Don Annonio resides in western Maryland and has been leading tours since 2011. When he’s not on his bike, you’ll find him paddling, hiking, picking his banjo, or spinning poi. “I just keep finding new things to do that are interesting and light my fire.” In 2014, he led the Florida Keys III Self Contained Tour, Sierra Sampler, Blue Ridge Bliss, Ragin’ Cajun, and Texas Hill Country. Don recently backpacked southeast Asia with his daughter. He laughingly says his favorite tour is “the next one.” WhileDon says every tour has its special moments, he enjoys the musical happenings along the Blue Ridge Bliss. He enjoys sharing his passion with others and making new friends. You’re likely to find Don’s bike parked next to every bakery in every town.

Adrianne Bouchard is busyriding her bike and saving the world one patient at a time (to no one’s surprise)….. Bio Coming Soon!

Sue Davendonis is originally from Wisconsin and currently resides in Highland, Illinois. After retiring from the Air Force, she now runs marathons herself and half marathons with her daughter, and she backpacks and travels to visit family and friends all over the country. She’s been leading tours for Adventure Cycling since 2010, including Death Valley, Colorado Classic High Country, and Cycle Washington. She loves to share bike riding with like-minded people who are looking for adventure, especially watching those who are new to touring discover that they can do it and it is fun. Her favorite tour experience, where she made lifelong friends, was her cross-country ride in 2001 on a tandem with her 13-year-old son. “I was taller than him when we started and by the end, seven weeks later, he was taller than me!” Her favorite road snack is ice cream, of course, chocolate, since it is a food group, right? Her dream tour is whatever is next!

Bennie DiNardo began his touring years in 2012, when he and his family spent a memorable week riding from Montreal to Boston. Now retired from The Boston Globe, where he worked as an editor for more than 20 years, Bennie has moved to the Lakes Region of New Hampshire, taken up guitar, and toured much of Eastern North America, including Ontario, Quebec, and Nova Scotia in Canada, and the Erie Canal, the C&O Canal/Great Allegheny Passage, the Natchez Trace, and the Delaware & Lehigh Canal. He has led tours with Adventure Cycling up the Atlantic Coast and across the Southern Tier. Cheez-Its, Arnold Palmers, and Pepsi are his primary sources of fuel, and he never passes an ice cream stand without stopping.

Tony Docal is from Atlanta, Georgia. When he’s not leading bike tours, he’s developing/managing/administering engineering education programs for NASA and other organizations. Tony has been leading bike tours for Adventure Cycling since 2014. He recently led the Underground Railroad, Great Parks North, and Natchez Trace tours. His dream bike tour, which he is still planning, is Nordkapp, Norway, to Sagres, Portugal. His favorite on-the-road snack is jelly beans and his favorite coffee is from Sumatra!

Greg Edwards is from Fincastle, Virginia, and has been leading tours for Adventure Cycling since 2008. Most recently, he led Sierra Sampler, Washington Cascades, and Blue Ridge Bliss. When he’s not on the road, he works for Gander Mountain and designs and leads various outdoor adventures for Roanoke City Parks & Recreation. His favorite tour experience of all time was the spectacular beauty of the Washington Cascades tour. His dream bicycle tour is to ride from the U.S. border through Canada and into Alaska. He loves leading bicycle tours because he loves exploring this amazing country by bicycle. “I know there are others that share this passion. I have a unique opportunity to make their dreams come true. It gives me great pleasure to be a part of creating cherished, life-long memories for all the interesting people I meet on tours,” he said. His favorite on-the-road snack is peanut butter. He comes across as serious at first, but not for long: he’s been known to show up on tour in a hula skirt and coconut bra, or an Abe Lincoln costume, or dressed as a cowboy! In addition to cycling, he enjoys mountaineering, kayaking, cross country skiing, running, hunting, and fishing.

Mark Gabrenya is from Lexington, Massachusetts, and when he is not leading tours he is a freelance graphic designer. He has been leading tours since 2017 and most recently helped out on the Idaho Family Fun Trip. His favorite touring experience is arriving at the Kananaskis Wilderness Hostel after a long climb in Alberta with “bike-stopping” wind gusts. Luckily a group of Canadians shared dinner with him when he realized all he had was plain pasta. His dream bike tour would be the Northern Tier to the Lewis & Clark route. He loves leading bike tours to share unique adventures with interesting people. His favorite on the road snack is Fig Newtons, but he would be happy with anything he can eat out of his handlebar bag. “Seeing the landscape at 10 mph and being able to stop and admire the view anytime you want. You can’t do that in a car!”

Joe Garcia is fortunate to have spent his whole life in Southern California and currently lives in San Diego. Since he retired in 2017, he has been able to spend more time cycling, hiking, and working with mosaic tiles. Joe began leading tours for Adventure Cycling in 2018 with the Route 66 Santa Fe to Flagstaff and the Southern Arizona Road Adventure tours. So far, his favorite bicycle tour was the Baja Peninsula with his wife, and he dreams about riding both the Underground Railroad and the stretch of Great Britain from Land’s End to John O’Groats. His favorite things about bike travel are the people and the day to day unpredictability of the road. His favorite riding snacks are Clif Bars and cold lemonade.

David Gast hails from central Oregon. He has enjoyed bicycle touring in Patagonia, Norway, Corsica, the Pyrenees, Alps, Alaska and the Dolomites. Some of his favorite cycling memories are from the northwest bicycle tours he took with his kids on a tandem. His favorite on-the-road snack is almond butter on homemade bread. After living and cycling in Barcelona, Spain, he enjoys making paella and is still in search of the perfect socarrat.

David also enjoys self-powered skiing, fly fishing in small streams, yoga, riding unique motorcycles and hiking in Oregon’s many different geologic areas.

Jessica Green hails from mighty Arkansas where she lives and breathes cycling of all kinds. Jessica began leading tours for Adventure Cycling in 2020 with the Big Bend van and Southern Tier self-contained tours. Her favorite tour experience was in 2014 when she rode from Banff, Alberta, to Antelope Wells, New Mexico, along the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route. “It was 30 days of some of the most beautiful landscapes I have ever seen. The time alone to enjoy the remote areas of the U.S. was one of my best experiences.” Before leading tours, she worked in bicycle retail for 10 years and spent 20 years as an avid mountain and road bike racer. She’s also a fairly good mechanic and is great at helping others learn how to do basic maintenance. She loves meeting people who are passionate about bicycle travel and enjoys seeing them experience the world from the seat of a bicycle. Her favorite on-the-road snack is bacon!

Lynn Hamilton is from San Luis Obispo, CA. She works as an agribusiness professor at California Polytechnic State University during her time away from leading bike tours. Since 1997, Lynn has been leading tours all over the U.S. Most recently she led New Mexico Enchanted Lands, Portland-Crater Lake, and Black Hills Inn to Inn. Her favorite tour experience was riding “blind” through the glaciers of Norway. “Without the benefit of great cycling maps, I had no idea how far I would have to climb or how many tunnels awaited me on the descents!” Her dream bike tour is to ride around coastal Australia and Tasmania. She loves leading bike tours because she gets to share her love of the open road with others. On the road, she likes to munch on M&M’s and guzzle ice-cold root beer. As a former 4-H song leader, don’t be surprised when she leads her participants through a rendition of “The Bear Song” or “Do Your Ears Hang Low!”

She and Heather Piwowar became fast friends planning a Great Parks North tour in 2025 & are excited for a 2026 reunion.

Kelly Hannegan resides in sunny Arizona these days between leading a rich assortment of Adventure Cycling Tours and personal adventures. She once claimed her favorite tour experience of all time was a self-contained trip on Cape Cod (though her recent tour across New Zealand may have changed her mind). Her dream tour is still to ride across America. She leads bike tours because she loves the people and the joy cycling brings them. Her favorite on-the-road snack is peanut butter Balance bars. She loves country music. silly bike jokes, and her favorite cycling partners are her daughters, Kirby and Brook.

John Hormell lives in Fayetteville, Arkansas, the land of OZ. He loves riding on Gravel roads and climbing, so living in the midst of the Ozarks suits him much better than his previous abode in flat and 99% paved Houston, TX. He enjoys riding in places new to him with awe inspiring mountain views and climbs. 6 years ago, he actually met his life partner during Adventure Cycling’s Blue Ridge Bliss tour in NC (she was also a participant). The highlight of his tour leading career thus far has been leading the Epic Great Divide in the Summer of 2024. Ask him- he’d love to tell you all about it.

Gary Kleeman is from Greenwood Village, Colorado and is a retired geologist. He’s been leading tours for Adventure Cycling since 2022, including Big Bend, Colorado Alpine, Glacier Waterton, and Great Divide Wind River. Inspired by the Bikecentennial in 1976, he began bicycle touring in 1977 when he and his brother rode from Granby, CO to Park City, UT, a great adventure that he will never forget. Since then, he has ridden numerous organized tours throughout the West as well as self-contained adventures with friends and family. Last fall, he and his wife and siblings rode from Budapest to Vienna. When he’s not biking, you can find him skiing, playing pickleball or racquetball, hiking, gardening, listening to his vinyl collection and trying to fly fish. Gary loves leading bike tours for the camaraderie and exploration of our world from the seat of a bicycle. His favorite on the road snacks are Clif bars, Fritos, grapes, and Oreos.

He and Evan Minard have led many a tour together (including our first run of Selkirk Splendor as a van tour in 2025) and greatly look forward to pedaling through familliar landscapes in 2025 together again.

Tammy Knott is busy window-shopping for her next bike as she finishes pedaling across America with our Southern Tier Fall 2025 crew rewriting words to songs with ACA Tour lyrics to serenade them with en route. Bio coming soon!

Denny Koontz grew up in the Midwest and currently loves living in NW Arkansas (Fayetteville). She’s lived on both coasts and spent nearly 20 years living/exploring the Pacific Northwest. She spends her free time traveling by bike to explore new places — usually going somewhere every 4-8 weeks. When not on bike trips, she is still a full time ER Veterinarian at a local 24 hour Emergency/Specialty animal hospital in NW Arkansas. Denny has been leading bike trips since 2018 and has led Death Valley, Pacific Coast North, Vermont Inn to Inn, Acadia Inn to Inn but fell in love with gravel after exploring Patagonia, Chile in 2019 on her dream trip. Since then, she’s gotten to lead Patagonia Gravel, Allegheny Gravel, Arkansas High Country, Colorado Alpine Great Divide and the Epic Great Divide. Her favorite US bike tour (road) is the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina/Virginia and she was lucky enough to meet her life partner on her 2nd time riding it. Scotland and Ireland are next on her bucket list. She loves to be out on the road, meeting new people and enjoying the moments that you can only find when traveling by bicycle. No bike trip is complete without clementine oranges, rice crispy treats and candied orange slices :).

Emily Loberg is from Salem, Oregon. Her favorite tour experience of all time is when she was riding from Oregon to Maine in the summer of 2016, she spent three nights in Glacier National Parking camping with a “group” of 11 other touring cyclists she had met on the road. “We were traveling in groups of one to three and all came together spontaneously.” During their time in the park, they shared hiking, swimming, and evening concerts with folks who had brought instruments on their tour. They all woke up at 4 a.m. to bike Going to the Sun Road over Logan Pass and then camped together in Saint Mary and went out for pizza in town. After Glacier, they all went their separate ways, but for those couple of days they were a magical bicycle touring family. Emily’s dream tour is bicycling around the world. She considers bicycle touring as her favorite lifestyle and she loves traveling and meeting new places and people, and loves introducing people to bicycle touring and learning from folks who have experienced the road for years. Her favorite on-the-road snack is a butterscotch milkshake!

Evan Minard lives in Colorado where he works part time and rides bikes full time. When not recreating, he works part time as a doctor. Evan’s first tour with Adventure Cycling was back in 2004 when he rode the Great Divide Alpine tour. He was hooked. It is still one of his favorite tours and he has led it a few times since and would happily lead it many more times. Evan has been leading tours for Adventure Cycling since 2021. Evan’s longest tour was solo and involved riding from Jackson hole, WY along the ACA Transam route west to Bend, OR at which point he turned south. He then proceeded down the Sierra Cascades ACA route to Yosemite NP. The Sierra’s getting too cold for his sleeping bag in the early fall, he crossed the Central valley of California to the ACA Pacific Coast route and continued down to finish in San Diego. Evan dreams about riding the European Cycle velo routes, perhaps some riding in Norway and the Transardina route that he recently read about in the Adventure Cyclist magazine.

He and Gary Kleeman have led many a tour together (including our first run of Selkirk Splendor as a van tour in 2025) and greatly look forward to pedaling through familliar landscapes in 2025 together again.

Matt Moritz currently resides in Providence, Rhode Island, and is on a quest to bring more bicycle tours to southern New England. He began leading tours and staffing events in 2011 with a very rainy Cycle Vermont. Since then, he’s had much better weather for several editions of the Oregon Coast Loop, Great Lakes Loop, and Cape Cod Pilgrimage. When he’s not on a bike, Matt is a local advocate for better cycling conditions, a certified instructor, commutes year round, and works for a large software company.

Todd Murdock is from Cullowhee, North Carolina. When he isn’t leading bike tours, he is the director of project discovery for Western Carolina University. He has been leading cycling tours with youth for 20 years, including tours across the country on the Lewis & Clark Trail and parts of the TransAm. He is a newbie to Adventure Cycling in 2018. His favorite tour is usually the one he is on. His fondest memory is making the last turn toward the beach in Astoria, Oregon, with a group of high school students that he’d led along the Lewis & Clark Trail. Their excitement and sense of accomplishment was the greatest reward for any leader. His dream trip is to ride around the world. He loves touring because of the smiles, the challenge, the laughter, the struggle, the food, the storms, the wind at his back … he could go on. His favorite on the road snacks include cookies, pie, ice cream, fudge, peanut butter, honey, watermelon, grapes, chocolate bars, bananas, M&Ms … again he could go on. Finally, his two biggest fears are getting paid what he’s worth and getting what he deserves.

Dave Nevin lives in Reno, Nevada, and is a 3rd generation Nevadan. He has been married for 47 years to his wife, Mary. He’s a father to two children ,TJ and Brandi, and a grandfather to three: Ava, Kinsley, and Camden. His other interests besides cycling are boating, snow skiing, golfing, hiking, and high school wrestling. He has been involved with high school wrestling since 1972 as a wrestler, official, coach, and administrator. He started cycling after severely breaking his leg 15 years ago and took his first tour with ACA shortly thereafter. After years of touring with us, he caught the leader bug after retiring and hasn’t looked back. The thing he enjoys about leading tours most is meeting all types of people with one thing in common: cycling.

Roland Owens is reveling in the novelty of being an empty nester & busy out riding his bike or doing research about the best place to grab a post-ride cold, refreshing drink in the closest desert town with his wife…. Bio Coming Soon!

Mark Pfefferleis from Silver Spring, Maryland and has been leading tours for ACA since 2023. Mark is one that likes long trips, the epics. He has crossed the United States a plethora of times by bicycle and had led multiple van-supported ACA trips across the continent. His longest adventure was in 2022 when Mark spent 4 ½ months and over 8,000 miles riding, pushing, pulling and throwing his bicycle across the United States and Canada. It was an epic ride. Before leading tours Mark was an environmental economist, an environmental analyst, and an urban planner. One thing constant throughout those careers was his time spent on a bicycle either through travels or commuting.

He and Brielle Wacker co-led a TransAm tour in 2024 together & are greatly looking forward to a reunion TransAm in 2025!

Heather Piwowar lives in Vancouver Canada after spending 20 years in Boston, Austin, Berkeley, and Pittsburgh as a software engineer. She couldn’t believe it when she first ran into a magazine called “Adventure Cycling” in the 1990s — my people! Bike trips abound: northern Ohio, Coeur d’Alene, the San Juan Islands, Guadalajara, Brittany, the Outer Hebrides, and more. One of Heather’s favorite trips (so far) was six weeks cycle camping in southwest Germany. The castles and schnitzel were wonderful, but so were the experiences of getting a broken derailleur fixed in a rural area and being asked to yodel on stage when a school declared her and her husband and their bikes a scavenger hunt find. Here’s to many more adventures.

She and Lynn Hamilton became fast friends planning our Great Parks North tour in 2025 & are excited for a 2026 reunion.

Richard Reyes once lived under water for 90 days but is now living in Atascadero on the central coast of California. His dream bicycle tour is “the next one” and wishes there was more time for more tours. When he is not on his bike you can find Richard riding his motorcycle and coaching Crossfit. Richard’s favorite part of leading tours is meeting the other riders he would normally never meet. Richard is always looking for his next on-trail snack.

Joe Riemensnider was born in Minnesota but relocated to Missoula, Montana, in 2010. When he’s not leading tours or managing a local bike shop, Joe is working on his degree in Recreation Management. He began leading tours for Adventure Cycling in 2018 with the Erie Canal Family Fun tour. One of his all-time favorite tour moments was the first time he rode his fully loaded bike onto a ferry to the San Juan Islands. He loves being able to combine touring with public transportation and he loves taking ferries places — being on the open water always has a feeling of adventure. Since that first ferry ride, he has planned many of his tours around Amtrak and boat transportation. His dream is to ride the Great Himalaya Trail that traverses Nepal. Joe’s favorite on-the-road snacks are Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups and any kind of cheese (but not combined). One day, he hopes to tour with his dogs in the trailer, but training them has been a slow process since one of them is suddenly nowhere to be found even at the sight of trailer.

Lyle Sheldon lives in Havre de Grace, Maryland with his wife Donna on a 130 acre multigenerational farm. A retired health care executive, Lyle rode his first self-supported 600 mile multi-day bicycle trip from central NJ to central PA while still in highschool.

Instead of getting his driver’s license when he turned 16, he purchased a new bicycle. Since then, he has been a lifelong cyclist; bicycling in 31 states and logging over 130,000 miles. He has ridden the C & O Canal/Great Allegheny Passage, the Skyline Drive, the Katy Trail and the Erie Canal just to name a few. His favorite bicycle trip was The Legendary Climbs of the Giro de Italia in the Italian Dolomites. A close second is riding with his wife and one of his 9 grandchildren on multi day bicycle rides in the mid-Atlantic states.

Living just a couple of miles from the East Coast Greenway (and a Warm Showers host to boot) has afforded Lyle the opportunity to host many traveling cyclists. An Adventure Cycling member since 1997, Lyle’s ACA sponsored cross country TransAm Express Westward inspired his passion to become an ACA tour leader in 2025. He wants to share his passions for cycling, camping and travel with others looking to scratch the same itch. His favorite on the road food is a day-old P B & J sandwich, chocolate milk and ice cream from a local ice cream parlor.

Ride on. Shine on.

Todd Smith is busy soaking up the Florida sunshine on behalf of the Montana-based Adventure Cycling Staffers who haven’t seen the sun in awhile. Bio coming soon!

Brielle Wacker lives in Solana Beach, California. Originally from Minnesota, she never fails to appreciate the fine Southern California weather that allows her to bike year-round. Shortly after taking up road biking in 2015, she participated in Adventure Cycling’s Cycle Utah tour and was absolutely hooked. Trips in the Sierras, the Natchez Trace, Hawaii, Alaska, British Columbia and the Pacific Coast followed. She began leading tours a few years back and went big with two cross-country epic tours – the TransAm Express (which she’s back for a reunion tour with Mark Pfefferle in 2026!) and the Southern Tier. She feels fortunate to have seen so much of the country from the seat of her bike and especially loves the more remote places. Her favorite riding snacks are Cheez-its and a really good doughnut.

She and Mark Pfefferle co-led a TransAm tour in 2024 together & are greatly looking forward to a reunion TransAm in 2025!

Katherine (“Kathy”) Wysocki resides in western New York. After 30 years as a first-grade teacher, she looks forward to retiring in June. She began leading tours for Adventure Cycling in 2018 with the Idaho Trails Relaxed and Idaho Family Fun tours and staffing the Black Hills fully supported tour the following year. Her favorite touring experience was her solo self-contained tour of Nova Scotia. “It was a dream tour. I rode each day with no real plan — I simply followed the ocean around the province. Each afternoon I stopped to sample the local chowder and enjoy an Alexander Keiths (Nova Scotia beer). The people I met along the way had incredible stories and kindness to share.” Kathy loves leading tours because of the joy she feels when people in the group return at day’s end with smiles, stories, and feelings of accomplishment. “Motivating and helping people achieve their goals is what drives me … it might be why I chose teaching as a profession.” Her favorite touring snack is a good ol’ peanut butter and jelly sandwich.