She came to Hike Maui seeking an office job, but, we realized immediately that Akiko would be a great guide. She’s athletic, adventuresome, engaging, articulate and fun. She readily jumps off rope swings and plunges into waterfalls - an outdoorsy local girl who grew up on the Big Island dancing hula and paddling a canoe.

Akiko tried out the Mainland for a few years, going to school in Austin, Texas, to get an associate degree in aviation science. There she became a flight attendant and a pilot. And, she introduced her culture to Austin by starting an outrigger canoe club. But, finally she returned to her roots, bringing husband Harry and daughter Maile with her. With Maile in school, mom could start work again, though she insists, "I don’t feel like hiking is work at all. I love meeting visitors and sharing my aloha."

Bessie's family journey in Hawai'i began when great-grandpa Antone arrived from the Azores off the coast of Portugal and married his Hawaiian wife Rose Kailikea. They had a ranch in Kaupo, a remote area of Maui where Bessie still feels a strong connection.

A staunch "Maui girl," Bessie did leave the island on a scholarship to Purdue University. "You want to see something different," she admits, "but you do want to come back." She returned to work for the national park at Haleakala, first routing out invasive plant species, then as an interpretive ranger. She worked in the back country for up to ten days at a time, hiking 10 miles a day with a 60- to 90-pound pack. She loved the work, but budget cuts eliminated her job.

She works with us because she still wants to work outside. "My office is the rain forest. And, I learn something every day from the people who hike with us. I'm always intrigued by their observations."

When we contacted Dylan's previous employer for a reference, she said: "He's your man. He's awesome." Yes he is.

Dylan is an athlete. He attended college on a swimming scholarship. He competed as an elite amateur triathlete for years; he runs several marathons a year; and he paddles canoe with a local club.

Dylan grew up in Ontario, Canada, and Raleigh, North Carolina, and he lived in Paris, France, and worked in Atlanta, Georgia. But he's "home" in Maui because, he oves: "The life style, the people, the culture -- I relate best here."

He lives on a small farm, upstairs in a barn with goats, dogs, pigs, cats and horses as his downstairs' neighbors.

By hiking every day, Dylan says he gets more in tune with the land and its cycles. "You see how things are different week to week. I really enjoy that and I love sharing it with visitors."

You wouldn't expect your hiking guide to speak Laotian, Vietnamese, Thai and some Chinese. Nor would you expect him to be an acupuncturist and Chinese herbalist. But, that's Erik, a very unusual guy. He learned the languages for his Naval Intelligence job -- tracking down the bones of Vietnam War POWs and MIAs.

"We'd jump out of helicopters and search for crashed planes and clues," he explains. "We fished through the soil bucket by bucket with villagers to find bones. Then we'd send them for DNA testing to give them back to their families. We lived in the jungle for three months at a time, so I learned a lot of survival techniques. And I brought dozens of bodies back."

He left to marry and raise a family in Australia for 15 years, but, "once you've lived in Hawai'i (Navy base), you can never really leave," he said. He loves hiking for: "The recharge you get from being in the rain forest and the ability to share Maui with people from around the world."

There is nothing quite like Jeremy's smile -- it tells you all about his style: exuberant, boyish, caring, fun loving. He's always eager to show you one more waterfall, do one more cliff jump, detail the wonders of yet one more plant. His enthusiasm is nonstop fun and aloha. He is an "island guy" -- a mix of Hawaiian, Filipino, Chinese, European.

He took a break from home to live in Minnesota and Arizona for four years. He loved it--loved the snow and snowboarding--and he found out what it's like to be a visitor. "I love visitors," he says. "Living in Hawai'i, I love sharing, passing on all the knowledge I've learned about my home."

Jeremy's son, Kanoa, born in 2000, inspires Jeremy to be so giving. "I'm raising Kanoa to be interested in nature and be in touch with his culture. As a father, I know that knowledge is worth nothing unless you share it with people."

Kate says she's a "nerd" -- one of the most academic students we've had in our guide class. Somehow she melds this studiousness with a great sense of humor and outdoorsy adventurousness. And she has a genuine sense of the ridiculous. On the trail she's knowledgeable and goofy at the same time. "You're in the jungle," she says. "You've got to have fun with it --getting goofy and having fun. Get muddy, jump off the waterfalls, take crazy photos."

Her life has always expressed these two themes: adventure and nature. Both her parents taught environmental economy and education, so she grew up with those values, studying environmental ethics and philosophy in college, but adventure also called, taking her from Upstate New York to Texas, Colorado, India and a "Semester at Sea" - around the world in 100 days. She ended up on Maui to work on an organic farm, then decided she'd like to get paid to hike. "Guiding is perfect for me. I call it my 'crazy Hawaiian adventure days.' "

Luke was away from his native Maui for 10 years, and the day he returned, he signed on with Hike Maui. "It's a great way to reconnect and relearn about Maui," he says. "I love teaching visitors about my home. It's a reward in itself to see people enjoying it."

He studied in California to be an elementary school teacher, but Luke discovered a passion for fire fighting when he worked as a wild-land fire fighter for three summers in Idaho. "We did big fires -- over 50 of them my first summer. It's exciting and I loved the crew camaraderie."

His newest passion is canoe paddling. He is Hawaiian, Japanese and Filipino, and "the canoe," he says, "is a cultural way to connect with our ancestors. The ocean and these koa canoes are alive. You can feel their energy. The ancestors paddled here in koa canoes. You can feel them at your back."

During his first month working with us, Maka'io did serious damage to his elbow while riding a bull. We knew then he was not going to be ordinary.

He was raised speaking Hawaiian at both home and school until he was 12 years old. His mom is 100% Hawaiian and his dad is "poi dog" (mixed). He grew up with both Hawaiian and Paniolo (cowboy) lifestyles. "But, I'm not a cowboy," this bull rider cautions. "I'm not 'howdy,' I'm 'aloha.' That's why I like guiding–I can express Hawai'i as it is – real– with people not from here."

He played football and baseball in school, and he surfs, hulas and chants. What he truly loves, though, is canoe paddling. He loves to "share the thrill" with his paddling buddies and he coaches kids to keep this Hawaiian sport thriving.

Maka'io means "eye of the hawk," a name given to him by family elders; a visionary name he wants to be worthy of.

He calls himself "Marko Polo." Marko is an adventurer and a scientist, and has lived in Hawai'i since 1979. He does service work for the Nature Conservancy and was on the executive board of the local Sierra Club. With a degree in marine biology from UC Berkeley, Marko spent seven years teaching high school biology and environmental science. But the adventurer kept resurfacing to take him across the globe: crewing for a year around Africa on an oil supply vessel, exploring Asia, researching plants in the Amazon. He also worked for seven years as a fire fighter, doing land and sea rescues.

He was with us full time for years, then needed to go back to his first love -- teaching science to kids. Often accused of being a big kid himself, Marko will leap off any and all rocks and waterfalls. He'll let you come out and play with him on weekends and summers when he returns to us from his school job.

"I like a good story," Nicholas says. That's why he's studying to be a history teacher --history is stories of interesting people. And, he loves Hawaiian stories. "The culture is so different -- their connection to the land, the sea, their gods, their food. The gleam in their eyes, the passion they have for their land, their family, their culture –it's quite beautiful."

Nicholas is our entertainer. He produces and acts in local theater. "This goes back to story telling," he explains. "It's where story telling and art meet. A good story should change you, should move you. I love to entertain."

And so he entertains on his hikes. "I love it out there -- I'm very happy out on the trail, guiding people. Something as simple as a coconut tree, you can get someone so excited.

"I think of our valleys as museums. There's so much to see, so much to talk about. Every plant, every tree, every bird has a story." Story telling again.

Pasco always has a quick, understated quip. He's clever and funny, but he's also serious, especially about Hawaiian and other Polynesian cultures. It's his family's tradition -- they have taught various Polynesian dances, drumming and martial arts for generations.

What he loves best about Hawai'i is the people: "The people here make you feel welcome -- like my family reunions. Warmth (to explain it) seems grossly inadequate."

He likes to share that warmth by guiding: "Expect to have fun, to laugh; expect to learn. I enjoy seeing the forest for the first time in visitors' eyes. People who feel they don't have a relationship with the forest end up feeling a special connection. They're beaming smiles when we leave. It radiates from them."

Before guiding hikes on Maui, Pasco did his own hiking in California, Arizona, Colorado, Wyoming, Oregon and Massachusetts.

At seventeen, Randy joined the Air Force to see the world. Eventually he was stationed in Hawai'i, and fell in love with the islands. When the Air Force began downsizing, Randy opted for early retirement.

By the time Randy came to us, he was already a professional guide. He had worked as a downhill bike guide and driven luxury tour vans on the Hana Highway. He sought out Hike Maui, he says, because of its reputation. "It's the oldest hiking company in the state with the most knowledgeable guides, and it's like a family. I was always hiking on my days off, so I figured, why not get paid to do what I really like to do?"

Randy is always upbeat, always quick, generally has a corny joke to tell, and loves to inspire visitors. "Every day I am reminded of the reasons I live here," he says, "and I enjoy sharing that."

Before settling in Maui in 1986, Roger spent five years as a Montana fly fishing guide. He was also a wildlife biologist hanging out of helicopters counting critters for six years in remote areas of Wyoming and Montana.

After so many quiet years in paradise (Maui) and in the backwoods (Montana), Roger wanted to live in a big city, so he moved to Kobe, Japan, just in time for the earthquake of 1995. He stayed, teaching English, for five years until he was fluent in Japanese.

Back on Maui again, he worked in a state program with Maui's endemic birds. He also did night-time astronomy tours with Japanese tourists. When 9-11 caused Japanese tourism to dwindle in Hawai`i, we wired Roger up on green tea and sent him hiking. His facility with language and science and his love of guiding make him a perfect fit for us.

Sara switched careers radically when she became a hiking guide. She was a chef for 15 years—pastry, Asian fusion, Italian, weddings, catering, but she no longer wants to cook professionally.

"I don't have a blender or a mixer anymore," she insists. "And that's on purpose so no one can ask me to bake. My husband is a really good cook, so I let him do the cooking." They've been eating together since 1991.

A Gulf Coast native, she loves the ocean -- kayaking, snorkeling, scuba diving. And she obviously loves hiking.

"I love Hike Maui. This is my favorite job, the best I've ever had. Our clients tell me I'm great as a guide. It's because I love sharing the island and giving people insider tips. I like to have fun and be adventurous, and I love nature and botany, so this is the right place for me."

On the Mainland, Stephanie had numerous interesting and strange wildlife/ biology jobs. Spawning endangered trout and salmon species, for instance (actually putting the eggs and sperm together). Monitoring spotted owls in Oregon. Counting frogs in Idaho. Releasing falcons in Texas. Inventorying and banding song birds. Managing a 200-acre preserve in Idaho for The Nature Conservancy.

"Originally, I wanted to be a fish biologist," she says. "I was enthralled with fish. Then I got interested in wildlife biology, and, on my first job I learned to identify 130 birds by their songs. I didn't know I could do that! That was a real confidence booster."

In Hawai'i, she monitored several endemic bird species in two of our national parks. Once here, of course, there was no going back. "I've discovered I can't live in a place where there is no ocean. I have to do my surfing and spear diving now. And, I need to be outside, not in a lab."

On his resume, Tony describes himself as a "good-natured outdoor type". Amen to that. No one is as easy going, as gracious and as gentlemanly as Tony. Living on Maui since 1981 has infused him with the aloha spirit. His studies of The Islands have given him a profound sense of Hawaii's history, culture and natural world. He hikes, bikes, snorkels, dives and kayaks, and he needs an outdoor job that reflects all these interests. "I also wanted to be associated with the most reputable company on island," he says.

In addition, Tony has a full-time indoor job–fine dining waiter for the evening shift at one of Wailea's best restaurants. He has been involved in restaurant work since 1979, and, as a result, is a very good cook. Tony claims to make the best banana bread on island. It's true.