VOLUME 027 / FALL 2022
Words and photo by Ben Giese
Somewhere beyond the maze of concrete and steel, far away from the sad rat race of the world, there’s a place where the sun goes to rest, and new dreams come to life under a blanket of stars. Where rugged mountains and bottomless canyons dance across the wide-open plains, and wild souls can escape the madness to find hope in an endless horizon. A place where the cowboy spirit was born, strong and independent. Lonesome but never lonely. Wild and free like a horse that could never be tamed.
For this issue we embraced that spirit to explore new frontiers in faraway places. We found beauty and terror in the tropics, rode old bikes with new friends south of the border, and discovered unspeakable enchantment in a frozen northern abyss. Those distant lands showed us how the environment can shape your character, so we continued on to the West, to see the land that shaped the cowboy. We sold our souls to the god of two wheels and chased our demons deep into the cruel, hot desert. We dreamed the golden dreams of yesterday on an old petroleum horse and got swept away by time in the forgotten corners of long-lost America.
We found freedom in the desolation of those remote landscapes, and a sense of peace in the precious moments of chaos along the way. It made us think about the grit of the old cowboys who rode west in search of a promised land. They taught us to let go of our fears like dust in the wind, to find enchantment in the world around you, and to keep on riding toward a brighter future. We’ll carry that spirit with us on the road ahead, and we’ll share these stories to inspire the next generation of dreamers to point west and chase the setting sun.
Cover photo by Jack Antal
VOLUME 027
FA/22
SPIRIT OF THE WEST
