Heading Into the Outdoors?  Here’s Why You Should Get a Guide

Hikers will feel safer, learn more about the environment they’re in and have more fun.  Globe and Mail newspaper editor from Toronto Canada, Aruna Dutt hiked the The Lost Waterfalls trail in Boquete, Panama with hiking guide Patricia Quiel and guide Jennifer Cabellos.  “At the beginning of an early morning hike in Boquete, Panama, I faced two paths leading in different directions. One was the Lost Waterfalls trail, a four-hour round-trip trek in a cloud forest that rises about 1,700 metres above sea level.” Below a picture of the Lost Dutch Girls in Boquete.

If you are uncertain whether you need a guide, ask anyone in Panama to tell you the story of the Dutch Girls shown above who were lost in Boquete during a hike into the jungle.  In Panama there are guides who have been training and certifying hiking guides for 20 years, for both the American and Canadian mountain guide associations.  In the outdoors, there’s a long list that you need to get through. It includes researching where you are going, how strenuous and long the trip is and possible hazards, such as wildlife encounters or yellow jacket nests. A guide finds maps and navigation equipment and makes sure he knows the rescue resources available. The reality of hiking and the preparation needed is not what’s often presented in social-media #travelinspiration, where influencers share a curated version of their trip, author and hiker Taryn Eyton says.