We’re making more investments in route development and supporting our global network of route creators. Get to know our new full-time Routes Director, Daniel Jessee, and find updates on a few exciting projects we have in the pipeline here…

Since 2014, bikepacking routes have been at the core of our work here at BIKEPACKING.com. We take great pride in being the premier source of high-quality, curated, and maintained bikepacking routes, and we pour our hearts into the research, documentation, and development to inspire more people to travel by bike off the beaten path. Our worldwide bikepacking route network—the first of its kind—now consists of nearly 150,000 miles (240,000 kilometers) of routes, ranging from short overnighters to months-long odysseys, spanning 70+ countries.

We also offer flagship Bikepacking Collective Routes that we have personally cultivated, such as the Eastern Divide Trail, the longest mountain bike route in the world. And we have published hundreds of community-contributed routes submitted through our website by readers all over the planet, a model we originated back in 2014. Owing much to our Bikepacking Collective members, we’ve also been able to offer consistent compensation to route creators for their work.

In 2019, we launched the Local Overnighter Project, seeking to bolster our database of approachable routes close to home. Later, in 2023, we debuted our first Bikepacking Route Network Hub to promote regions and towns that offer an abundance of world-class bikepacking opportunities. We now have four hubs across four countries, with several more in the works. And we are just getting started!

To that end, we are pleased to introduce Daniel Jessee as our new full-time Routes Director. Daniel comes to us after a career in outdoor recreation and experiential education. With a background in journalism, environmental policy, the outdoor industry, and education, we’re stoked about the breadth of expertise he brings to the team. In addition, Daniel is an accomplished bikepacker, having ridden routes and competed in events from the Highland Trail 550 to the Kiwi Brevet, Colorado Trail, Stagecoach 400, Huracan, and Trans-North Georgia. He’s toured thousands of miles across the United States, Slovenia, Spain, Italy, New Zealand, and elsewhere. He also created the popular Cohutta Cat bikepacking route in 2016.

Daniel has been helping out since late last year and will now officially take the handlebars of all things route-related. That means working with incoming route submissions to ensure accuracy and high-quality guidance; fielding route alerts and updating existing guides for ongoing reliability; identifying and leading route development projects across the globe; contributing to advocacy alerts for our readers while also nurturing our network of Route Stewards; and ensuring timely payment for our published route creators.

In Daniel’s words, “I am so humbled to serve our millions of readers by working hard to ensure ours are the most inspirational, well-researched, documented, and updated dirt-first routes in the world. I truly believe bicycles are powerful vehicles for self-reflection and connecting with people and the natural world around us, whether close to home or far afield. It’s a dream come true to work with our global collective of route contributors to help other people experience the many corners of our world by bike.”

Top: Daniel with his incredibly svelte kit he’ll be taking on a singletrack ride through the Alps this summer; bottom: Daniel during one of our many scouting rides for the Eastern Divide Trail.

In the coming months, you can expect to see new routes and pieces of bigger puzzles that Daniel has been working on. From the Smoky Mountains of Western North Carolina to the Prealps of Italy and the spine of South America, we have many fresh route miles coming to our platform. Additionally, we’ve been working on new features for our Bikepacking Collective members, giving them access to even more route beta than ever before. We’ll also unveil a new group of Route Architects and continue empowering our readers to uplift the entire bikepacking community through collaborative development opportunities.

As always, we can’t do this work without the support of our Bikepacking Collective members. We are particularly grateful to our Builder-level members for contributing directly to the bottom line of stewarding new and existing routes. Please consider renewing, upgrading, or joining today!

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