Rebecca Rusch

Rebecca Rusch is the Queen of Pain with a heart of gold. It doesn’t matter if Rebecca is pedaling through the night on an epic adventure across Italy, riding her bike up Africa’s legendary Mt. Kilimanjaro, or teaching at a #JoinTheRusch camp or clinic, she brings energy, positivity and inspiration to whatever challenge she meets. She redefined the team dynamics of adventure racing and has given the men a run for their money in endurance mountain biking. Rebecca’s work extends far beyond the start line as the best selling author of Rusch to Glory, event producer for Rebecca’s Private Idaho, motivational speaker, firefighter, and cycling advocate. Rebecca released a full length feature film, Blood Road, which followed her very personal journey biking the 1,800 kilometer Ho Chi Minh trail. Follow her at Rebecca Rusch.

Lael Wilcox

Born and raised in Anchorage, Alaska, Lael started commuting by bike in her 20s. Within a year, riding to work became riding across the country and then all over the world. She began ultra distance racing in 2015 and holds the women’s records in the Tour Divide and Trans Am. Lael is motivated to encourage more people, especially women, to ride. She co-organizes Anchorage GRIT and hosts women’s scholarships. TThis spring, she’s starting a new girls cycling mentorship program in Tucson, Arizona and hosting two women’s bikepacking challenges in Europe over the summer. Follow her adventures at @laelwilcox.

Mark Watson & Hana Black

Mark Watson is a landscape and outdoor photographer with a passion for steep places and human-powered, two-wheeled machines. He has authored three books; including the acclaimed Te Araroa – Walking New Zealand’s 3000-kilometre trail.

Hana Black has put her previous life as an outdoor clothing designer/developer on hold to follow her dream of freewheeling about the planet. In 2016 she rode the inaugural 3000km Tour Aotearoa – the classic New Zealand bike packing tour.

Mark and Hana are recipients of the 2018 Bikepacking.com Explorers of the Year award for their contributions while biking the length of the Americas: Alaska to Patagonia. Follow them at: Highlux photo – Alaska to Argentina and Instagram @Highluxphoto @BeingHana.

Rugile Kaladyte

Rue is a photojournalist who worked as a staff photographer/videographer at Alaska’s largest newspaper before pursuing a freelance career in story-driven media projects. Her recent projects include making a video about Lael’s Alaska Pipeline FKT and documenting the Komoot Women’s Torino Nice Rally. She raced road during college in Upstate New York before first strapping bags to her bike just over five years ago — she prefers the latter. When she isn’t working on location, Rue can be found visiting family in Chicago or escaping winter in the desert of southern Arizona and helping with Tucson GRIT. You can follow her on Instagram @rugilekaladyte.

Kaitlyn Boyle

A World Champion and record-holding ultra-endurance mountain biker with times that rival the strongest men, Kait found bikepacking in the midst of a 12 year career teaching expeditionary adventure education. After a few uncomfortable trips with a 45L alpine climbing pack, Kait discovered Revelate in 2012 when she strapped a harness and Viscacha on her 26″ singlespeed and rode the GDMBR. She has since bikepacked on self-designed routes on five continents in search of the biggest, best mountain riding. Her passion for bikepacking and connecting people to landscapes inspired co-founding the nonprofit Bikepacking Roots, where she strives to make a positive and lasting impact for bikepackers and the landscapes through which we ride. Without ever feeling a need to look elsewhere for luggage, Kait is grateful to be a part of the Revelate family and can’t wait to test some cuben fiber panniers for her canine adventure partner, Hank. You can follow Kait (& Hank) at @kait.boyle and on her website, I’mKait.

Kurt Refsnider

Kurt’s favorite places to pedal seem to be those that are marginally rideable and that reside far off the well-worn path. He’s been hooked on bikes and racing since middle school, and he found bikepacking right around when Revelate got its start. He’s gone on to win many of the toughest bikepacking ultras – the Arizona Trail 300 and 750, Tour Divide, the Colorado Trail Race, and the Iditarod Trail Invitational 350. But long, mountains singletrack and backcountry adventures have been just as rewarding as racing. Beyond riding, Kurt spent an inordinate amount of time studying glaciers and landscape evolution en route to becoming a geology professor. Academia wasn’t the right fit, and now he wears a few other hats – professional endurance cycling coach, freelance writer, and routes director of the Bikepacking Roots non-profit. Want to follow along? Find Kurt on Instagram – @kurt.refsnider.

Dwayne Burgess

From city dweller to adventure cyclist, Dwayne got his first taste of bike touring in 2014 when he completed a 75-day journey from NY to CA. Since then he discovered a new found love for bikepacking after riding the Kokopelli Trail and continued his passion for two-wheel travel while sharing the adventures on his YouTube Channel Manual Pedal. Dwayne is a graphic designer, photographer and author of eBook ‘Believing is Everything’ where he shares stories from his cross-country trip. He is passionate about promoting the benefits of cycling to his local community as a coach through his Velo HIIT program and leads out gravel group rides as an intro to adventure cycling. In addition to YouTube, Dwayne also covers all things cycling in his Manual Pedal blog and Instagram @manual_pedal.

Doom

Steve (DOOM) Fasbinder is a prime instigator for creative, off the hook “Doomadventures”. Those fortunate enough to accompany him usually end up mountain biking to some remote corner of the desert west, rock climbing a sandstone tower (or ten) then packrafting, canyoneering and peddling back to civilization finishing several pounds lighter around the waist. Steve is the real deal. He and his partner Lizzy recently started their own bikepacking + packrafting guide company, Four Corners Guides. Doom shares words and photos at The Republic of Doom

Molly Sugar

Molly is continually searching for ways to intersect grassroots organizing with art and design to create a more inclusive cycling community. She is the founder of Friends on Bikes, a group for women of color, trans and gender non-conforming BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) who love cycling. She is also the co-founder of WTF Bikexplorers, a Summit and nationwide ride series for Women, Trans, Femme and Non-binary people who use their bikes to explore. Aside from organizing, Molly is a Kona ambassador and lead designer for Ride with GPS. She is on the board for Bikepacking Roots, and her newest passion is to create bikepacking routes that are accessible for all levels within the Pacific Northwest (and beyond).Follow her adventures @Molly.Sugar

Michael O’Dwyer

A native of Ireland, Michael now calls Sweden home. When he’s not running his jewelery company or being a husband and raising four kids, he spends his time exploring. Never content to sit still if he’s not on an adventure he’s designing the next one. Not that it always goes according to plan but if there’s no hike-a-bike involved then it’s not really bikepacking, right? Michael’s obsession is photography and as a keen amateur he loves to document his bikepacking travels. Mongolia, Georgia and Oman to name a few, but he’s equally happy on a local tour. Check out the gravel biking project he’s involved with, grvl.se or follow him on instagram @bikepackingsweden.

Annie Le

We all have things that make us get up in the morning. Annie’s excitement is for what is out there, what the next bit of trail might bring, what the view from over there may look like and wondering how deep the next bog is? Whilst this often leads to more bikepushing than bikepacking, it frequently means finding herself in amazing places. Throwing a packraft into the mix has opened up a new world of ancient trails, long forgotten since roads replaced boats. In her everyday life she tries to infect young people with the wonders of the outdoors and occasional type two fun. Find her on instagram @a_girl_outside.

Mike Curiak

Mike has been at the forefront of endurance mountain biking since the sport was invented. He’s best known as a pioneer in winter racing and self supported expeditions on Alaska’s Iditarod trail. Mike lives in Grand Junction Colorado, builds beautiful custom wheels and consumes more Mike & Ike’s per year than the average gang of 12 yr olds. Mike sets exacting standards for his equipment, which helps us build better gear. Follow his ventures at Big Wheel Building.

Dan Bailey

Dan and Eric go back a long way. The pair went on their first extended bike tour together riding over gravel high passes in Ladakh, Indian Himalaya. Dan has built his life around adventure travel. He is a professional action adventure photographer based in Anchorage. Through the lens, Dan has explored and traveled by mountain bike in countries all over the world. When he’s not riding or shooting photos he can be found flying around the Chugach mountains in a tiny yellow airplane. Gain photo insight and check out his adventures at Dan Bailey Photo and Instagram @Danbaileyphoto.

Dylan Kentch

Born and raised in Alaska, Dylan’s savy backcountry skills have taken him on numerous far flung biking adventures such as pioneering packraft beach bike trips along Alaska’s gulf coast. Dylan has ridden from Anchorage to Ushuaia, done laps around the US, and encircled Australia. We never really know where Dylan is, but if you happen to run into him, feed him some buttered ramen and ask him about the time he got hit by lightening. @avocadoylan.

Nicholas Carman

Nicholas Carman left on a bicycle trip in 2008. Since then, he has have chosen to spend more than half of each year on the bike; to ride bigger tires, off-pavement; and to cover less distance every year, in trade for riding over mountains and drinking with locals. Nicholas has spent time working in bicycle shops and restaurants, as a pedicab driver and a marine forklift operator, and increasingly, as a freelance writer and photographer. Recently Nicholas has spent time on the 1000 Miles Adventure Route and the Adriatic Crest route. He shares words, images, and ideas at Gypsy by Trade and Instagram @NicholasCarman.