FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

COMPANY: Hike Maui

CONTACT: Mj Harden

TEL: 808-879-5270

E-MAIL: hike@hikemaui.com

WEB: www.hikemaui.com

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MAUI, Hawaii—This year Hike Maui, Often called "the granddaddy of ecotourism" in Maui, celebrates 25 years of hiking visitors into the Maui of their dreams. In business since 1983, it is the oldest hiking company in the state and it has developed a solid reputation for excellence. Hike Maui, which started as a concept from a self-taught eco-expert, takes visitors out of their resorts and into the wilderness to explore the tropical paradise of hidden Maui. They offer day hikes from three to twelve hours, all structured to be both fun and educational. Highlights of these trips include waterfall and rain forest hikes, combination hiking, kayak, and snorkel trips, volcano hikes, and new customized trips that take visitors by foot, helicopter, horseback, and motor vehicle to experience some of Maui’s most exciting places.

In 1980, owner Ken Schmitt put a backpack on his back and left a successful city life to “live off the land” in the jungles of Maui. At universities, he had studied classical Greek and Latin, Oriental philosophies and religions, but became an expert on Mother Earth. He lived outside for the next three years and became an expert on the birds, plants, ocean, insects, and the geology of these incredible islands.  Travel writers soon discovered this “eccentric naturalist” and expert. Guidebook after guidebook called Ken "a walking encyclopedia," and his reputation as the ideal tour guide flourished along with the success of Hike Maui.

 Ken’s wife, Mj Harden met him on assignment for the San Francisco Examiner in 1984, and joined Hike Maui full-time a decade later. Together they have built one of the foremost land tour companies in Hawaii. Hike Maui’s guides are the best-trained guides in Maui. They receive six weeks of educational courses from the owners, take Hawaii’s state certification courses, and most are lifeguard certified. Each guide has a fascinating personal story that adds a creative dynamic to the Hike Maui team. Guides include a physics teacher, several botanists, working biologists, a yoga instructor, an anthropologist, teachers, and wilderness junkies, and all have lived and worked in Maui, making them true Maui experts.

With 25 years of success, Hike Maui continues to successfully show people the "real" Maui-- a place of exquisite Hawaiian beauty with waterfalls, rain forests, volcanoes, canyons and sea cliffs. Their mission continues to teach visitors about the geology, botany, ethno botany, culture, history, and stunning beauty of Hawaii, an island chain as unique and as magical as the Galapagos. 

For more information about Hike Maui, visit the website at www.hikemaui.com or call Mj Harden at 808-879-5270

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