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Why Walking Adventures Are the Ultimate Mind-Body Reset
By: Claire Van Winkle
Over the course of the past ten years, Claire has worked in various roles throughout the tourism industry - leading backpacking expeditions for teenagers in far-off destinations like Costa Rica and Iceland. She also manages operations for multi-day programs everywhere from Bhutan to Alaska. Claire spends her winters in Boulder, Colorado and her summers guiding expeditions up in Alaska. She enjoys backcountry skiing, seeking out Alpen-glow moments, trail running in the foothills, sipping strong coffee, inhaling dark chocolate, and listening to good tunes.
Written by Claire Van Wrinkle, a guest travel writer who has led backpacking expeditions for teenagers in far-off destinations like Costa Rica and Iceland
I’ve been a hiking guide for over ten years now. My adventures have taken me to remote glaciers in Alaska, over rainbow-colored mountains in Iceland and through slot canyons in Utah. I’ve guided guests on 3-mile hikes and 50-mile hikes. Freezing hikes and sweltering hikes. Hikes with bears and hikes with snakes. Glorious sunrise hikes and hikes with bountiful berries to gorge on.
I’d like to let you in on a hiking guide’s secret:
These walking adventures are the answer to pretty much everything in life.
What my guests have taught me: Most of my guests are in their 60s or 70s (sometimes even in their 90s). We crush impressive 3000ft vert days and exchange novel-worthy stories over dinner. During our long days out on the trail, our conversations run the gamut from favorite foods to weird dreams. But they always inevitably wander towards what it means to live a healthy life and age gracefully.
When I ask them how they are still hiking at age 70, they share their wisdom: The secret, they always tell me is to “never stop moving.”
Even at a young age, I had an inkling that spending time in nature was important. But over my career as a hiking guide, I’ve observed that moving your body outside is the key to everything – especially to restoring mind-body balance. Walking in nature (it turns out) is really, really good for you. Not just physically – but mentally and socially as well.
Lowers blood pressure: Research shows that spending time in nature reduces blood pressure levels, muscle tension, and pulse rate within just a few minutes.
Eases Joint Pain:Harvard University reported that walking five to six miles a week can prevent arthritis from forming. Walking lubricates the joints and reduces joint pain.
Improves endurance and strength: Walking over uneven terrain improves balance, which reduces risk of falls and preserves muscle strength as we age.
Reduces your risk of disease: Dr. Stacy Beller Stryer reports that exercising in nature reduces hypertension, reduces the risk of stroke, lowers your heart rate, reduces the risk of diabetes, lowers the risk of heart disease and produces cancer-fighting cells that support the immune system. Similarly, an American Cancer Society study found that women who walked seven or more hours a week had a 14% lower risk of breast cancer than those who walked three hours or fewer per week.
Boosts Immune Function:A study found that those who walked at least 20 minutes a day at least 5 days a week, had 43% fewer sick days. The study also found that if they did get sick, it was for a shorter duration, and their symptoms were milder.
A Hiking Guide’s Take on the Physical Benefits of Hiking
Oh my god. Movement is so good for us. I notice improvements in my guests’ physical abilities after just a single week of hiking. For example, guests who struggle to complete a 6-mile hike on day one will end up crushing a similar hike a week later.
Guests who struggle to balance on wobbly rocks in the beginning of the trip will become more in tune with their balance as the days go on. Guests who say they can’t live without Coke and Doritos on Day 1 start to make healthier food choices. But the most noticeable difference I see is the physical change in their faces. Guests’ faces tend to clear up (redness and inflammation disappears) and they look younger to me each day that they spend outside walking, laughing, and soaking up that delicious Vitamin D.
“Moving your body will do more for your brain than any riddle, math equation, mystery book, or even thinking itself.”
— Dr. Austin Perlmutter, internal medicine physician and NYTimes author
You can read more about Dr. Perlmutter’s neuroplasticity research on his website: 3 Ways to Rewire Your Brain for Better Health. He argues that there is an inextricable link between mental health and movement, and that the best way to improve your mental health is to get physical exercise outside.
“We aren’t adapted to be sedentary critters, and we are not adapted to sit on our couches and look at our screens,” reports University of Washington anthropology professor, Patricia Kramer. Kramer argues that “the story of the genus Homo is all about bipedal movement…we were born to do it. It is this quintessential thing that thing that we do, and we do it all the time from our first steps as babies to old age.”
Walking helped us “maneuver through different environments and move across landscapes. It freed our hands and allowed humans to carry tools, food and babies, and to gather fruit from trees.” Boiled down, the evolution of walking supercharged our human brains, and we can still tap into that primal brain power to improve our health. When we walk, our brain circuits light up. A rush of endocannabinoids (the same chemicals mimicked by cannabis) flood our system. These chemicals reduce our stress responses, surge our dopamine and serotonin levels, boost our creativity, improve our moods and increase our life-satisfaction.
To summarize the mental health benefits of walking in nature and hiking:
Boosts Creativity: A study conducted by Stanford University reported that walking boosts creativity by 60%. Creatives including Albert Einstein and Steve Jobs have also attributed their success to walking.
Supercharges Problem Solving Skills & Increases Productivity: The same Stanford study concluded that walking enhances problem-solving skills and productivity.
Improves Mood and Mental Health:Stanford University found that people who walked for 90-minutes in a natural area (i.e. a trail), as opposed to in a highly-trafficked city setting showed decreased activity in the region of the brain associated with depression. Additionally, the latest research out of Berkley reports that lactate (the chemical by-product responsible for that sore muscle feeling you get after a hard workout) can actually alter your neurochemistry in a way that reduces anxiety and prevents depression.
Reduces Stress: Physical activity produces endorphins. These endorphins reduce stress levels and improve your mood (giving you that *runners high* feeling).
Increases Life–satisfaction and Happiness: Research shows that digging in the dirt stirs up microbes in the soil that can release serotonin in the brain and lift your mood. Spending more time outside playing in the dirt literally makes you happier.
A Hiking Guide’s Take on the Mental Benefits of Hiking
The mental health benefits behind hiking are my favorite perk. I’ve learned that whatever problems you have in your life, you get to let go of them when you start walking. All you have to do is focus on putting one foot in front of the other and making it to the end of the trail. You get to train your mind to memorize the sequence of roots in front of you and to discern slippery rocks from the textured rocks. To listen for rockfalls, wildlife, and birdsong. To taste sour raspberries and smell lavender leaves. To look for wildlife around the next corner. On the trail, you get to tap into your primal survival instincts and senses. This is deeply rewarding for our brains and triggers a flood of good things.
“Social isolation can increase a person’s risk of death from all causes.”
— Mavis Tsai, a clinical psychologist and UW research scientist at the Center for the Science of Social Connection
One of the greatest factors that can impact the quality (and even length) of our life is our connection to others. Walking with likeminded people is one way to address isolation, loneliness, and depression. It provides a portal for connection and Tsai reports that “the act of taking a walk opens [her patients] up to sharing more than they might when sitting for face-to-face therapy.”
A Hiking Guide’s Take on the Social Benefits of Hiking
The only thing better than hiking alone is traveling and hiking with like-minded people. On my hiking trips, I see guests open up to the world, learn new things and create life-long connections with others. The reward of finishing a challenging hike feels ten times greater when you can share it with your hiking companions and laugh about the day over dinner.
How Mountain Travel Sobek Trips Can Help You Have a Mind-Body Reset:
In a world where we can order food to our doorstep, set the temperature of our homes or call a car to pick us up with just the click of a button, walking adventures allow us to rekindle our connection with the natural world. They allow us to experience calculated discomfort and reconnect with the earth. With 50 years of life-changing travel experiences under our belt, our journeys are designed with our guests’ best interests in mind.
Our Walking Adventures Can Help You:
Build Stamina and Endurance: Our guided trips and training plans help you prepare for longer, more rewarding walks. It helps to have a goal in mind (especially one that is exciting and involves seeing the world!). Don’t worry, we will walk you through it! We also offer trips for every activity level and will help match you with the right experience.
Challenge Your Limits: Our hiking trips push you just outside your comfort zone and allow you to become braver and better at all of life’s challenges, whether they are physical, mental, or social.
Foster Connections: We are very intentional about our group sizes and have found that small groups (of no more than 16 people) offer our travelers the best opportunity to form meaningful connections. Our guides are experts in group dynamics and leadership setting. Our guests start as strangers and often leave as life-long friends.
Tips for a Mind-Body Reset During Hikes:
Practice Mindful Breathing: If sitting still and meditating isn’t your thing, try moving and meditating! Hiking offer a great opportunity to fine-tune your breathing and tune in to the present moment. Set a pace that allows you to breath naturally and focus on your surroundings. Listen for birdsong, get blueberry stains on your hands, feel the fuzz on the leaf of a plant and allow the wind to brush against your cheeks. Walking in nature will naturally lower your cortisol levels and help bring you back into a mindful state of balance.
Turn your phone on airplane mode: We are a society that’s addicted to instant gratification. We allow computers to think for us and text message pings to surge our dopamine circuits. Turn off the distractions and disconnect from the attention market. The book The Molecule of More, will teach you how disconnecting can restore your natural dopamine circuits and increase your happiness.
Connect with Others: If you are hiking in a group, take the opportunity to chat with your companions. You’ll find that you have more in common with them then you think, and your conversation topics will take you deeper than you imagined. Finishing a long hike brings on a sense of joy and completeness that’s best when shared.
Experience Awe: Hiking in beautiful settings can trigger a sense of awe. Awe has powerful effects on the brain including increased dopamine, decreased inflammation, lower stress levels and a connection to something greater than yourself. Our MTS trips intentionally take you to destinations overflowing with awe, but you can also find awe in your backyard or on a simple sunset walk. You can read about the many benefits of awe here.
Put your hands in the soil or your feet in the river: Connect to the ground. Touch the dirt and put your feet in a cold river. These stimuli are great for the brain and can lead to increased happiness.
Learn the names of the plants, try the edible berries: Take a deep dive into the landscape and immerse yourself in the present. Allow our guides to teach you which berries are edible, the names of the plants, their medicinal value and the stories of the people who have inhabited the landscape long before you. This new knowledge will give you a more meaningful connection with the trail.
7 Featured MT Sobek Itineraries for a Mind-Body Reset:
2. Czech Republic & Austria Prague to Salzburg Hiking Tour
Try something a little different. It’s not every day that you hear about someone traveling to the Czech Republic. Join like-minded, curious travelers for an enchanting level-3 hiking trip that traverses picturesque villages, charming castles and offers awe-inspiring views. Allow our guides to share the history of two amazing countries and six UNESCO World Heritage Sites on this off-the-beaten path adventure. Dare to go somewhere new and learn more about the trip here.
3. Ireland North to South Hiking Tour
If you need another excuse to visit the emerald isle in 2025, Ireland’s tourism board put together a list of 25 reasons to visit Ireland in 2025. You can see them here. Join us for a hiking adventure that will make your dinner guests jealous. Spend your trip trekking 70 miles along the Wild Atlantic Way (a trail that runs the length of the country). At night, high-five your fellow hiking mates and celebrate with a dance or a beer in the local pubs. Are you ready to supercharge your physical health and make life-long friends the Irish way? Elevate your adventure game here.
4. Texas Big Bend National Park Hiking Tour
Travel and Leisure published a great feature on Big Bend National Park this year, where they called the park “rural, remote, and adventurous.” The key word here is the adventure. Big Bend National Park is larger in size than the state of Rhode Island and contains a long-list of off-the-beaten path hiking routes. Hike into Rio Grande’s Santa Elena Canyon, summit the highest peak in the park’s Chisos Mountains, and unwind in an art-filled, authentic West Texas boutique hotel. Share in the beauty of Texas’s wild west landscapes and save your spot today.
5. Arizona Grand Canyon Phantom Ranch Rim-to-Rim Hiking
As a hiking guide, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve asked guests what the best hiking trip they’ve ever taken was and heard the words: “Grand Canyon” and “Phantom Ranch” uttered in the same sentence. Phantom Ranch is a remote oasis nestled at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. Hiking to this glorious retreat takes the kind of grit and patience that is rewarded in pure awe and surreal beauty. This life-changing-trip has long been a favorite of REI Experiences guests, and in the wake of their closure, we’ve been asked to carry the torch and keep this inspiring adventure going. Save a space with us at the hard-to-book and sought after Phantom Ranch.
6. South Dakota Hiking: Badlands, Mount Rushmore & Black Hills – Lodge Based Tour
You don’t get it until you’re there. Buttes, canyons, pinnacles, rich fossil beds and spires adorn South Dakota’s other-worldly landscape. Hike in Badlands National Park and explore two of the world’s largest caves on this level-2 hiking adventure. Meet up with like-minded explorers and history buffs to experience the best of South Dakota’s American West.
7. Idaho Middle Fork of the Salmon River 100-Mile Rafting Tour
“Unforgettable,” a guest once told me about their family rafting trip on the Salmon River. Ever since that conversation, I’ve had a little reminder note on my computer urging me to book the trip. Join us on the Middle Fork of the Salmon River, where we’ll spend our days whitewater rafting, fly fishing, soaking in soothing hot springs, and hiking into scenic canyons. This fun-for-the-whole-family adventure will be the one you are still talking about twenty years down the line. Treat yourself to a mindful trip on the river.
Restore your Mind-Body Balance and Book Your MTS Hiking Trip Today:
Walking in nature is therapy for the mind and the body.
Hiking adventures provide the ultimate opportunity to reconnect with what’s important, make life-long friends, experience novel destinations, and improve your health. They may even help you live longer. What’s not to love? Boost your creativity, improve your physical health, and laugh with new friends on one of our many hiking and walking adventures. Whether your goal is to conquer a new mountain, breathe a little easier, or make a new friend, we’re here to guide you to your next destination. Invite balance and health back into your life. Request a catalog and prepare to drool with wanderlust.
