Custom Guiding?

“I am just wondering if anyone thinks there would be a market for custom trip-planning and guiding services. For example, you tell me your skill level and where you might want to go, how long, etc. I plan a trip and take you there. Does anyone think that would fly very well? I've seen lots of guided trips advertised, but none like this exactly. I am just wondering, not really for this year, but for when I get out of college. Let me know if you have an opinion.”

“I wish you all the luck on your venture..I too have thought the same idea..I live in a high tourist area and every year I rack my brain on how to get these fools money. There is not many hiking guides here. I dont know the hiking area that well yet but whne I get a variety of trails in mind I plan on getting it going.
Good luck and let us know how it goes..”

“I think that if you were to pull a venture like this off, it would have to be in some tourist frequented locale. You would also probably have to have a bunch of extra gear for your clients to use, as well as food and supplies. I think that there would definately be a market for such a service in certain places. Maybe based out of a city within short driving distance to wilderness like Seattle, Portland, or possibly some of the New England cities (of which I know nothing about). Then have a van or something to transport people and gear to the trailhead. Good luck to you if you decide to do this.”

“Call any of the established guide services and ask for a custom trip. My guess is that it is available for a price.
If not, after you get the advertising and extra gear (inventory) and transportation and insurance give me a call I'd like to be your swamper.”

“ROTFLMAO!!!!! You the man!!! I guess you have the credentials and the experience need for these possible endeavors. Sounds like you are looking for some free rides to some nice places.

There is alot of competition out there already so you would have to target a certain section of the market. If I was you I would look into getting a job first with a similiar type of co. to gain some experience in all sectors of the biz. Then go from there once you have some of the knowledge down.

What would you do when/if somebody wants more than you can do or offer? Contract out!

GOOD LUCK!!!”

“I isn?t that complicated. Put your bed and food on your back and walk. Most don?t need or at least will not pay for help with that. What people want and will pay for is services that make getting out less physically strenuous. Like packing their supplies (or the people) to their camp”

“Check out my website:
www.qnet.com/~sierramel/

I do custom guiding.

You just need to have a place you're very familiar with to custom guide, IN.”

“Most registered guides customize and provide support services (arranging food drops, transportation too and from trail heads, support for slackpackers, etc.”

“I met a fella that was staying at the same motel as me and Belle in Pinedale, WY. I spied him from across the p/l, and had him pegged as a bp'er. My purpose for staying in Pinedale was to get some advanced info for a Wind's hike I was gonna do on my way back thru a couple weeks later.

I struck gold. The guy was a retired military man from FL that spends the summer season guiding in the Wind's. I pulled out my map and ran my route idea by him - he knew every inch of the trails. He was very informative. He said that he had never heard of a dog summiting Gannett Peak, but that it *just might* be doable.

I did not go into any details about how he had established himself as a guide - but I wanted to. I felt that he had been very generous with his time and information, and I did not want to delay him any longer than I had - I could tell that he was in a hurry.

MAN! Whatta life, ay?
...lucky basstard!

JayM,
Many maps of NPS, NFS, BLM, etc, lands state in the rules section that commercial guides are not permitted. Then again, in some places they are. You would need to know where the lines are drawn. Even where guides are allowed, they may have quotas, and you would need to wait for someone to "retire", or whatever, to get their slot.

Good luck.”

“Notice gojo didn't pay the guy and the guy was retired meaning, he had another income. I think you will starve if all provide is information. People will find a free source for information, even if it is bad information. You need some beasts of burden (mel has llamas) to haul stuff and good skills. For a cheap animal try goats. In Idaho you need a license.”

“Good luck, but I believe that you would need another source of income. In the modern world there are plenty of careers that would offer you the time to take on a project like that and have a steady source of income. Computer work, or firefighting, writing to bring up a few. It may also be hard to raise a family if you are inclined that way in the future.”

“mtn gal,
The fella had a group reserved and was preparing for a multi-day (week?) trip starting the next day. He was kinda on the clock (preparation day), and I didn't want to cause him further delay. The guy uses no stock - he's strictly about hiking. His clients provide the bulk their own gear. I do not understand why someone would hire somebody else to walk them through the woods, but they appearantly do. Mebbe some folks are not confident in their backcountry skills.

Semi-retirees would be tough to compete with. They are out for supplimental - not primary - income. I dealt with these types as a smalltown, self employed contractor.

I've toyed with the idea of outfitting canoe trips in my area. I could do several intermitent 2-3 day trips during my summer vacation. I dunno, tho - that's ALOT of overhead for just a few trips per year. Besides, it would become work - not play.

I think a good market to tap into would be Europeans looking for an American backcountry experience.

Two words:
web
site”

“One more thing.
I know a guy in ID that has several pack goats. He uses them mostly for himself, but will occasionally hire out. My brother and I built a goat-proof storage box on his truck, and he, in turn, took me on a three-niter in the Lemhis. It was quite a trip! The larger goats could pack 40-50 lbs. The smaller (but growing) ones mebbe 20 lbs. He had six goats. He once spent 30 days in the Frank Church - River Of No Return Wilderness. Man... can you imagine?

Goats are VERY LOW maintenance. They browse along the trail, and follow close behind. At night, they just hang around the camp. They can goes days without water. They can negotiate the steepest and rockiest of trails.”

“I don't know about backpacking, but there is a big market for supported bike trips. A couple of years ago I did a bike trip to Quebec and some of us were discussing whether the hosts make any money at it. We each paid $190, the ride is limited to 200 people, so they get $38,000 for a full tour. There were probably 150 of us and who knows how many backed out after the refund date. We figured that what was provided to us hardly touched that amount, the biggest expense was bussing us all back. Not a bad haul for a weeks work and the hosts aren't even bikers.”

“I am sure there are those that can scratch out a living just guiding (no other services) but my guess is they are few. Outfitters and guides in my neck of mountains make most of their money on river trips and hunting. Horse back rides for sightseers are probably up there some place too. They may exist but I know of no Idaho outfitter or guides that work without stock or some other capital investment except those that have some sort of ?teaching? program. Other capital include boats, yurts, airplanes or vehicles. If you teach rock climbing, backcountry skiing, survival, leadership or some touchy feely wilderness interpersonal gibberish you may get by but even these require investments in gear at the least. Ifin you find a way to make a living guiding without any investment let us all hear about it. Many of us here would like to do the same. Good luck.”

“My roommate is a rock climbing guide here in Las Vegas. I am letting him live in my spare bedroom for VERY cheap. He works for Sky's the Limit but is just starting out and is on the bottom of the pay scale. Most rock climbing guides here in Vegas also do all the rigging for the shows down on the strip as thier main source of income. Guiding is a great gig but don't expect to make much money.”

“Lots of people go on Sierra Club trips, which tend not to have pack support (or, sometimes, have partial support on the first day). They may be unfamiliar with the area; they may be novice backpackers; they may just want to leave the planning (food, logistics) to somebody else.

Sierra Club trips aren't the best model for entrepreneurial types, though, because we leaders are strictly volunteers. Start paying guides and the trip price goes up pretty substantially.

Anyway, if you're looking for a market, think about the corporate world. I've toyed with the idea of hooking up with a management consultant type and tapping into the corporate team-building retreat market. You could get paid to spend time outdoors, and you'd get all kinds of ideas to send to Scott Adams. ;-)”

“You can make yourself a business that goes the whole route and is registered, has guides that are EMT trained, provides food, rides, photographic workshops, and baby sitting.
You can also go the route that provides the minimum of services, and states it.
There are a lot of people out there looking for a wilderness experience, who cannot afford the all inclusive, high end trip.
We have llama packing services over here that charge $1,300 for six days and seven nights.
For this, they supply the food, the gear, the transportation to and from the trailheads, and cell phones.
If you need your hand held, they hold it.
Another service will give you one hour of training, rent you two llamas for as long as you want them, and then turn you loose in the backcountry.
Guide services are not just black and white.
There are also shades of gray.
It all depends on how much money you can afford to put out in start up fees, and how much work you want to go to in order to open a guide service.
Do you want to be a one person show? Or, can you afford to hire qualified people to help out?
How much experience do you have?
What is it in?
How much money do you want to make (you'll never get rich doing this)?
I mainly do food drops, but I do have my "clients" sign a waver of responsibility before we go on a trip.
I also take out only experienced hikers.”

“tehepite, I didn't know you guided on Sierra club trips. When I get my copy of the magazine (Yes I'm a member of the Sierra Club .... and the NRA .... Always, always hedge your bets people) I always check the club trips out first. They look like fun and the cost is not bad at all.
I do have a question though. Does the price include all food?”

“EEEEEEK!
Sol?
You want to go on a Sierra Club hike?

The people I run into on those group hikes are SOOO weird!
Well, not ALL of them.
I think Tehipite is an aberation.

Uh, oh....
Tehipite didn't vote for Bush.

Sol, he is a lefty, and you know how you feel about us liberal democRATS!”

“Solitary hiker, the cost does include all food (not transportation to the trailhead, though). I think the trips are a blast--that's why I've been leading for 8 years. It's a good way to get to know people you might not mingle with otherwise (sort of like Trail Talk, only in meat space). ;-)

It's not all bleeding-heart liberals; in fact, I've got one Republican on my trip this year who was on my trip 2 years ago. (You'd probably be outnumbered, though.) ;-)

If you're thinking about trips in the Sierra Nevada, let me know--I know most of the leaders, and I can give you some tips on them.”

“How 'bout this:

You plan various trips in advance. The difficulty ranges from easy to extremely difficult. Easy hikes would stay at fairly low elevation, say, in the treeline and below. Maybe it could be a route that goes in, then backtracks when the going gets tough. The next hike could be be the same route, but continues up into higher elevation - that hike could be advertised as difficult. Then, the next hike could be essentially the same hike, but includes some peak bagging - "extremely difficult". You set dates for the various trips, and advertise in advance. Have a maximum number of participants allowed - say, six. The number of days - and cost - would increase with the difficulty level. A trip advertised as "extremely difficult" would require that the customer be able to verify extensive bp'ing experience. You could prolly determine one's experience based on a telephonic Q&A.

On extended trips, you could likely pay a local horse outfitter to bring in replenishment supplies.”

“Thanks for the info tehipite. The trips that sounded the best to me were the service trips. Some good work mixed with hiking. Ever led one of those?

Mel I bet those Sierra Club folks who met you on the trail thought you were sooooo weird too. But you know what? That's why we love you so much. Hell we're all weird and that's what makes this "place" fun.”

“Haven't led a service trip, sol, but I've always been tempted to try one. The price is subsidized on those, so they are the best value--and you get the satisfaction of giving something back. Most service trips establish a basecamp and have a dedicated cook, so the food is generally pretty good. (Of course, the food on my trip is great...but I'm sure y'all knew that.) ;-)”

“No, REALLY! They were weirder than ME!”

“Mel, I'll be sure to tell Lou Argyres you said that. ;-)”