Bikes

Daughter of a bike shop owner in Little Rock, AR, Ellee was introduced to mountain biking when she was a teenager and still embarrassed to wear neon spandex (you've gotta to love the early 90's). Since then, education, employment, and fancy have landed her all over the US and the world where her proclivity for mountain biking has evolved into bicycle commuting, road cycling, working as a bicycle tour guide, national and international cycle-touring, endurance racing, and -for a short and sadistic stint- racing cyclo-cross. She functions under the belief that there are few better ways to travel and learn about a foreign place than on a bike.

Yoga

Yoga has been a core inspiration in Ellee's life. She has taught yoga since 2001. Mostly she teaches in Portland, OR, but has also instructed while working as a wilderness therapy guide (platform pose on a backpack in snow, anyone?) and bike tour guide (yoga classes in hotel meeting rooms). She crafts her yoga classes specifically for cyclists as well as for any practitioner wanting a fun, focused class that strengthens the core and stretches body, heart and mind. She has taught Hatha yoga since 2001 and has trained in Kundalini and Hatha Yoga with Diane Wilson in Portland, OR and in Iyengar-based Vinyasa yoga at OM yoga studio in New York, NY. Her meditation training has embraced a number of styles: Vipassana, Kriya, and Shambhala Buddhist. In September she is leading a yoga and cycling trip in Tuscany for Great Explorations.

Writing

Ellee is a freelance writer and has contributed to a number of publications. She now works mostly for Lonely Planet guidebooks. She authored Cycling Italy and has contributed to two additions of Mexico, as well as the USA, Caribbean, and Pacific Northwest guidebooks.

Personal

In her heart of hearts, Ellee would be cycling in a foreign land with two panniers and a passport, rock climbing at Smith Rocks, dancing Salsa on a Saturday night, drinking rich-smelling wine with cheese, creaming a 160-pounder in Jiu Jitsu, speaking Italian, teaching her beloved yogis, backpacking in some far flung wilderness with friends, practicing with her Yes Yoga compadres, making dinner with her family, and sipping yerba mate while the sun begins to rise with her Joecito.

Ellee aspires to live a life embracing truth, service, love, and creativity... honoring both new and old traditions... and being as courageous as possible while ciphering out the wisest path... tapping compassion when she misses the mark.