CALIFORNIA - The HARD WAY & THE LONG WAY

Arrive in California through Los Angeles or San Francisco and within moments, you'll see driverless taxis on the highway, dodge polite delivery robots on the sidewalk and witness spaceships launching into the night sky. Welcome to the future!

But the Cali Rally takes a different path. Away from the cities, the urban sprawl, big tech and Hollywood, and deep into California's past and diverse wilderness. Along tiny backroads built during the Gold Rush, which once led hopeful prospectors into the wildest Californian terrain. Today the stagecoaches have been replaced by motorcycles, with a very different kind of horsepower, but the spirit of exploration remains. Riding these forgotten roads for the first time, like so many who travelled here before us in search of something, connects you to the history, the people and the extraordinary landscapes of California.

There are machines that get you there, and then there are machines that take you somewhere else entirely and really make you work for it.

Desert racer Terry Madden had chosen a 1941 Harley Knucklehead as his Cali Rally machine. Each evening, he'd be tending to it before sleep with a little nightly maintenance. "At first I was worried if the motorcycle would cross the finish line. Now I'm worried if I will make it across the finish line... the bike will be fine!” Riding an 85-year-old motorcycle, with no suspension and a small fuel tank, 2,500 miles across the wilds of California is an adventure on another level. 

Terry had planned to ride with his best friend, but when his teammate had to pull out at the last minute, his son Dalton stepped in. "I hadn't planned this adventure with my son, but suddenly here we are, riding shoulder to shoulder across the state. These are the days I'm going to talk about with him when I'm old and I'm in a rocking chair.” 

And that's the thing about the Cali Rally. You set out to cross a state, but you never quite know what you'll discover along the way. Everything around you is constantly changing. One minute you're riding through the hottest place in the world, the next you're climbing into deep forests on the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada, towards the roof of California at 9,942 feet. Then, almost as quickly, you're descending into Yosemite. The scents, the scenery, the temperatures, everything changes in minutes. Riding here is unlike anywhere else in the world.

By Stage 4, the Cali Rally pioneers were approaching the midpoint of the Rally expedition, having crossed landscapes resembling the Australian bush, forests and rock formations reminiscent of Japan, and Alpine switchbacks winding through deep pine forests that could have been Switzerland. We passed through tiny one-horse towns that had barely changed in generations, where cowboys still crossed the road with spurs on their boots, heading into the saloon.

When we finally reached the Pacific, the adventure took on an entirely different feeling as we rode south along one of the most iconic coastal roads in the world.

Then came the forests….The Rally teams turned inland, into some of the tallest and most majestic forests on Earth. Everything slowed. Riders eased off the throttle, looking upwards in awe at ancient trees, some over 2,000 years old, 300 feet tall and 20 feet wide. These giants command a different kind of respect.

And then came the sea mist….Arriving at our Rally Camp, a beautiful clifftop ranch overlooking Mendocino, we could see almost nothing. The entire coastline had disappeared beneath a blanket of cloud. But at sunrise, the mist lifted. Golden beams of light illuminated the camp and the hundreds of islands beneath us, revealing one of the most spectacular and uniquely Californian landscapes imaginable.

Then, just as breakfast was finishing and Rally team departure times were being called across the camp, the sea mist rolled back in. One by one, the teams disappeared into the morning fog.

Sometimes your timing is just perfect….On Stage 6, the Rally teams headed 320 miles south, snaking inland along tiny, technical backroads before returning to the Pacific coast. As we reached the Golden Gate Bridge, four Naval jets appeared overhead, flying in formation, looping the loop and sweeping low across, over and under the bridge. For over an hour, as the Cali Rally teams crossed San Francisco Bay, the daring aerial display continued. An extraordinary welcome to one of the world's most iconic cities.

There's a famous saying by explorer Yvon Chouinard: "When everything goes wrong, that's when adventure starts.” The Cali Rally is the longest endurance road Rally ever attempted across California. And on expeditions of this scale, sometimes you simply have to endure.

When some of our riders left England for the warm climes of Southern California, we'd joked, "It never rains in California!” Welcome, Tropical Storm Rachel.

We'd been tracking the storm over the final few stages, and it seemed our paths wouldn't cross. But in the last few hours, with just 50 miles remaining of our 2,500-mile adventure, everything changed.

The Rally teams were riding through Angeles National Forest. A landslide had already closed one road, forcing the Rally Scout Team to reroute us further north, towards Mt Baldy, Lake Arrowhead and Big Bear.

That's when the storm intercepted the Cali Rally.

The skies turned black. Temperatures plunged to 33°F (-1°C). Then the torrential rain began. Visibility dropped to just 10 meters. With nowhere to shelter on the mountainside, the teams had no choice but to push on. To endure. Our pace dropped to 20 mph. With sheer drops of hundreds of feet beside the road, mistakes were not an option.

It's at times like these that you're glad to have a Rally team around you. Not just to help when something goes wrong, but to lift your spirits when things get really tough, even if it’s just a misty thumbs up in the mirror as you check your team mates are ok. 

When you can barely see the road, can't feel your hands, your boots are full of water, you're shivering and there's nowhere to stop, there's only one thing to do. Keep riding. "If you're going through hell, keep going."

The final stage was the very definition of Type II fun. The kind that's tough, uncomfortable and occasionally terrifying in the moment, requiring you to dig deep, persevere and endure. The sort of experience that builds character and only becomes 'fun' when you look back on it.

But almost as suddenly as the storm had arrived, it was behind us.

We descended from the mountains and back into the warm embrace of the desert. The heat slowly warmed our frozen bodies and dried our soaked riding gear. By the time we reached the final checkpoint, we were ready for the finish line.

Normally, Rally teams stop at checkpoints for just a few minutes. But after that final mountain crossing, everyone gladly lingered in the saloon at Pioneertown, originally built as a Hollywood movie set, wait for all teams to assemble at the checkpoint.

And when the last rider finally emerged from the desert, we set off together. One great pack of lone wolves.

Every Rally team crossed the Cali Rally finish line together in Yucca Valley. The adrenaline of the final stage was still flowing through our veins, and there was a shared feeling that we'd truly earned that finish line, we’d ridden every greatest rod here, from the lowest point to the highest point and we were ready to celebrate the adventure with a proper Californian after-party in the desert.

Every rider and every Rally team came away with their own Cali Rally story.

For the pioneers of this first Great Malle Cali Rally, we'd taken the truly long way around California. At times, the hard way. But what a way to experience and know a place.

Riding all day, every day, into the unknown, getting lost and finding new places. Hundreds of miles together, surrounded by a traveling motorcycle circus of extraordinary people from around the globe, all sharing the same dream. To get there, by any means possible. On two wheels, three wheels, four wheels, in support vehicles or on the back of someone else's motorcycle.

Embracing whatever the road threw at us. Living the Californian dream.

After a decade of Malle Rallies across Great Britain, Ireland, every country of the Alps and Scandinavia to the top of the Arctic, crossing the entirety of California together felt like the beginning of an entirely new chapter, there’s something very special about crossing a desert.

Thank you to every rider and driver who made this adventure so wild. To our friends at Hi Road, The Black Dust Motor Co, the Detroit Antique Motorcycle Show, and to Terry Madden and his family for welcoming every team home with the Cali Rally After Party.

Our Rally photographer, Shane Benson, was there at every stage and every camp, capturing the moments that made this first Cali Rally so special. His photographs tell the story better than words ever could.

The first Cali Rally is now part of Malle history. The dust has settled, the motorcycles are back home, but the stories will endure. Stories of endless desert roads, ancient forests, freezing mountain passes, unexpected friendships and the extraordinary things that happen when you choose to take the long way.

And that's what makes a Rally like this so special. It's not just about crossing California. It's about everything that happens between the start line and the finish line, the people you share it with and the stories you create together.

The Great Malle Cali Rally returns in 2028 - From the 6th to the 15th of October. Another extraordinary journey across one of the most spectacular and diverse landscapes on Earth. The next chapter belongs to a new generation of Cali Rally pioneers.

California. The long way. The hard way. The only way we'd have it.

Register your interest now to be the first to know when registration opens for The Great Malle Cali Rally 2028.