Our Mission

Bikepacking Roots supports and advances bikepacking, the growth of a diverse bikepacking community, and access to and the conservation of the landscapes and public lands through which we ride.

  • We are growing the bikepacking community by welcoming, engaging, and connecting people of all races, sexual orientations, backgrounds, and skill levels.
  • We create and sustain intentional, enjoyable, and accessible bikepacking routes and route networks throughout North America for beginner to expert riders.
  • We advocate for public access to and increased protections of public lands.
  • We connect bikepackers with landscapes, inspiring riders to become public lands and conservation advocates who follow a “positive impact ethos.”
  • We provide and promote visibility and access for bikepackers by fostering positive, long-term relationships with public land managers, private landowners, and the small communities through which we ride.
Our Team

Executive Director

Noelle (she/her, Baltimore, MD) has built her life and community around bikes adventures and is thrilled to be able to channel that energy full-time leading Bikepacking Roots. She put her amateur route building skills to the test on a 4,200 mile solo bike trip from Baltimore through the Northeast and Maritime Canada. In recent years, she has immersed herself into bikepacking and is eager to support the creation of more opportunities for folks of all identities and skill levels to get out on bikes in wild places. Noelle’s diverse career has ranged from running a small medical non-profit in Guatemala to most recently providing programmatic and operational leadership for a national advocacy initiative at the Center for Science in the Public Interest. Noelle has a Masters in Public Health from Johns Hopkins University and a B.A. in Applied Economics and Management from Cornell University.

Co-Founder and Routes Director

Kurt  (he/him, Prescott, Arizona) has been riding and racing bikes since his early teenage years and began bikepacking more than a decade ago. Since then, he has bikepacked throughout the world and co-developed Prescott College’s Geology through Bikepacking course. But he’s most at ease when immersed on the wild public lands of the American West. Kurt has now chosen to direct his energy toward co-founding and developing Bikepacking Roots to grow and advocate for the bikepacking community. He has a Ph.D. in Geological Sciences and is particularly fascinated by the evolution of Arctic, alpine, and glaciated landscapes. Beyond Bikepacking Roots, Kurt is an endurance cycling coach, one of the winningest ultraendurance mountain bikers, and was a college professor for 6 years before moving beyond academia.

Co-Founder and Education and Events Director

Kaitlyn (she/her, Victor, Idaho) loves wild places and believes the opportunity to travel in, experience, and connect to landscapes is critical in inspiring a conservation ethos. She has been a professional adventurer and educator for a decade, teaching Adventure Education for Prescott College, NOLS and Outward Bound. Since adding the mountain bike to her repertoire of avenues for exploration, Kaitlyn has bikepacked extensively in the western U.S. and abroad. She co-developed Prescott College’s Geology through Bikepacking and co-authored the first instructional book on bikepacking, The Bikepacker’s Guide. Kaitlyn has a M.A. in Environmental Education and brings expertise to Bikepacking Roots in adventure-inspired conservation education efforts.

Community Programs Coordinator

Jan (they/them, Cerrillos, NM) developed a keen interest in the great outdoors at a young age, attending three wilderness trips with Outward Bound before the 10th grade. After a back injury sidelined them from road and crit racing they developed a deep appreciation for bikepacking. Their personal experiences while scouting the Pony Express route moved them so deeply that they decided to commit themselves towards helping others to experience the route. You can find them outside of Cerrillos, New Mexico when they’re not out exploring gravel roads across the country.

Orogenesis Route Director

Gabriel (he/him, Mill City, OR) is the founder and former executive director of the Oregon Timber Trail Alliance. He helped co-found the Oregon Mountain Biking Coalition and is now finding a new way on old ground with Orogenesis. He’s passionate about backcountry trails and long-distance connectivity, and is a staunch believer that outdoor experiences have the power to transform people’s lives.

Andres (he/him, Mancos, CO) is a Senior Consultant at Training Resources for the Environmental community (TREC) and facilitates non-profit conservation leadership programming. He’s a proud dad and husband and an avid climber, backcountry skier, and cyclist. Originally from El Paso, TX, his work in the field of environmental education and guiding, along with personal adventures and travel, has allowed him to travel the world and truly fall in love with our country’s vast public lands. When’s he’s not out supporting grassroots organizations or advocating for public lands, you can find him outside enjoying whatever opportunities the place and season allows. He brings to Bikepacking Roots his knowledge of the outdoor and conservation community, particularly in the world of philanthropy, capacity-building, and leadership and a deep and passionate knowledge of Equity and Inclusion work and an endless passion and stoke for all things wild and fun. He’s generally a fan of Type II fun and believes that anything worth experiencing is also worth fighting for.

Vice President

Grant (he/him, Lopez Island, WA) has a passion for protecting the western landscape and connecting people to the natural environment in a meaningful and sustainable way. As a conservationist and attorney, he has worked at the nexus of conservation and public access project management and policy development for and with local land trusts, non-profits, and municipalities in the West. Grant has practiced land use and property law, led the open space and conservation program in Missoula, Montana, and now works to develop and promote climate change and sustainable transportation policy on the San Juan archipelago of western Washington.  He finds solitude and inspiration in pedaling through remote and challenging landscapes, paddling wild rivers, skiing deep powder, and sleeping under the stars.

Treasurer

Mike Teachey (he/him, Simpsonville, South Carolina) is the co-owner of Noble Aim Consulting focused on helping communities and non-profit organizations achieve challenging goals. Mike learned the value of pushing past one’s own perceived limitations as an Outward Bound student and later as an Outward Bound instructor. This lesson helped Mike complete a full Ironman in 2017 and the Great Divide Classic, riding from Rooseville, Montana to Antelope Wells, New Mexico in 2021. Mike enjoys all form of cycling; however, he has a passion for bikepacking claiming that he feels like he is his best self when traveling by bike.

Secretary

Kristen (she/her, Nederland, CO) is an unabashed bike nerd who lives for long adventure rides and bikepacking excursions throughout the Southwest desert and high alpine trails of the Rocky Mountains. She’s a former racer who still needs to scratch the competitive itch every once in a while, but would rather stop and enjoy a sunset and eat too many snacks along the way. When not dreaming and scheming about quiet dirt roads and trails, she leads PR and content strategy at Dispatch Communications and works with endurance athletes of all kinds through her coaching company, Rambleur.

Board Member

Katherine (she/her, Denver, CO) is a proud Texas native who grew up exploring the suburban wild and living for family trips to Big Bend National Park. Katherine first grasped the power of two-wheeled travel after crossing the U.S. by bicycle in 2008. It was a transformative experience that introduced her to new cultures, communities and landscapes at a pace of appreciation and learning. Katherine has worked extensively in the outdoor industry in marketing and communications roles—including for the International Mountain Bicycling Association and Dirt Rag Magazine—and previously served on the parks and recreation advisory board for the city of Golden, CO. She has a master’s degree in marketing from the University of Denver, where she now works.

Board Member

Nan (she/her, Driggs Idaho) may be called by some a lost Cajun. She grew up in south Louisiana on the bayous. Once in college, she discovered a huge love for both wild places and bikes. She has since worked in outdoor education for 15 years and the non-profit sector for 9 years. She enjoys any form of off-road biking, but her favorite is winter ultra fat biking.  “Don’t worry, I know my screws are loose,” she says. The simplicy of bikepacking is what has drawn her in – eat when hungry, sleep when tired, enjoy the ride, the rest of the world goes away for a while so that she can escape into “Nanland.”

Jon Yazzie

Board Member

Jon (he/him, Kayenta, AZ) is a full-blooded Navajo and aspiring adventure biker. He has been on two wheels since his toddler years and has been bike packing the last 6 years in and around Navajo land. He currently owns Dzil Ta’ah Adventures, a bikepacking company on Navajo and also runs trips as a tour guide with Four Corners Guides.

 

Board Member

Wendy (she/her, Hood River, OR) was born in South Africa and grew up traveling through remote parts of Africa. She has since lived in different parts of the world and after traveling through many more, remains at heart an avid outdoor enthusiast who loves to travel by any means possible, preferably a bicycle. While based in Southern California Wendy was a Professor at The University of California Los Angeles studying the addictive properties of opioids. She has also worked with different environmental nonprofit organizations and is now a Board member and Officer of a biological research station and a land trust in California. Wendy currently spends her time, if not biking all over the Cascades, crafting grants and fundraising opportunities to expand equitable access to healthcare for underserved communities.  With a wealth of experience in nonprofits and their financial stability, Wendy brings a depth of knowledge to Bikepacking Roots.

Board Member

Chris Case (Niwot, CO) is a journalist, writer, and founder of Alter Exploration, which creates challenging cycling and bikepacking adventures in the Dolomites, Iceland, the Piedmont Alps, Colorado, and beyond. He is a lifelong endurance athlete with a diverse academic and professional background, with degrees and research experience in neuroscience and clinical psychology, and a master’s degree in journalism. Chris served as managing editor of VeloNews magazine for eight years before co-founding Fast Talk Labs, an endurance sports training community and knowledgebase. He served as operations director for DuVine Cycling + Adventure Co. before founding Alter Exploration in 2023. He is also the author of The Haywire Heart, the first book to delve into the relationship between long-term endurance athletics and heart health.

Board Member

Morgan Lommele is a mediator and policy analyst. She’s a rider of all stripes, but her most memorable experiences by bike are those spent with friends and family (and Cheez-Its) in the woods. She works for a national organization supporting local, state, and federal government agencies problem solve with the communities they serve around environmental policy issues. She spent more than three years organizing local mountain biking groups and communities on behalf of the International Mountain Biking Association, and another six as a policy director on bike policy issues with PeopleForBikes. Morgan is a Belgian-American who grew up in France, but has lived in Boulder, Colorado for almost 25 years. She has two kids who love bike adventures as much as she does. 

Board Member

Loren was born in rural Southern Oregon and learned to ride a bike on the dirt roads, irrigation ditches and driveways of the Siskiyou Cascades. He’s been exploring the world (and himself) on a bike longer than he can remember. He started his career in teaching alternative education in high school setting and then did advocacy and development work at the community college level before the siren song of cycling lured him back into the Outdoor Industry. After 8 years in Whitefish, Montana, he swapped borders for the small town of Patagonia, AZ. His days of breathing fire and focusing on bike racing are (almost) behind him, and he’s fallen in love with big days exploring rarely traveled paths and bikepacking. He says Bikepacking Roots represents a unique confluence of his own passions, values and approach to riding and is excited to serve the board and advance the cause.

Member: Policy and Cultural Advisors

Kat (she/her, Orinda, CA) has 20 years of environmental consulting and project management experience. She leads and directs multi-disciplinary teams conducting environmental review and analysis for a variety of California Environmental Quality Act and National Environmental Policy Act projects. Her project experience includes a wide variety of projects, but of late has focused on urban infill. She has a Masters of Urban and Regional Planning with an emphasis in Environmental Planning from Portland State University (Oregon) and a Bachelor of University Studies with an emphasis in Physical Geography from the University of New Mexico. She is also a certified planner and a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners.

Member: Policy and Cultural Advisors

Theo (he/him, San Francisco, CA) has been a passionate biker and advocate for the outdoors for the last 20 years. By trade, he is a cultural resources specialist and has worked throughout western North America, from the Yukon to California. His time spent in the wilderness instilled passion to expand an awareness of the depth of time and variety of human experience within these landscapes. He enjoys finding new ways to interact with the people and world around him, a direction which provides endless opportunities for advocacy. Bicycles provide a unique and immersive experience in all environments, opening up even greater opportunities for personal engagement and building stronger connections with cultural and natural landscapes, both past and present.

Member: Policy and Cultural Advisors

Renee (she/her, Fort Collins, CO) – Renee is from the Diné (Navajo) Tribe and is an advocate for public lands, public health and environmental issues, and land conservation. She holds a BA degree in Native American Studies from Dartmouth College and a Master of Public Health (MPH) degree from the Colorado School of Public Health. She advocates for these issues by combining her culture’s rich oral tradition of storytelling with photography, film, writing, social media, and mixed media artwork. At the heart of her storytelling is her relationship with the sacred land because it is inseparable from the Diné way of life, culture, and identity. This is why mountain biking is more than a sport she’s passionate about, it is one of the ways she maintains this necessary connection. By sharing her stories she wants to encourage others to (re)connect with the land we all love to explore, and change the narratives surrounding land issues in ways that can lead to policy and cultural shifts across society.

Member: Policy and Cultural Advisors

Joe (he/him, Prescott, AZ) started racing mountain bikes in 1992 in New England, and soon learned that it was more fun to push your bike uphill on chunky jeep roads with a backpack full of candy and sleep out under the stars. He took his first official bikepacking trip around 1995, but had no idea that the word “bikepacking” existed. Many years later, he still loves the chunky jeep roads, but eats less candy. Joe is an expert on public lands management and policy and has worked in the natural resources management field since the late 1990s as an educator, guide, trail builder, forester, ecologist, wilderness advocate, and is now Southwest Advocate with the Center for Biological Diversity.

Member: Policy and Cultural Advisors

Corey (he/him, Bozeman, MT) bought his first bike in the mid 1980s – a Shogun Prairie Breaker. He grew up in a logging family in Idaho and got into cycling because asthma kept him from riding horses. Later in life, Corey ventured into advocacy in the early 2000s as he saw groups successfully convincing land managers to ban mountain bikes from some backcountry trails. Since then, he has helped found the Montana Mountain Bike Alliance and has been heavily engaged in mountain bike access issues throughout the northern Rockies. He’s also spent countless hours clearing and maintaining trails in the Caribou Targhee National Forest.

Secretary

Tom (he/him, Anchorage, AK) is an attorney and long-time mountain biker and backcountry skier with a passion for enjoying and protecting our public lands. He previously lived in Boise, ID where he worked for Outdoor Alliance, a national coalition advocating for public land conservation and access for mountain biking, climbing, paddling, and backcountry skiing, and he’s now working in Alaska as a law clerk. At Bikepacking Roots, he brings his direct experience advocating for outdoor recreation with the Forest Service, BLM, National Park Service, state governments, and the federal government.

Member: Policy and Cultural Advisors

Matthew (he/him, Tucson, AZ) works as the Executive Director of the Arizona Trail Association, the nonprofit organization responsible for the protection and maintenance of the Arizona Trail – the only completed National Scenic Trail that welcomes mountain bikes. He has worked in the fields of natural and cultural resource management, environmental education, journalism and outdoor adventure. He lives in a remote off-the-grid homestead in the Sierrita Mountains southwest of Tucson, where hundreds of miles of roads and trails encourage bikepacking right out his front door.

Member: Policy and Cultural Advisors

Member: Regional Advisors & Web Developer

(He/him, Park City, UT). My love for bikepacking boils down to the love of solitude on long and isolated dirt roads. After a self-supported bike tour across the USA in 2009, and two larger bike tours with my pup in tow – adding up to roughly 11k miles, my yearning for less pavement turned to dirt and the bike setup followed suit. Bikpacking revolutionized my life and I still live by the notion that “the road will always provide.” My main focus for the bikepacking community is route development, website development – including the new Bikepacking Roots site, Utah Bikepackers Facebook group administrator, The Bikeraft Guide contributor, and open source creative commons photography on Unsplash. Stoked to be apart of the community! Throw me an email anytime you’re looking for a dirt partner. Cheers!

Member: Regional Advisors

Everett (they/them, Santa Cruz, California) is a curator and organizer that sees bikepacking as an immersive platform for creating conversations and collaborative projects that explore our relationships with social and physical landscapes. As a trans and genderqueer adventure cyclist, they seek out the the landscapes of the in between – finding trails and unpaved roads that connect the dots between people, places and ideas. A co-organizer with the WTF Bikexplorers and an ambassador with We Got Next, Everett enjoys having the opportunity to advocate for and celebrate our relationship to the lands on which we live, travel, and connect with the more than human world.

Member: Regional Advisors

Spencer (he/him, Tucson, AZ) was southern California raised and is currently nesting in Arizona’s Sonoran Desert.  “Ever since someone informed me I could strap camping gear to a mountain bike I have never looked back on my backpacking days.  I just want to spread stoke and ride bikes with all the rad humans.”

Member: Regional Advisors

Sarah (she/her, Durango, CO) is an adventure ambassador for Specialized Bicycles and Ride with GPS, the co-founder of WTF Bikexplorers, the founder and promoter of Ruta del Jefe. Sarah’s passion for bikepacking was solidified during her 5,000 mile crossing of the TAT (the dual-sport dirt road motorcycle route across the U.S.A) in 2015. As an adventure cyclist, organizer, writer, route maker, she uses her experiences exploring by bike to inspire and encourage others to use the bicycle as a tool to learn more about themselves and the world around them.

Member: Regional Advisors

Doom (he/him, Mancos, CO) is a lifelong cyclist prone to creative travels by bike, the weirder the better. He’s a professional photographer and athlete ambassador for Specialized bikes, Revelate Designs, Alpacka Raft, and many more.   Southwest Colorado has been home for more than 20 years, and the desert Southwest has a tight but gentle grip on his soul. Head guide and co-owner of Four Corners GuidesDurango Devo coach . . . wait, stop reading this and go for a ride!!

Member: Regional Advisors

Almer (he/him, Coeur d’Alene, ID) is from northern Idaho and has a passion for those long rides in the backcountry and the preservation of that experience. He’s active in local mountain bike trail advocacy and stewardship, and he shares the backcountry experience with his children, hoping they will get to have those same experiences when they are adults.

Member: Regional Advisors

Matt (he/him, Las Cruces, NM) has always sought out the wild and natural spaces in the world and encouraged others to do the same.  His passion for sharing the outdoors started by leading the neighborhood kids off the playground and into the creeks of southern Iowa.  After college, the kids and creeks got bigger as he lead volunteer groups into the Grand Canyon to remove invasive plant species.  Currently residing in southern New Mexico, he created the Monumental Loop and a series of group rides designed to connect locals to the newly established Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument.

Member: Regional Advisors

Erin (he/him, Santa Barbara, CA) is an avid mountain biker and backpacker and got into bikepacking to blend the best of both worlds.  A landscape architect by profession, Erin’s other passions include surfing, botany, volunteer trail work, dogs, studying maps, exploring new trails, and just getting outside in general.

Member: Regional Advisors

Chris (he/him, Danville, VA) lives in southern Virginia with my wife and 4 kids.  He has always longed for adventure and the peace he finds while pedaling through the communities and backroads of Appalachia. He strongly believes that real adventure must be practiced and preserved, otherwise we might all end up lost in the end.

Member: Regional Advisors

John (he/him, Phoenix, AZ) is originally from Allentown, PA and developed his love for bikes riding BMX Freestyle Flatland. He moved west to Arizona to attend college and never looked back. He took up mountain biking in 1994 as a way to stay in shape for alpine skiing, now it’s his passion. His bikepacking adventures began about 5 years ago, and he loved the freedom it brought to explore new places I otherwise would not be able to get to. He also organizes multi-day rides to introduce newcomers to the realm of bikepacking. He also has a reputation for loving good hike-a-bike!

Member: Regional Advisors

Karlos (he/him, DeLeon Springs, FL) is better known as the Singletrack Samurai and has spent nearly a decade, coordinating and developing bikepacking routes in Florida and the Southeast.  An avid bikepacker and rider, Karlos is constantly at work with new routes, advocacy for all trail users, and creating events to get riders out for single and multi-day adventures.

Member: Regional Advisors

Joe (he/him, Missoula, MT) was raised in Minnesota and followed his call to the mountains in his early 20s. The endless trails and forest roads in western Montana is where he found love and obsession for mountain biking and bikepacking. Joe is the founder of Spotted Dog Cycles, a dirt-minded, Missoula-based bicycle touring and outfitting company. By offering backcountry cycling tours Joe hopes to help others learn to appreciate and respect our wild lands and the opportunities they provide. When he is not on two wheels he is usually in the woods with his dogs or trying not to crash at the skatepark.

Member: Regional Advisors

Dana (he/him, Flagstaff, AZ) is a mathematics professor at Northern Arizona University. His obsession with cycling began after he was forced to take time off from trail running and rock climbing due to a series of injuries. Several years of dabbling with endurance mountain bike racing and a desire to spend more time in wild places eventually led him to bikepacking. Dana loves exploring new terrain on his bicycle, especially when he gets to share the experience with others.  As a Bikepacking Roots Regional Advisor, Dana assists with route development and upkeep, as well as lend a hand with public land advocacy issues.

Member: Regional Advisors

Charly (he/him, Asheville, NC)  is a passionate educator (loves to help create learning opportunities) with a background in wilderness/disaster emergency medicine, navigation, and healthy communication skills. He is also an advocate of minimal impact adventure as a Leave No Trace Master Educator and a Tread Lightly! Master Tread Trainer. He currently helps manage and maintain many miles of trails in western NC, including trails in Pisgah and Nantahala National Forests, and this includes developing sustainable relationships with land managers. For Charly, bikepacking is a way to experience the power, wonder, and joy of our wild places and varied cultures in a direct, unique, fun way.

Member: Regional Advisors

Jessica (she/her, Mazama, WA) is an endurance coach, writer, and photographer, and she’s very excited to put these skills to use in her new role as a Route Advisor. She lives in the beautiful Methow Valley with her husband, daughter, and the two best dogs ever. Jessica loves traversing landscapes under her own power, and you can often find her exploring the Pacific Northwest by bike, packraft, or on foot.  Her favorite time of day is right after her first sip of coffee. You can follow her adventures on Instagram @jessi_goes.

Member: Regional Advisors

Our Reports and Financials

Our 2022 Annual Report   •   Past Annual Reports   

If you have additional questions about our governance documents, please email us.

Our Partners