I’ve been a pretty obsessive mountain biker since the age of 14. Riding in the mountains is just something I do, and plan to keep doing as long as I’m able.
Since 2016 I’ve lived and traveled digital nomad style. Working as a programmer and for myself has enabled me to move — following “good” weather around the western states (and southern hemisphere in the winter) while searching for new terrain to explore.
In cycling, I got into endurance racing for a while, then moved on to bikepack racing once that lightbulb in my head went off. While touring the Great Divide in 2004 I ran into the first divide racers. The next year I joined the race. Then I started a non-event on the Arizona Trail — what was maybe the first singletrack bikepacking “race” (?). That event has been going on for for a while now. I raced the Colorado Trail, explored the Grand Enchantment Trail, created new purpose built bikepacking loops, and have been involved in the development of many other new ones through trackleaders.com and bikepacking.net. I love seeing the lightbulb go off in other people’s heads when they get the bikepacking (or mountain biking!) bug.
More recently I’ve been dorking around with packrafting, trail running and off-trail travel (tramping as they call it in New Zealand). It’s fun to add new ways to explore a landscape, and to learn new skills.
When not riding:
I’m the main person behind TopoFusion, which produces GPS mapping software for Windows. It’s a company I’ve purposefully kept small and sustainable. Simply put, I love my company and my software.
In May 2010, I finished a PhD in Computer Science at the University of Arizona. It was a great experience that I learned a lot from, but I don’t plan to teach or go professionally into research. Not yet, anyway.
Most of my time goes into trackleaders.com, which provides web based SPOT tracking services. I work with Matthew Lee on Trackleaders, and we have grown to track endurance events and trips around the world. We have just about as many events as the two of us can handle.
I also run a website about bike camping / adventuring called bikepacking.net. Sometimes I contribute articles to magazines like Tail Winds. Sometimes I head out for a day of trail layout, mapping or building. No day is ever quite the same, and I like it that way.
Home base: A 20′ GeoPro trailer, from 2016-2020 it was the 13′ Scamp pictured here. The pandemic forced an upgrade.
Thanks for reading.
picture from the Grand Canyon hike/bike during a 7 day traversal of the Arizona trail
Contact
You can reach me at smorris@topofusion.com
