Team Sundog

Brian’s professional passion is water – specifically moving water. Although he spends most of his fall, winter, and spring on the University of Montana campus as an Associate Professor of Water Policy, Brian has guided commercial river trips on Western U.S. rivers for the past 21 years, and is excited to expand his guiding and outfitting experiences with Sundog. Brian also teaches swiftwater rescue safety courses, and along with his wife Jenni, helped create The Redside Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting the health and strength of commercial outdoor guides through education, training, and the provision of mental and substance abuse healthcare for guides in need.

Chris has been been working as a river guide in Idaho, Oregon, Alaska, and Arizona for over a decade. He has previously worked as a Wilderness Ranger for the US Forest Service in Southeast Alaska and as a professional structure firefighter in Idaho. Chris spent his younger years in Fairbanks, Alaska before relocating to Idaho and graduating from the University of Idaho with a Master of Science in Environmental Science. Trained as an outdoor educator he shifted careers from guiding into emergency medicine and rescue. Chris is currently a Flight Paramedic in Lewiston, Idaho and still finds time to adventure and guide. He is passionate about the conservation of wild places and is rewarded to be able to guide people into remote country. He currently lives in Lewiston with his best friend Hillary and their very good cats.

Trevor has been taking long drifts and exploring wild places his entire life. A life lived outdoors, a passion for conservation and a thirst for learning has led him to a 20-year career in guiding and outdoor education. Currently Trevor spends his time helping college students balance healthy bodies and minds within the University of Idaho's Recreation and Wellbeing department. Occasionally, you will still find him rambling on about safety in the backcountry, taking folks fly-fishing or bird hunting in Idaho, or floating wild rivers in Alaska. His passion for adventure in new places has taken him all over the world, but he enjoys nothing more than time on a river with good people. Through the seasons, he loves finding new ways to make wild food taste amazing with his partner Whitney. Elk pastrami, game bird piccata and gojuchang deer ribs are currently some of their favorites. When he can find time to finally relax you will find him chasing fish, his bird dogs, or water in all phases in and around the great state of Idaho.

Libby grew up on the desert rivers of southern Utah, but relocated to Missoula, Montana in 2020 for a Master's degree in Resource Conservation. A longtime river guide and kayak instructor, Libby has worked on rivers across the western U.S. and as far afield as Nepal, Ecuador and New Zealand. She believes strongly that working in and protecting wild places are two sides of the same coin, and has served in turn as an environmental educator, consultant, and legislative assistant for various conservation organizations. In her non-work life, she enjoys rock climbing, trail running and exceptionally amateur forays into photography.

Derik has found great joy and growth working as a year-round guide on rivers and mountains of four different continents. Beginning his career on low water technical rivers in the southeastern United States, Derik was bit by the bug of rafting and leveled up his guiding to multi-day expeditions in the waters of Idaho, California, Oregon, and Arizona. It did not take long for him to expand into the international guiding in New Zealand until he found his home in the region of Northern Chilean Patagonia on the Futaleufu River. Depending on the season you may find him trekking and boating in Nepal, dropping rapids on the mighty Zambezi river in Africa or brewing fresh batches of beer in Chile, Peru or the United States. One of his great loves is that guiding has given him the opportunity to meet and share time in wild places with locals all over the globe, and that every day on the river is another day to learn and experience what this life has to offer.

Erin grew up running wild on Fidalgo Island in western Washington with an incessant passion for adventure. She learned to kayak while raft guiding on the Kern River, California and from then on considered the whitewater community her family. She moved to Moscow, Idaho in 2007 to attend graduate school and fell in love with the surrounding wilderness. With access to wild rivers in her backyard, Erin pursued competitive freestyle kayaking during and after finishing her Ph.D. in biology in 2012. In Moscow she met her life partner, Scott. Together, they combined their expertise in whitewater, mountaineering and wilderness travel to develop their own quirky style of ‘expeditioning’. Many of their extended trips have focused on the Barrenlands region of Arctic Canada. Erin currently lives in Troy, Idaho with Scott, six goats and her two beloved cats where they all go on hikes together around their property. Professionally, Erin is a quantitative biologist at Washington State University studying ecology and evolution of infectious disease. When not overly focused on work or kayaking, she loves to be silly and has more nicknames than you can count.

Hannah grew up skiing and hiking in the green hills of Vermont. After graduating from the Univesity of Vermont with an English degree, she got a job at the World Center for Birds of Prey outside of Boise. Soon after she moved to Sandpoint and started a coffee roasting business, Landgrove Coffee, with her husband, Jon, and named it after her hometown. For the past twenty five years she has taken full advantage of her flexible lifestyle. Her passion to challenge herself combined with her love of the natural world has led to adventures rowing rivers, flyfishing for steelhead, backcountry bowhunting and many others. She also loves to garden and ride horses with her family. You can visit the Landgrove Coffee website at the link below.

Lonnie is the co-founder of Sundog Expeditions with his wife, Gail Siegel. He started guiding as a college student and went to work for the legendary activist and river outfitter Martin Litton at Grand Canyon Dories, in 1982, after graduating from the University of Washington where he studied architecture. Lonnie has been rowing, managing river operations, and outfitting since then. He and Gail met when they were both graduate students in art at the University of Idaho. They settled in rural Deary, Idaho, where they live in a home that Lonnie designed and built. When Lonnie isn’t guiding Sundog, you can find him working on his paper-cast fish sculpture project, teaching art classes, or training to be a yoga instructor. See more of his artwork at the link below.

Elena cut her teeth rowing dories in the big water of the Grand Canyon, and what a beautiful smile she has. She has moved on to even grander things, including rowing for us in Alaska for over a decade. Though she has a degree in chemistry, she is a naturalist at heart, excelling in plant identification and naturalism. She is an expert at packing coolers and planning menus and is also well known for her famous southwest-inspired enchilada sauce. Elena works as a nurse in Flagstaff, AZ and she also likes to knit, bike, cook, and hike with her dog Zia.

Colby has been working the rivers of Idaho, Oregon, and Alaska since he graduated from Linfield College, McMinnville, OR, with a business degree. He worked as a sweepboat guide on the Middle Fork of the Salmon River before joining Sundog as one of the original Alaska crew. Colby’s love for the outdoors is second only to his love of knowledge. He is a teacher at heart and went on to earn a Master's degree in special education from the University of Idaho. Colby currently works for the Bureau of Land Management as an Outdoor Recreation Planner in Grants Pass, OR, where he resides with his one-year-old pup, Sam. On the side, Colby enjoys hunting, fishing, backpacking, and snowshoeing.