Top of the World: Hiking Dog Mountain with Natural Trekking
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Image by Courtesy Natural Trekking
Blair Kaplan (in red) with the Natural Trekking hiking group on Dog Mountain
Exploring the North Shore Mountains with Natural Trekking is a great way for groups and beginners to experience BC hiking trails
I felt like I was on top of the world when I completed my very first hike in BC.
Lois Tomlinson of Natural Trekking agreed to let me come on one of her Tuesday afternoon guided hikes and I was so excited for my first chance to explore the North Shore mountains with Lois and her guests, Margaret and Anita.
Hiking Dog Mountain
The four of us met in the parking lot before our two-hour hike up Dog Mountain with lunches and water in tow. This trail was great for me because there weren’t too many inclines, but it was still challenging enough that I broke a sweat.
As we climbed, we could hear the rumblings of thunder, which is not often heard in Vancouver. It made the hike that much more exciting - were we going to get stuck in a storm?
Top of the World
We reached the top within an hour and sat down to peer at the city through the thick haze, thunder still rumbling in the background as the clouds rolled in. I really felt on top of the world, but we decided to head back to try and beat the rain. We failed.
The rain was refreshing, though, and kept me from overheating. Lois was prepared with a waterproof pack for my phone, which I always have in hand, and ponchos. We carefully hiked back over the wet trails, rocks and bridges.
Upon reaching the end I felt a sense of accomplishment and knew this wouldn’t be my last hike – and hopefully not my last with Lois.
Lois’ passion and experience for hiking is perfect for beginners. She knows the trails and is prepared for anything, plus she’s safety certified with an 80-hour advanced back-country First Aid certificate and a 40-hour advanced medicine certificate, both through Wilderness Alert.
Since 2007 she has offered local hikes and guided tours in Vancouver and around the world.
Want to try a hike with Natural Trekking? Download an elite coupon and learn more about Natural Trekking.
Blair Kaplan is the owner and CEO of Living Free Canada, Canada's online health and wellness community which features elite coupons from companies that reflect a fun and healthy lifestyle. She began writing at an early age with a column in the Winnipeg Parent Newsmagazine and has been published in various publications around North America. She fell in love with blogging in May 2009. E-mail Blair.
Sanjib Adikhari ist recommended 2011 by trekkers Sabine
The ultimate compliment for Sanjib came from fellow trekkers we met along the way who remarked how lucky we were to have a guide so personable, knowledgeable and dedicated to us and our experience. We could not have agreed with them more. *We did a 21 day Annapurna circuit, Annapurna base camp trek and Langtang Valley trek and having never trekked this length before, we were both novices. It is without a doubt, that had our guide been anyone other than Sanjib, we would not have had nearly the rich, authentic and thoroughly enjoyable experience we did. When trekking
with Sanjib we enjoyed:
* honest, knowledgeable and sincere discussions regarding anything from Nepal's history and current politics, local religions and culture history, to geography natural landscape and all Mountains Name
* a sensitivity and sensibility to allow a good balance between conversation and respecting an individual or couple’s need for privacy * over 9 years of trekking guide experience
* a respect for an individual’s desired pace and physical condition
* an intimate knowledge of the best accommodations, tea stops and places of interest along the way, according to our own individual budget
We would highly recommend any potential trekker in Nepal to enlist the services of Sanjib Adhikari. It is without a doubt that you will be richly rewarded if you do so Trek in Nepal
his contact address is: sanjib-adhikari@hotmail.com
and his website :www.nepalguideinfo.com
www.nepaltreckingguide.jimdo.com
www.hikehimalayas.com
Silvana Pagani from Italy wrote in 2011 about my experience in Nepal and recommends as guide, Sanjib Adhikari.
This year at the end of february i went in Nepal for 18 days for the second time and i did a small trekking in the Annapurna region, I went to visit Pokhara, Kathmandu, Bakthapur and Nagarkot and I saw the National Park of Chitwan and in this trip I had the pleasure to meet Sanjib Adhikari.
He is an independent trekking guide and tour operator in Nepal and he has already obtained trekking guide license from the ministry of tourism, government of Nepal.
In his work Sanjib is a person very responsible and serious, very helpful and attentive to his customers, he knows very well the mountain because he has many years of experience and is also an excellent guide for visiting the cities.
He is someone very competent in his work and always ready to find the best solution, if necessary and speaks English very well.During the trekking and the tours he will tell you many interesting things about culture, about life in the villages, mountains, history and traditions in Nepal.
The best thing is that Sanjib loves his country very much and loves his work and always manages to convey all his enthusiasm with simple ways and always with the smile. He is a very nice person and is always attentive to the needs of his customers. Sanjib is also very funny and after this experience we became a very good friend. Next year at the end of January I will return for the third time in Nepal and Sanjib will be again my guide.
For these reasons I am very glad to report all references of Sanjib
He Is cantact adress www.nepalguideinfo.com
email-:sanjib-adhikari@hotmail.com
I had to post this in the forum column after returning from our trek since my boyfriend and I had the absolute best time trekking in the Everest region!
His name is Sanjib Adhikari and his email is sanjib-adhikari@hotmail.com, he is licensed by the country of Nepal and has been a trekking guide for over 12 years.
I found him through the posted forums when I was inquiring about trekking since my boyfriend and I only had 5 days to trek and really wanted to see mount Everest. He was able to customize a plan to get us as close as possible. We had a blast!!! I'd love to send you photo's of our trek and trust me there was a part when we were climbing the hill to get to Namche and I thought I was going to die!!!!! Sanjib was so patient and his knowledge of the mountain area and all of Nepal is commendable! We met up with a couple of other people trekking and had a blast hanging out in one of the places to stay and even the other people were asking Sanjib about routes to take and length of time it would take to get to base camp.
He is a smart, honest and genuine person and guide! Even after the trek we met up in Thamel and hung out for 2 days seeing the sights around Kathmandu and Patan. Sanjib not only knows the Everest region but all around Nepal and I highly recommend him!!!!
Please contact me if you need more info or would like to see pictures from Facebook-:
Sanjib-adhaikri@hotmail.com
My boyfriend and I also used this guide whilst we were out in Nepal - we were recommended by a friend who used him when she did Everest Base Camp. We decided to do the Annapurna Circuit plus base camp.
We met with Sanjib in Kathmandu when we arrived in Nepal and we told him what we wanted to do and how much time we had etc. He told us about a few trips that were possible and we eventually came up with this one.
It was the most amazing trip and wouldn't have been the same without him and Ram our porter (
We spent 20 days trekking in November 2011 and Sanjib was able to answer all of our questions from the birds to the trees to the mountains and religion. It was a very cultural trek with so much history.
Some people say that it is possible to do the trek without a guide, which may be true but you miss so much when you are on your own and we learnt such a lot from Sanjib which meant that we understood so much more of Nepal when we visited different areas.
We paid all of our money to him up front, which we were dubious about at the start as we didn't know him but I wouldn't say that this was a problem at all.
He made sure we were happy and safe and had full bellies at all times and made sure that we knew everything about altitude sickness which we didn't get in the end thanks to his slower pace higher up and aclimatisation walks. We also took Diamox, under his recommendation and we were both fine and only suffered a bit of tingling in our faces (a side effect of the drug)!
I would recommend Sanjib to ANYONE that was thinking about going trekking in Nepal, I would love to go back and visit him and do another trek with him when I have the time! There are so many guides out there that claim to do everything that he does but I wouldn't choose anyone without a recommendation because you hear so many stories about dodgy guides and it would be so sad to lose your money and have a bad experience.
Feel free to email me if you have any questions and enjoy your trek!
Email to him-:sanjib-adhikari@hotmail.com
www.nepalguideinfo.com
www.nepaltreckingguide.jimdo.com
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