Hear from our guide, Max Ackermann, as he reflects on his experiences guiding and how he found home while on the road.

It’s the first night of our 42-day trip. We’ve finished our first ride, a few guests have knocked out an afternoon nap, and the first sips of Santa Ynez chardonnay go down smooth. It’s time to enjoy dinner and get to know our group as we settle in for the trip ahead.

The question “where’s home for you?” is tossed around the table. It’s a starter for small talk, quickly left behind as the conversation deepens. When it’s my turn to answer, I catch myself in a double take.

For a long time, the answer had been simple, even automatic. Now, after moving out, packing my life into two duffel bags, and saying a series of goodbyes, the question seems complex. Do they mean where I grew up? Or where I go when I’m not guiding? Where do I consider home?

Is home where we live or work? Where we find our sense of community? Is it where we go grocery shopping, enjoy a night out with friends, or wake up with our morning routine?

I glance across the table to my co-guides. One I met three months ago. Another I met three weeks ago, just before the three of us crossed the country in a minivan finalizing the trip. The last one I met three days ago. I think back to the evening when the four of us toasted to the start of what would surely be an unforgettable adventure, biking across America.

Just imagining my days guiding that lay ahead excited me. Wake up before the sun and immediately put on a kit. Pack everything neat and tight. Don’t forget to check under the bed. Greet the guests, then fill up all the coolers with ice. Squeeze in some breakfast and coffee. Pack the luggage and double check the lobby. Ride all day. Arrive at the rest stop to set up snacks. Collect mail and packages at the next hotel. Shower, make a grocery run, and eat dinner. Moonlight bike wrenching and laughs with co-guides. Sleep.

For the next six weeks, life would be simple. Thirty-five people, all from different and distant walks of life, would embark on the same crazy adventure together.

My mind returns to the table. I look at the people seated with me who were strangers not long ago but will be coworkers, best friends, and family by the time we cross from California to South Carolina. And after far too long a pause to maintain the coolness with which the question was initially asked, I can’t hide an emerging grin. “Here,” I answer, as if I hadn’t just figured it out right then and there.

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Our guides inspire us all the time. They are multi-talented, creative, and adventurous. They are busy, go-getters who follow their passions and pursue a wide range of activities. Learn a little bit about what three of our guides do in the off-season when they aren’t riding with Trek Travel!

Interior Design with Marquette Edwards

I’ve been guiding for Trek Travel since 2010, and I also worked as the East Coast dealer sales representative for four years during that time. I’ve been doing interior design informally for over 15 years but decided to get my certification in design and property staging in 2015. I have always been creative visually and have a passion for reinventing a space, seeing it from a different perspective and bringing it to life. I opened my own business, Design Remedy, in 2016 in Greenville, South Carolina. Since then, I have worked on both residential and commercial projects as well as provided property staging services for realtors. I love working as a designer along with guiding because it allows me to combine the things that make me happy and fulfilled. The cool thing about my design business is that I not only work with clients in person, but I can also work with people online from anywhere, providing a full range of design services including color consultations, room styling, sourcing furniture, decor suggestions, and property staging assessments to get your home ready for market.

Learn more about Design Remedy.

Cycling Races with Ioanna Yiasemi

I’ve always been active in the off season. In the off-season during my first few years of guiding, I would just pack up a backpack or my Trek 920 and get off the grid. But when I started to feel like settling down some, I had to funnel my energy elsewhere. I became a yoga instructor, learned Spanish, and got diving certifications. But the best endeavor out of all was getting involved in local cycling races in my home country, Cyprus. In the last two years, I have become part of a small team of individuals who are responsible for the biggest international races that happen on the island of Cyprus, including the Cyprus Sunshine Epic, a mountain bike stage race for professional and amateurs every February, and the UCI Cyprus Gran Fondo, which is one of the few qualifying events for the world championships of Gran Fondo. There’s additional smaller races including Ocean Lava Triathlons, the “Olympus Man,” and many more. Aside from that, we also organize community rides, mountain bike skills clinics, and events focused especially on women. I believe that putting more people on bikes is a great cause and Cyprus is a cycling paradise, especially in the winter!

Painting & Drawing with Jessie Walker

In my own time, I like to be creative, and I love trying out new arts and crafts. I always seem to question “can I make this?” when it comes to items I see on social media or things I need around the house. I just recently bought my first house, so I currently have a big canvas to play with, which is very exciting for me.

At school I studied art and design, but never at university. My first career was in professional road cycling, so that took up all my time. It wasn’t until I was sick and off the bike for a week that I started drawing. My first drawing was the tiger in the image below. After that, I realized how much I loved it and began drawing more often. I’ve now set up a social media account on Instagram called @yorki_rose for anyone to view my work or request commissions. I’ve even shown a few Trek Travel guests my work when they’ve asked about my hobbies, and I’ve had a few commissions now. The landscape below is of Tuscany and was requested by a guest that I guided on the luxury bike tour in Tuscany. It’s a great way to make amazing memories last forever!

Once I really got into the creative swing of things, I decided to mix it up a little and start custom painting cycling shoes. My practice run was painting my brother’s shoes to match the colors of his team, Team Wiggins. I’ve now done quite a lot of different shoes, and I even have the man himself, Sir Bradley Wiggins, on my current client to-do list.

Art and design for me is the perfect balance in my life. With my job as a Trek Travel guide being so active, it’s nice to have my weeks off in a tranquil environment doing something I love!

Each year, Trek Travel honors one of our guides for his or her tremendous season, exceptional hospitality, and a downright awesome attitude. We are proud to announce our 2019 Guide of the Year, Lisa Lieb!

Guide of the Year is a huge honor. To be nominated for this prestigious award, guides have to earn top-notch evaluations from guests, co-guides and the office team. The top five guides are then voted on by the Trek Travel management team to determine which guide provided best-in-class hospitality and reflected our company values. The winning guide receives a custom merino jersey with “GUIDE OF THE YEAR” embroidered on it as well as a $1,000 travel credit to anywhere in the world. The winner can use it for themselves, a family member, or a friend.

We talked to Lisa to learn a little bit more about how she feels about winning Guide of the Year, about her experiences guiding, and about where she is headed in 2020.

Why do you guide?

“Passion and happiness. It seems that I have found a job that fills my passions, and therefore my job has become my passion. The passion to be able to experience the joy of life by bike and the ability to share that with others. The passion to see different cultures, to meet tremendous people from around the world, and to be a part of bringing smiles to people’s faces. That is very rewarding. So, when I am getting to live my passion, the result then brings me to the goal of my life: to be happy. So, happiness is a pretty good reason to guide! And of course, all the donkeys I get to meet along the way!”

What are some epic moments or favorite memories from your travels?

“Having guided over 180 Trek Travel trips, it is very difficult to pick just a few of my most epic moments, favorite memories, or most unforgettable guests. There have been times over the past nine years that I truly cannot believe that this is my real life. Epic moments like meeting pro riders that I have only seen on TV riding in the Tour de France, climbing Alpe d’huez the day of the 100th anniversary of the Tour, running along side Cadel Evans on Mont Ventoux after sleeping in a vineyard on Bastille Day, and stopping to dance in the middle of climb because why not? All these and so many more epic moments come to my mind. Many guests over the years are truly unforgettable, like being a part of a guest’s confidence building moments after riding something they never thought possible, the “yes I can do this” revelations, the moment when a you see a woman be empowered just by riding a bike, those hugs and tears of joy at the top of an epic climb, the champagne toasts and jumping in the sea after crossing the Pyrenees mountains, times I am told “it just would not have been the trip of a lifetime without you,” the many notes written to me at the end of every trip, and the number of smiles I see on a daily basis are truly unforgettable. And of course some of my favorite memories are the ones I have made with my co-guides, like camping in the middle of nowhere, late night dance parties in the middle of a tiny village, and just the times of ridiculousness that makes those friendships even stronger.”

Where will you be guiding in 2020?

“In 2020 I will be guiding Mallorca Ride Camps, the Italian Dolomites bike tour, and the Mallorca Luxury bike trips. This will be my eighth season guiding in Mallorca, and it just gets better every year. Riding a bike in Mallorca is a way of life and for me. It is the place where I fell in love with road cycling. (Those of you that know, I am a mountain biker through and through, so I think that says a lot about the riding in Mallorca to turn a mountain biker into a roadie). In 2014 I guided the Giro d’Italia trip through the Dolomites, and every year I race the Granfondo Maratona dles Dolomiti. However, this is my first year guiding our Classic Climbs of the Dolomites trip, and I cannot be more thrilled. The Dolomites are a very special place on the planet, and your life will only be enhanced if you get the opportunity to experience those mountains by bike. The people, the food, those mountains – all your senses will be overtaken by the Italian and South Tirol culture. It is quite spectacular, and I am very much looking forward to guiding in the region.”

How did you feel about winning guide of the year?

“To be named Guide of the Year I feel very honored, humbled, and proud. My belief is one cannot do great alone. One must be surrounded and supported by great to accomplish great. Being named Guide of the Year is a reflection of the people around me. I am so lucky to have the opportunity to work with many amazing guides and am always learning so much from each and every one of them. The level of passion, professionalism, dedication, and fun in the people that guide Trek Travel trips is so high, I am blown away that I was chosen out of such a deserving group.Thank you to everyone at Trek Travel for honoring me with such an award.”

What else are you looking forward to in 2020?

“On March 15 I get the privilege to participate in one of the worlds toughest mountain bike stage races, the Absa Cape Epic in South Africa. The coolest part is, I was asked by a Trek Travel guest that I guided in Mallorca back in 2013. We have not stayed in touch nor followed each other on social media, but when this guest had received one of the coveted entries to the event, he remembered his guide in Mallorca and thought, “She would be a fun partner to race this event with, and I’m pretty sure she likes to mountain bike.” The many doors that this job opens are pretty rad.”