OUR STORY

The eccentric naturalist & the travel writer... how it all began

Ken Schmitt and MJ Harden

In 1980 Ken Schmitt put a backpack on his back and left a successful city life to live off the land in the jungles of Maui. He stayed there, living outside and exploring nature, for the next three years. In universities, he studied classical Greek and Latin, Oriental philosophies and religions. In the jungle, he studied Mother Earth. He became an expert on the birds, the plants, the ocean, the insects and the geology of these incredible islands.

Soon, travel writers discovered this “eccentric naturalist.” Guidebook after guidebook called Ken "a walking encyclopedia," and the reputation stuck. Still today, people expect Hike Maui to deliver the best.

MJ Harden, Ken’s wife, was one of these early travel writers. She met Ken while writing for the San Francisco Examiner in 1984, and joined Hike Maui full-time a decade later. She still writes— a Maui guidebook which won the state’s Best Guidebook in Hawai‘i award, and a book of interviews, “Voices of Wisdom Hawaiian Elders Speak,” which won a national cultural award. In 2004 she wrote a documentary on Hawaiian culture and history which was Hawaii’s cultural presentation at the opening of the Smithsonian’s new American Indian Museum.

Together they’ve built one of the foremost land tour companies in Hawai‘i. Ken’s once one-man show now employs numerous guides whose mission remains the same—to give visitors the most profound experience of their vacation. At the same time, they don’t skip on the fun and adventure.

Professional Memberships & Partnerships

(click on the names below to see our membership listings)

Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau

Activities and Attractions Assoc. of Hawaii

Hawaii Ecotourism Association

Better Business Bureau of Hawaii

Hike Maui is a permittee of the Hawaii Dept. of Land & Natural Resources, Division of Forestry, for hiking tours on state lands and a permittee of Haleakala National Park.
http://www.hawaiitrails.org
http://www.nps.gov/hale/

Hike Maui is a co-founder of Wild Hawaii Learning Adventures environmental education program.
http://wildhawaii.net/meet-our-partners/index.php#hike