Hiking guides provide outdoor service
Local company gives paid hikes on the Long Trail

Madeline Cave | staff writer
mcave@smcvt.edu

Brenda Karr and Reid Hardin, more commonly known as “Happy” and “Badmoon,” have just started a new company, Hikeu, a paid hiking guide service located along Vermont’s Long Trail.

Hikeu offers several different options for hiking custumers, each guided by Karr and Hardin. Their specialties include half-day and full-day trips, as well as various other trips that go anywhere from 2-10 days.

A long trek    

A happy Hikeu hiker. Photo courtesy of Larry Frisoli

For the more adventurous, Hikeu offers a hiking trip which covers the Long Trail from one end to the other, roughly a 26-day trip. However, only one person signed up for that program this year, Karr says, so they didn’t run the trip.

Karr and Hardin started the program last spring because of their love for hiking and backpacking, Karr says.

“We wanted to do what we love,” she says.

She also hopes that the program will expose people to the outdoors who wouldn’t normally be there, she says.

The original intention was to start a company to sell backpacking gear which Karr and Hardin planned to design themselves, but they decided on making a guide service instead, Karr says. They hope that by using their gear with Hikeu customers they can test whether people like it and work towards making a backpacking gear company from there, she says.

Pay to hike?

Junior Dan Sandberg, a member of the St. Michael’s Wilderness Program, says that he does not think people should need to pay to hike the Long Trail, but assumes that the owners of Hikeu believe the same thing, he says.

“The Long Trail is a great resource that is open to the public, and part of the beauty of the trail is that anyone and everyone can use it,” he says.

Karr says he thinks that the program is a good idea for novice hikers.

 “Having someone else take care of all the behind-the-scenes planning and preparation and come along as an experienced hiker, leaving you to simply enjoy the trip, makes a lot of sense, if you are willing to pay,” she says.

Wilderness program director Todd Wright. Photo courtesy of Larry Frisoli

Todd Wright, director of the Wilderness Program at St. Michael’s, says he thinks the program is an interesting idea, but a little on the expensive side.

Since the program is $85 per person for a single day hike, Wright thinks the pricing is a little pricier than what he’s usually seen, he says.

The 26-day hike of the entire Long Trail costs about $2,750, Karr says. The price includes seven days in a Bed and Breakfast where they stay to take nights off from the wilderness, she says.

However, Karr says that it’s hard to make money from guiding hikes. “It’s a pretty small market out there,” he says.

Wright says he agrees with Karr’s assertion that it is difficult to make money as a hiking guide, he says.

“What’s the difference between a guide and a large cheese pizza? … The pizza can feed a family of three,” he says.

Hikeu building

Karr and Hardin intend to keep their Vermont business running on the Long Trail, Karr says. However, in the future they may expand their business to other places, potentially Maine, she says.

Currently the pair is promoting their business, she says. They have a marketer who has been working on getting them into national publications such as Shape magazine, she says, and they attended the sports and fitness expo in Essex this past weekend to promote Hikeu.

Karr hopes that their business will do very well, and she loves the idea behind the business they’ve started.

“It’s a dream come true,” she says.