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Post your pics, videos and stories here! We will have photos from Stephen Gregory (Gregory Imagery) shortly in the gallery. My observations…. Really happy to see lots of old friends and make new ones. We had about 28 people this year and lots of ideas thrown around on how to increase that next year but it will hinge on two things I think: I need volunteers and will be promoting the event via Google ads vs FB/Instagram. When you post on the socials with your content, please tag #xladvhighsierra2023 My experience: very different weather this year! Our first rain Saturday morning and temps were much cooler in the day as well as much warmer (upper 40’s) in the morning. I was impressed with these new Trailmax Raid tires from Dunlop. Had them in both deep sand and well as steep rocky climbs. Food was super hard to come by for this particular weekend but the street tacos were super delicious, imho. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Stephen Gregory took all the sick photos and on top of that rode some new High Sierras tracks. Thanks for the great shots. Oh did we mention the how epic the weather was up in the elevation too? Awesome. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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Got home yesterday at about 4:00 totally exhausted [emoji1787]. Slept 12 hours. Lost $85 but it’s all good. Heads up! Please post your pics/videos in the Ride Report thread and not here. Thanks [emoji120] Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thank you Eric for all the effort you put in to get this rally up & going. It was a smaller but great rally. The weather was different but made for an unusual beautiful atmosphere in the area. It was a pleasure working with you & thank you for all the support. Hope we can get it together for next year. paul

Photos in the gallery now. share your photos and stories over in the ride report.

Photos by @Stephen Gregory can be found in the gallery. Some great ones as usual..

Jairo came from El Salvador just for the rally which I thought was cool. He and I have some mutual friends from my trip through there in 2021. he sent me these pics…

My take on this year's Rally is up at YT. The movie presents video, pictures, narration and music... “Heaven” by The Psychedelic Furs and “The Rain Song” by Led Zep. Subscribe and Comment at Youtube! 👍

So good. Year after year this ride always keeps me yearning for more. You can spend a lifetime exploring this area. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I think my favorite image is this one that must be seen on a large monitor to truly appreciate

Registration link: click here Here we go! 12th annual High Sierra! Event description: Three dinners this year! Salsa’s Taqueria. Professional photography by Stephen Gregory. I will lead a beginner group ride the first morning for those who are new so that should make it less daunting for you. Sponsors: GIVI USA Rigg Gear Dunlop USA Klim Motorcycle DoubleTake Mirrors Cardo Systems Attendees [mention=689]greedyg[/mention] [mention=261]Jason R[/mention] Leo Esparza Olivier Cornet Kenneth Kornbluh [mention=5129]Barry W[/mention] [mention=2299]Dennis Hagerty[/mention] Roman Krajewski Maxime Masraff Gary Graham Donald Funes Brent Needham Kiho Kim Richard Lee Sal Sal’s son Jairo Monterroza Warren Wright Brian Schieber Maria Odense [mention=512]motochefarwi[/mention] Pascal Vaguelsy [mention=4278]Stephen Gregory[/mention] Paul Costello Chris Owens Taurino Tadeo

I've asked Stephen to put these in the gallery instead. Stand by

@Stephen Gregory Great images! I'll use some for my coming video. 😊

I participated in a Rally for Rangers event in Bhutan where participants donated motorcycles to local national park rangers after a guided tour of the country. They are doing one in the US to support the Oglala Sioux nation park rangers in the Black Hills. A worthy cause, and great fun with good people. From their press release and info: Rally for Rangers USA - Black Hills 2023 Join us for the first-ever Rally for Rangers event in the USA! September 21-24, 2023, we will gather in the Black Hills for a long weekend of riding and supporting park rangers of the Oglala-Sioux Parks on the Pine Ridge Reservation and rangers of the Black Hills National Forest. Limited to just 30 riders this inaugural event is based in Custer State Park, SD and travels through the incredible single-track, gravel, and paved roads of this iconic location. Splitting into two groups of 15, we'll spend two days riding with and for rangers exploring the areas they protect and manage. The event will culminate Saturday evening with a ceremony to donate new gear and equipment purchased with funds raised by rally participants. We are working from a wish-list the rangers have created which included night-vision gear, chainsaws, GPS units, and, if enough funds are raised, possibly a side-by-side for patrol in rugged terrain. Our basecamp is the Group Camp at Stockade South Campground in Custer State Park. Tent camping for up to 50 people, bring your own camping gear. Riders wishing to stay in the regular campground with hook ups or in a local hotel are responsible for their own accommodations. Riders can bring their own bike or rent on-site from Rogue Moto, quantities limited, first come first served. Contact [email protected] for pricing and availability. To secure your spot, pay the $800 Rally Fee here and then begin your fundraising with a target of $2,000 in donations each. Making your target not required, but some have doubled their already! Prizes will be awarded to our Top 5 fundraising riders! We'll even help you create a separate personal donation page right here on Better World! Mongol Ecology Center/Rally for Rangers is a 501c3 and all donations are tax deductible. Schedule: Thursday, Sept. 21 - Arrival, dinner, orientation (optional training day - additional fee) Friday & Saturday, Sept. 22-23 - Split into two groups of 15 and ride roads and trails of Black Hills National Forest Sunday, Sept. 24 - Breakfast, depart for home or other adventures Fees and Fundraising: Rally Fee: $800 (group-site camping fees, meals, support vehicles, park entrance fees, permit fees, event photo/video, and more) Fundraising minimum: $2,000. There will be sponsor prizes for top fundraisers to try and have everyone stretch their fundraising goals. Cancellation Policy: - Full refund on rally fee if you cancel by May 1, 2023 - 50% refund on rally fee if you cancel by July 1, 2023 - No refunds on rally fee for cancellations after July 1, 2023. - There are no refunds at all on donations, but if you need to cancel we can apply your fundraising to a future event. Additional questions? Email [email protected] More info: Our base camp on the shores of Stockade Lake in Custer State Park will be an ideal launch point to explore the BDRx route and so much more of the wonder and adventure of this magical landscape. How could it get any better? Answer: Heavy Enduro training and Rogue Moto support. Susan and Andy of Heavy Enduro are not only helping guide our weekend journeys, but will provide skills training the morning of Day One to get us all dialed in for the epic rides ahead. Once warmed up we will split into groups based on our interest and skill level. Each group will have ride leaders and trail support from Rogue Moto and Heavy Enduro as you set out onto the varied and beautiful roads and trails of the Black Hills, skirting landmarks like the Badlands, Mount Rushmore, Wind Cave, and Crazy Horse monument. Elk and bison will be our companions as we explore the incredible natural and cultural history of the Hills. There’s still time to JOIN US and take advantage of a guided experience on the BDRx, some great training, making new friends, and most importantly meeting and support the hard working park rangers of the Oglala-Sioux Parks on the Pine Ridge Reservation. Send any questions to [email protected].

Ok, Ok Let's not get hasty! 🤪 Stand by for further communication...

I just paid up. See you guys there.

Thanks for the nice words. Brandon had reached out to me about sharing another post of Upshift Online's shortly after he started there but this must be like 3-4 years ago. I was kind of shocked to hear that he didn't want their posts shared but I was like "okay!" After that I just unfollowed them. I wasn't mad; I just was like "welp, I guess they don't want things shared." I thought it was super weird and thought it might be personal but since then I've learned they do that to everyone. I know there are many small-time accounts out there and mostly in other countries who will share content without attribution and asking them not to may make perfect sense. But there's a few pretty big accounts I know of including this one who've found themselves in that situation. I share content for ADVPulse quite a bit mostly because it's just good content. Rob Dabney doesn't give me anything to do so either. I've shared Brake Magazine stuff too. And then going back to the only other people who've asked me not to share what this guy from the PNW who fancies himself a photographer. He messaged me asking if I was going to pay him? I was like well.... no. Sorry. He said "well I see you run ads on your site and it's commercial so you can afford to pay me." Well, not exactly lol. The ad revenue amounted to maybe $15/month and the costs closer to $30/month. But I took his photo down and just stopped following him. Last year I shared a guy's video of him nearly falling off his moto on the side of a hill. He asked super politely that I not share it and I immediately deleted it. I think he felt it made him look bad which I totally understood. But the usual response has always been "thanks for the share!" One thing I never understood about their site is the whole digital viewer as if it's a real paper magazine. The problem is individual stories aren't linkable. If you google "xladv site:upshiftonline.com" you get zero results. But if I go to the June 2018 edition I can find the Mojave Rally story. Search engine referral traffic can in many cases be the large majority of a site's traffic. 93% of all web traffic is from search engines. To forego that seems odd but it does explain their domain authority score is so low relative to other adv websites. Given that one issue, I'd be like "share and share alike!" as much as I could to try and overcome that. I was very prominently posting stories about this spat on my histories at IG too. People need to think twice about coming after XLADV. "Never pick a fight with people who buy ink by the barrel." - Mark Twain

Hey Eric, well we are driving in the pick up from the East Bay (SF)probably heading down on Wednesday. If there is anything Maria and I can do let us know. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I fly to LA this Sat the 26th. Still trying to organize getting myself and all the prizes, beer, water, etc there. Dennis’s motor home is busted and he’s doing another ride with friends even further north of High Sierra. Peter from SD helped me last year and offered to again but he’s got some mechanical issues coming back from Louisiana. He was also going to give Paul a ride so he doesn’t have to cope with the heat. He may or may not be able to resolve that in time. I can always simply ride the 990 but have all the rally stuff so if anyone has suggestions then I’m open to that. Thanks. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Been too long! Had a quick one week trip to Chile to ride with @MotorradAngels (Tom Palmer) and @Dennis Godwin of Motorrad Angels. We tried to get over the pass to Mendoza but there was a big landslide they were fixing. We had heard it would open the next day and were hoping it was open to motos which is usually the case. But the army guy said ten more days! So we made the most of Chile. From Santiago we went about 2 hours nw to Papudo on the coast. Really cool town with an old california central coast feel. Next day we went to the pass and got turned back and ended up in La Ligua. Next day was to Terma de Socos, a hot spring hotel. Next day I had to turn south and the other two headed up to Atacama then over into Argentina for a few water projects. I went south to Santa Cruz, a wine region and did the whole foodie thing solo. That 1250 GS is amazing! My first time trying. Chile is very interesting! More like Europe than South America. Very well put together, organized, great roads, drivers who know how to drive (unlike Peru). People are more European in origin it seems. Lots from Italy and Germany. Geography is basically desert, mountains, ocean and glaciers surrounding them. It's a long finger like country. They say the wine region suffers less pest problems because of that. It's also quite a bit more expensive than other S American countries. I was going to keep going south but love it here in Colombia and am working a full time gig so have to make hay while the sun shines as they say. They went far enough north to get a photo at “the hand.” I said you’re not a real adventure rider until you get a picture at the hand! [emoji1787] Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk