Joshua Poppel
Tour Leader
Nicknames: Jr Ranger, JR or JP
Hometown: Albany, NY
Currently resides: Salt Lake City, UT
Education: B.A. in Social Ecology/Environmental Science, Goddard College; M.R.P in Urban Planning, SUNY-Albany
Hobbies and interests: Bikes, books, and pretty much anything related to traveling or exploring new areas. Joshua considers himself a connoisseur of crème brûlée, gelato, or any other tasty sweets he can find when visiting new areas. Since moving to Salt Lake City, Utah he has also taken up snowshoeing and cross-country skiing to keep him busy on any days he can’t bike in the winter.
Favorite rides: Any of the canyons or high mountain roads outside of Salt Lake City, Utah, the climb to Mt. Rainier in Washington, and pretty much anything in Sonoma, California. His favorite rides on tour are the Coleman Valley Loop and the ride through Alexander Valley in Sonoma.
Favorite Sojourn tours: Acadia National Park, Arizona, and Sonoma Coast & Wine Country
Current bikes: Trek Emonda, Lemond Poprad, Gary Fisher Triton, and a Trek Superfly.
Bio: Joshua was born and raised in Albany, NY and spent most of his early life in the northeast before taking off in college and exploring the world. He has worked in the bicycle industry in some capacity or other for the better part of the last 20 years. During that time, he has led close to 200 bike tours, served as the Executive Director of the NY Bicycling Coalition and most recently as the head of Village Bicycle Project, a non-profit doing bicycle-based development work in West Africa.
