The Hike Like A Woman Podcast

It's Time For A Q&A Session

• Rebecca Walsh

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It's time for a Q&A Session....check it out!

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Speaker 1:

Hey, it's Rebecca. Welcome back to the Hike Like a Woman podcast. This is the show that drops every single Tuesday morning at 4am. I'm not up at 4am releasing the podcast episodes, but that is when we are live. And if you like our podcast, you can also check out our YouTube channel over at hikelikeawomancom. I will tell you that what I put on the podcast is completely different than what I put on our YouTube channel. So this podcast isn't just like the narration from our YouTube video. No, it's its own thing, it's its own entity and it's also very different from what I put out in our weekly newsletter that drops every Monday at noon Mountain Time, and different than what I put out on social media. So I produce three unique pieces every week between the pod, the newsletter and the YouTube channel, and then social media if there's time. So today I am answering some questions about our group trips.

Speaker 1:

At Hike Like a Woman. We offer trips all over the world, from Kilimanjaro to Costa Rica, and I have one, two, three, four, five, six, five questions, five questions that you have sent me via DM on social media or via email that I'm going to answer today. And the first question is hey, rebecca, if I go on a trip with you to climb Mount Kilimanjaro. Do you hike at a really fast pace? I'm worried about being able to keep up. The answer to that is no. On Kilimanjaro we hike pole pole, which means slowly. Slowly. We hike about a mile an hour on Mount Kilimanjaro, maybe even a little slower than that, especially on summit night. So we do not hike fast on our Kilimanjaro climb. Now, if you're interested in joining me for another trip to, say, southern Utah, costa Rica, we hike as fast as the group wants to hike and so usually the guide, whatever guiding company we're using for that particular hike, the guide will go first and lead the way for everyone, and then you can separate into smaller groups based off hiking speed. And I always hike with the slowest hikers because I don't want anyone to feel like they're hiking too slow or they're left out. And I like to hike slowly because I like to stop for snacks, I like to take pictures and I like to talk and sing songs and tell inappropriate jokes and so um. So if you're concerned about thinking about maybe you don't know if one of our trips would be good for you because we might hike too fast for you, I will tell you that we won't hike too fast for you and I'll make sure that we don't that we won't hike too fast for you and I'll make sure that we don't. The next question was are all of your trips camping trips or do you offer some trips that are in hotels? That's a great question.

Speaker 1:

As far as upcoming trips that we have here, we've just finished this summer. We have done Kilimanjaro, which is camping two nights in a hotel, first and last night, and then camping on the mountain. Alaska was a camping trip. Yellowstone was a camping trip In Peru. It's a mix of hotels. And then I think we're camping for four nights on the Salcante Trail, maybe five nights. So it's a combination of hotels and campsites. And then our trip to Iceland in February is hotels. Our trip to Costa Rica is hotels and lodges. So lodge is basically a fancy cabin on the Pequari River and the hotels are very nice and the lodges are very nice. And then Southern Utah is going to be camping and Kilimanjaro, of course, is going to be camping.

Speaker 1:

We're looking at a couple options for trips next fall. We're thinking maybe Colorado, that would be a camping trip. We're thinking maybe Patagonia, that would be either hotels or camping. I'm also thinking about Scotland. So Scotland would be hotels or guest houses. So I like to do a combination of trips that are camping trips and also trips that are trips and hotels, because I want to make sure that our trips are accessible to everyone and I realized that camping and sleeping on the ground is not something that is accessible and comfortable for everyone. So if you want to let me know whether you would prefer camping trips or hotel trips, by all means, please let me know. You can reply, you can send me a DM or email me. Hi at hike, like a woman dot com, Whatever, but I'm happy to take your feedback on what kind of accommodations you would like to see.

Speaker 1:

I'll also put a quick note here about dietary restrictions and preferences would like to see. I'll also put a quick note here about dietary restrictions and preferences we have. I think on our Alaska trip we had six women who had a vegan diet and we had four vegetarian women who preferred no two, two women who preferred vegetarian meals, and it was the first time that the herbivores have outnumbered the omnivores, and we always work with guiding companies who are going to do a good job of making sure that everyone's dietary preferences are met. So that's really important. I think the food on a trip is almost as important as where we sleep. I think the food on a trip is almost as important as where we sleep. So that's a few notes on accommodations and food.

Speaker 1:

Next question is what guiding companies do we use? It just really depends where we're going and where we're traveling. We do use a third party to book most of our trips, except for our Costa Rica trip. Our Costa Rica trip is kind of our signature trip. It's a very special trip because we have an amazing friendship and partnership with the Pequare Outdoor Center in Costa Rica and that is a company that we are very we we love. We love this guiding company and we love working with them directly. So we go direct with them directly. So we go direct with them. But for the other trips we contract out uh guiding companies. But we have extremely high standards for our guides and our guiding companies as far as their vehicles, safety, cleanliness, um, food, uh, knowledge about the local areas. So far, so far, so good. We have not had a guiding company let us down yet. So that's kind of a few notes on the guiding companies that we select.

Speaker 1:

Another question here about price and how come our trips are a little more on the expensive side, are a little more on the expensive side and I this is this is hard for me because when I was just guiding backpacking trips here in my local mountain range, um, before I got breast cancer, um, by the time I paid my co-guides and by the time I paid for fuel and permits and food, um, there wasn't ever anything left over for me to take home. And because I was pricing them in a way that I just wanted, I just wanted everybody to be able to come on our trips and everybody to be able to afford to come on our trips. And, uh, since then, I've, I've, I've started to treat hike like a woman, like a business instead of a hobby, because I've put so much work into building the hike like a woman community over the past decade that I need to, I need to start bringing home a little bit of money. And if you're a hike like woman fan and you've been around for a little while, most of the women in our community are happy to pay to go on trips with me. And so our trips are a little bit on the expensive side, not really that much.

Speaker 1:

We try not to price them out of the market. Like I think our trip to Clam, kilimanjaro, is like $2,300. And that's with an incredible guiding company. So we try to keep them as affordable as possible, but still recognizing that it's important that we hire good guides and good guiding companies and the best guides are going to be a little more money, but you get what you pay for in the guiding industry and also I take, I need to, I need to keep the bill, I need to get the bills paid, I need to keep the lights on and I can't just do this as a hobby. So so I do make a little bit of money with each trip that is sold. So when you book a trip with us, you know you're getting a really good guiding service and I do my best to take care of everyone on our trip to make sure that you're happy, you're fed, you're comfortable, you're safe and all those things. So that's the price structure that we have set up. We don't charge a premium. We're not the cheapest brand out there and I will be the first to acknowledge that, but we do offer a lot for free, a ton of free content right here on our pod, over on our YouTube channel. I have free guides, all sorts of things, so I try to offer as much as I can for free, and then the trips are a little more expensive, but that's how I make a living.

Speaker 1:

The next question is can anyone of any ability hike with you on a group trip? This really goes back to the speed question that I started the conversation with today, in that I try to make sure that we can make our trips as accessible as possible to most people, recognizing that Kilimanjaro is a difficult climb. It's a lot of days of walking and it's a lot of elevation gain. So that might not be a trip for someone who's never gone camping before or who doesn't have the time to put into training before the trip. But a trip like Iceland, which is pretty much a van tour with restaurants and hotels and stops along the way, is going to be a trip that really someone with any ability could join us.

Speaker 1:

So when you're looking to book a trip with us, it helps to pay attention to what the trip rating is.

Speaker 1:

So one would be a really easy trip and a five is a difficult trip like Kilimanjaro, and pay attention to that. And if you have any questions, I do have office hours a couple of times a week where I'm happy to hop on a call with you and we can talk through your fitness or whatever questions you have, to see if a particular trip is the right trip for you. So that is. Those are the most recent questions that I've received about our group trips and if you'd like to join us for any of our trips, we have Costa Rica coming up, we have Utah coming up and Kilimanjaro. There are open spots as of the time of this recording in all three of those trips. So if you want to book a trip with us and go on a bucket list adventure, head on over to our website, hikelikeawomancom. You can take our poll and tell us what other trips you'd like to see us offer, or you can book a trip and go on a really epic adventure with us. Thanks so much. This is Rebecca. I'll see you next time.