing 644m over a distance of just 37 kilometres. However, the toughest part of the day’s ride was yet to come: the eight or so kilometres that followed to Palm Canyon were along a deeply rutted sandy trail, which made for hard work on the motorcycles. In the end, they came to a stop and Hogg actually extended the sidecar axles so that his wheels would fit the tracks; Johnston was unable to do the same and so had to navigate the bumpy route as best he could. Eventually, the pair reached the haven of Palm Canyon and set up camp for the night.

The next day, they set off once again in the boiling heat in the direction of Mullet Island, the only accessible point of the Salton Sea. “At times the heat was so intense that we were compelled to hold our arms up in front of our faces to protect ourselves from the fiery winds,” recalled Hogg. Still, they were highly impressed by how the bikes held up in the extreme conditions.

The pair’s plan upon arrival at Mullet Island was to enlist the help of one Captain Charles E. Davis, who headed up the fishing industry of the Salton Sea and lived there on a site called Hell’s Kitchen. They had written to Captain Davis ahead of the trip to request use of one of his motorboats to complete their exploration of the lake. However, much to their disappointment it turned out upon arrival that Captain Davis was not home – he was actually spending a couple of weeks out on Pelican Island, working on one of his boats. Johnston and Hogg were not permitted to use a boat without the captain present, and so it seemed that all was lost. However, Hogg was not to be defeated. “Boats!” he said. “We don’t need boats. We’ve got a couple of sidecars that we can paddle across the sea.”

Much to the bemusement of the fisherman who had greeted them, he and Johnston requested a can of pitch and caulk to seal the seams of the sidecars, along with a couple of old oars to use as makeshift paddles. After preparing the sidecars, they left them to dry overnight before attempting to get some rest among the frequent earthquakes that shook the region all night.

Morning came, and with it the moment of truth for the improvised watercraft. Luckily, it turned out that their bold move had paid off: “Hogg soon discovered that his roadster was a perfect little canoe, and … he could even stand up and paddle without the slightest difficulty,” The Enthusiast recounts. He and Johnston duly set off across the lake, but found it challenging in the heat, and had to douse themselves in lake water for some relief. Around noon, they glimpsed Pelican Island on the horizon, but progress was slow.

“For the next two hours they paddled and paddled, but didn’t seem to get anywhere. It seemed to them then that the Salton Sea was as boundless as the Pacific Ocean and that they had been paddling there forever in that awful heat.”

Just as the two were feeling they couldn’t take it any longer, salvation appeared in the form of Captain Davis, who had spotted them from the island and come to the rescue in his motorboat. He brought the pair aboard, along with their vessels, and whizzed them over to Pelican Island where they spent the night, sleeping deeply after the day’s exertions.

Johnston and Hogg would go on to spend two days out on the lake photographing the pelicans, cormorants, gulls, terns and other water birds. Although the 30 kilometres to Pelican Island had proven overwhelming in the sidecars, they turned out to be the perfect mode of transport for travelling between the many small islands in the lake, as the men carried out their observations and photography. After their work was complete, they travelled back to Mullet Island aboard Captain Davis’s boat, thrilled with the success of their endeavour and full of plans to make a return visit at some point – albeit at a cooler time of year!

And for those concerned about the state of the sidecars? The Enthusiast was quick to reassure:

“Suffice to say, that the sidecars are none the worse for their salt sea bath trip nor are the machines out of order since their strenuous trip.”

Remarkably, video footage of Johnston and Hogg’s trip was captured, which you can view here courtesy of the University of South Carolina.