Brendan Collier (he/him) lives in Idyllwild, California. Originally from Chicago, Brendan is a long-time veteran of the bike industry and the creator of the popular Stagecoach 400 bikepacking route. Brendan has partnered with Bikepacking Roots on a new series of bikepacking routes that he is creating called The Desert Collective.
Cedar (he/him, Zigzag, Oregon) has been Bikepacking for well over a decade with inspiration and mentorship from Brendan Collier (the original creator of the Stagecoach400 Route). He is also involved in advocacy and trail building locally as a board member of the newly formed “Hoodland Trails Collective”. He works with HTC as well as NWTA, 44 Road Trails, and The Oregon Timber Trail Alliance to help build and maintain trails all over the Mt Hood National Forest.
Julian Bender (he/him) lives in Philadelphia, where the Pine Barrens are the biggest, closest wilderness to the city. I currently have an extremely indoor job, but worked for several years developing and mapping hiking trails across the Middle East, including the Jordan Trail (https://www.jordantrail.org/) and Sinai Trail. My first ever bike camping trip was to the Pine Barrens in 2011, and since then I’ve been exploring the area by bike on a regular basis. After years of thinking the Pinelands needed a proper bikepacking route, I decided in 2024 to go out and create one. The Pines are a truly special place, especially given how close they are to the most populated parts of the US. I hope the Jersey Devil Hunt will offer a way to discover this unique ecoregion, and expose more people to bikepacking in general!
Susie (she/they, Los Angeles, California) is a designer and artist based in LA. For over a decade, they have been actively organizing within the LA bike scene, with a focus on fostering community for gender-expansive and women riders. Growing up in Idaho sparked Susie’s passion for the outdoors, while attending school in Washington reintroduced her to bikes. Their love for bikepacking emerged from a series of memorable misadventures, igniting a passion for camping by bike that she eagerly shares with others.
In 2021, Susie co-founded Wild Wolf Cycling Collective, where they developed a bike campouts program and a gear library aimed at making overnight bike trips more accessible for first timers.
In 2022 she led monthly trips for the collective and created a zine featuring all 12 routes. Each year, the program and gear library have continued to grow, further expanding opportunities for new bike campers.
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.
Will Kessler (he/him, Massachusetts) is a Geographer by training with a passion for all kinds of recreation on public lands. I’m a big fan of under-biking and love finding out whether a proposed route “will go” the hard way. My interests in maps and bikes means I’m constantly pouring over new areas, devising trips for some day down the road. My first bike touring experience was in 2017 on a self-devised route multi-month tour through Colombia and Ecuador. Since then, I’ve taken every opportunity to get out and ride somewhere new. In 2022, after several years living in Helena, MT and watching divide riders pass through town, my partner and I toured the route before ending up in Cambridge, MA. Now we’re having fun exploring the class 4 roads of New England!
Chris (he/him, Idaho) is a long time Mountain Guide with decades of experience in trip planning, remote expeditions, and a general desire to move through terrain with elegance. Chris has experience planning long, backcountry day rides linking together terrain and trails. He has been riding for nearly 20 years in Central Idaho and continues to be amazed that there is more to explore. Chris likes thinking about how to connect terrain elegantly.
Zoey (she/her, Winthrop, WA) developed a strong aversion to biking as a child as she was dragged on a tag-a-long behind her parents on the White Rim and on a variety of other heinous family biking adventures. After swearing off the stuff in her youth, Zoey began a cautious re-exploration of mountain biking as an adult, which unexpectedly turned into a love for two wheeled adventure. Her bikepacking story began with strapping homemade bags to an old school 90’s Fuji Tahoe and heading into the mountains of Idaho. It evolved into strapping much improved homemade bags to the same bike and touring a loop of the Western Wildlands and the Great Divide Mountain Bike routes in 2023. Post loop, Zoey relocated from Salt Lake City to the North-Central region of Washington. She hopes to dive deep into the existing community in her new home, and contribute to the creation and expansion of an open, inclusive group of excited biker people!
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.”
Shane (he/him, Wausau, WI) grew up in rural Eastern Marathon County, right on the Mountain-Bay Trail before it was a bike trail. Growing up in the 80s there weren’t designated areas to ride other than the rural roads. Shane always had the urge to explore and used his bike as a means to do so, whether winter or summer. The opening of the Mountain-Bay Trail was really exciting to Shane, and he decided to buy his first real decent bike and set out a goal to ride the entire length. Doing that really fueled his true passion today, which is bikepacking. A self-proclaimed adventure cyclist, Shane loves the process of making a route with route planning tools and apps and then going out with only the things a person needs to survive for a few days and riding it. Most recently Shane has bikepacked a Shane-modified version Sky Island Odyssey loop in southern Arizona featuring close to 30 miles of added singletrack to the existing route. He plans on using his love of adventure riding and knowledge of the area to help promote the sport to the area through IRONBULL as both a race director and board member.