Sarah Fisher is a native Ohioan. She grew up roaming the ravines of the Olentangy watershed with her family and dogs. After completing the GeoJourney program with Bowling Green State University she traveled to study on farms in Missouri, California, Utah and Kentucky before returning to Ohio. her experience in environmental education began in 2008 at Camp Oty’Okwa which inspired her to serve in Athens County as an Americorps member from 2013-2015. She continues to be inspired by mammal tracking, drinking wild tea in the rain, children’s art and the works of Ora E. Anderson
Avery Wynings
Avery is a SPRAT level 3 certified rope access supervisor. He grew up in Northeastern Pennsylvania and spent most of his time hiking, climbing and caving in state parks. He trained and volunteered with rural fire departments and search & rescue groups there before heading west to Idaho, where he lived for 10 years. In Idaho, he joined the forest service and climbed trees as an ISA Certified Arborist. He volunteered with Idaho Mountain Search and Rescue Unit as an MRA Rescue Technician and got involved with the Society of Professional Rope Access Technicians. In 2009, Avery moved to Dayton and joined a company working at heights to inspect roller coasters and amusement park rides.
Shelby Brown
Shelby Brown graduated from Hocking College with degrees in Wildlife Management and Ecotourism & Adventure Travel. During this time she was introduced to many out door sports, such as rock climbing, back packing, scuba diving, etc. Since then, she has spent many weekends at the New River Gorge (WV), Red River Gorge (KY) and Cooper's Rock (WV) on sport climbing and bouldering trips. When she is not climbing you can find her underwater (she is also an Open Water Scuba Instructor). She'd love to introduce you to/help you increase your passion for: climbing, or swimming with the fishes!
Our Guides
Our Guides...
Are professional naturalists, rock climbers, firemen, school teachers, business owners and retirees. Our lead rock climbing and rappelling guides are trained by the American Mountain Guide Association
All of our guides are laid back, friendly and passionate about their craft. They know the biology, geology, wildlife and history of the land along with the trails and location of the hidden gems in the Hocking Hills. Our approach is to be enthusiastic about nature, safe in our methods and sharing in a way that makes for great memories!
CJ Morgan
Luke Wilken
Luke is an assistant guide and current student at Ohio State University. He interns at the Outdoor Pursuit Center and is pursuing a business degree at the Fisher College of Business. He has been leading trips for the past 2 years and is OSU's senior climbing trip-leader. Growing up in Cincinnati, Luke was an avid golfer and ultimate frisbee player. Today, he spends his free time climbing in Red River Gorge, KY or slacklining with the OSU slackliners. He says that he hopes to spark a similar passion in others who haven't had the opportunity to experience the outdoors or climb on real rock.
Huck Ford
Andrew "Huck" Ford gained a love for the outdoors spending his childhood summers at Camp Tippecanoe in eastern Ohio. He graduated from Ohio University with a double major in Plant Biology and Environmental Geography. Huck has worked for a wide variety of outdoor settings including interpretation for California State Parks in Lake Tahoe, back-country trail maintenance for the Minnesota Conservation Corps in the boundary waters, the US Forest Service in Florida's Ocala National Forest, and the Student Conservation Association in Grand Canyon National Park. Huck currently resides on Leesville Lake in Carroll County where he is the Assistant Director of Nature's Classroom at Ohio FFA Camp Muskingum. One of Huck's driving passions in life is getting people outside so they can make their own discoveries and form their own relationship with the natural world.
You don't have to come to us, we'll come to you! Learn about our on-demand nature programs here.
Dan Jones
Dan grew up in southwestern Ohio where his parents were live-in caretakers of a historic estate surrounded by more than 1,000 acres of protected forest. He has traveled extensively and loves sharing his passion for the outdoors with others. Dan's a graduate of the National Outdoor Leadership School. His training included mountaineering expeditions in the coastal mountains of British Columbia and the Wind River Range of Wyoming. He moved to the Hocking Hills region in 2005, enrolled in the Hocking College's ecotourism/adventure travel program and graduated in 2007. He now lives in a log cabin built in 1809 near Athens, where he farms pawpaws. He's a Certified Interpretive Guide and a Wilderness First Responder who uses every passing season to learn more about this amazing place he now calls home.
Ron Hatten
Ron Hatten, whose Shawnee name was Wehyehpihehrsehnhwah (We-u-pa-shen-wa), grew up in Jackson, Ohio. He was a great friend and talented presenter. Ron passed away August 8th, 2015 and is greatly missed. He was raised by his grandparents in a home where the family only spoke Shawnee. Fluent in the life, song and culture of his people, his "Circle of Life" presentation links the stories that his grandfather taught him with the challenges of modern life offering a way back to nature. His stories are powerful, fascinating, evocative and filled with humor, beauty and happiness. His hand-carved wooden flute is beautifully in tune with its natural surroundings. Ron traveled around Ohio year-round presenting his "Circle of Life" presentation to groups of all kinds.
David Daugherty
David grew up spending most of his time outdoors from a very early age. He has a fond love for hiking, camping, backpacking, bushcraft and foraging. He graduated from the Montgomery County joint vocational school's Environmental Sciences program where he studied land and wildlife management. As the proud owner of Woodland Creek Herbs he loves traveling to all sorts of different areas to forage and harvest medicinal plants and mushrooms to use in teas, tinctures and salves he makes himself. More recently David has had the privilege of putting his rope guiding skills to good use by taking his grand daughter rappelling!
Cayla Liebold
Cayla Liebold is from Green Spring, Ohio. She enrolled at Hocking College in 2011 and is currently studying ecotourism/adventure travel and natural/historical interpretation. She's a Certified Interpretive Guide (CIG) through the National Association for Interpreters (NAI) and a Wilderness First Responder (WFR). Her inspiration comes from her father, Eric, who attended Hocking College and is an avid birder. She loves being outdoors, guiding treks and sharing her knowledge of the natural world with groups of all ages. She graduated in2013 and hopes to join a Metro Parks organization in northern Ohio.
Justin Bowers
Justin is a certified American Mountain Guide Association (AMGA) Single Pitch Instructor, USA Archery level 2 instructor trainer, SCUBA instructor trainer, Firefighter and Paramedic. He grew up on a small farm near Dayton, where he spent most of his time outdoors. His hobbies include scuba diving, rock climbing, beekeeping, horseback riding and spending as much time as possible learning about local wildlife. He attended Miami Valley Career Tech School for environmental science. After graduation, he enrolled at Hocking College and earned dual majors in wildlife science and ecotourism & adventure travel. During his studies, he worked as a natural resource specialist at Rush Run wildlife area near Dayton, a mounted scout in North Dakota and an environmental educator at Camp Oty’okwa. He spends his free time with his wife and two daughters surrounded by the wilderness he knows and loves.
Heike Perko
Heike moved to the U.S. from Germany in 1988. She earned an associate degree in Interpretive Services/Recreation and Wildlife Management from Hocking College in 1995 and worked as a naturalist at Hamilton County Parks until 1996. In 1997, she moved to St. Paul Island, Alaska, and worked as a birding guide for the local native corporation. Later, she worked for the National Marine Mammal Laboratory and helped conduct research on Northern fur seals and Steller sea lions in the Bering Sea. She received her B.S. from Shawnee State and joined Clear Crek Metro Park (Columbus) as the park naturalist. She received her master's in education in 2012 and has been teaching science since. In her free time, she takes care of a 40-acre farm in Athens County and enjoys hiking, birding and boating.
Troy Phillips
Troy Phillips is a certified American Mountain Guide Association (AMGA) Single Pitch Instructor (SPI). He grew up in south eastern Ohio and developed an interest in rock climbing and rescuey as a teenager through programs in the Boy Scouts of America. Troy got his start in the industry working for canopy tour operators and designers and has spent 9 years performing installations, operating, and training staff for ziplines, canopy tours, challenge courses and climbing walls.. Throughout this period he has also become an experienced rock climber and rope rescue technician.. Aside from guiding trips in his free time Troy works full time for the Boy Scouts of America and teaches climbing, rappelling, and rope rescue for Hocking Technical College in Nelsonville, Ohio
Brant Yount
Brant Yount lives in Lancaster, Ohio, and is a U.S. Archery Level 3 instructor. He teaches Level 1 and Level 2 certification programs and also offers introduction to archery programs for groups of all sizes. Brant and his wife have three kids that love the outdoors. He raises cattle at the family farm in Hocking County and coaches the Fairfield Christian Academy archery team. His coaching has helped lead the middle school and high school teams to a combined five state individual champions and two world champions.
Thomas Butchko
Thomas is a Firefighter/Paramedic trained and certified in vertical rope rescue. He spent much of his childhood outdoors in the Hocking Hills area. After high school he joined the Army as a combat medic where he served for 6 years. He then went to Hocking College where he studied to be a Firefighter/Paramedic. He has worked for local fire and EMS agencies as well as ski patrol and search & Rescue in New Mexico. In his free time Thomas enjoys backpacking and trail running. He began guiding for Hocking Hills Adventure Trek in 2019 but did take some time off in 2021 to hike the Appalachian trail and again in 2023 to complete his first 100 mile ultra marathon! As you can tell he is a man who finds joy in pushing himself both physically and mentally in the great outdoors.
Ethan Taulbee
Ethan is from a small town in western Ohio near Oxford. He graduated from Indiana University East is 2016 with a Bachelor's degree in biology and is now an adjunct biology instructor there. His main academic interest in marine biology, and he hopes to be attending graduate school to study it in the near future. His hobbies include rock climbing, naturalist interpretation, tennis and soccer. He has grown up in the outdoors his entire life and exploring his family's 50 acres of forest. Ethan is a huge fan of travel, makes frequent trips to Colorado and can find any excuse imaginable to get away and explore the world.
Ashley Hughey
Ashley Hughey grew up in the outdoors by camping with family, backpacking, climbing, white water rafting, kayaking, skiing, snowboarding and so much more. Her love for the outdoors turned into a career when she completed her Bachelors at Kent State University in Parks, Recreation, and Tourism Management and her Masters at The University of Akron in Sports Administration and Environmental Studies. Her certifications include American Canoe Association Level 1 Kayak Instructor, Adaptive Paddling Endorsement, and American Red Cross FA/CPR/AED Instructor. She has worked at many Outdoor Recreation facilities and enjoys teaching participants how to kayak, Stand Up Paddleboard, and backpack.
Adam McFadden
Adam grew up in Millersburg, Ohio. He's an OSU graduate with a degree in environmental education and interpretation and lives in the Clintonville area of Columbus. Adam has always been drawn to the outdoors. He's been climbing and rappelling for about four years with experience in Kentucky, West Virginia, Wyoming, Tennessee and North Carolina. In his free time, Adam works as a route setter for a few different gyms and for bouldering and climbing competitions around the region. He says one of the most rewarding parts of climbing is sharing it with others.
Andy Space
Andy is a certified American Mountain Guide Association (AMGA) Single Pitch Instructor (SPI). He grew up spending much of his time backpacking, hiking, hunting, and fishing with his father around the Great Lakes and in Southeast Ohio. Following his love for the outdoors he continued sport and trad climbing in areas of the New River Gorge in West Virginia, Red River in Kentucky and the Cumberland Plateau in Tennessee. He's an EMT and has also been trained by the National Ranger Training Institute in high ropes rescue technique. and holds a degree in Ecotourism and Adventure Travels from Hocking College. Andy also works as a Raft Guide on the New River Gorge in West Virginia throughout the summer New River season.
Ryan Stalter
Ryan Stalter shares his passion for the outdoor activities with others as a naturalist, fishing guide and archery instructor. He's a 2017 graduate of Hocking College with an associates degree in Wildlife Resource Management. Nature has always been an influential part of his life. His passion for the outdoors shines through in each activity that he leads whether its an edible forest hike taking shelter under a waterfall during a thunderstorm, guiding belly boat fishing treks in the AEP ReCreation Lands or introducing archery to a group of young people or colleagues during a team building event.
Morgan Bowers
Morgan grew up on a homestead near Gratis Ohio where she spent much of her time riding horses and cultivating many musical talents. She attended hocking college were she learned rope rigging through the ranger academy. She is an amazing licensed massage therapist and spends a significant amount of time hiking and exploring with her husband and two daughters. Last year she completed her goal of 100 hikes with her daughters. You'll have to ask her how her even bigger goal is going this year!
Ellie Taylor
Ellie has completed her training as an American Mountain Guide Association (AMGA) Single Pitch Instructor.. She's a graduate of Hocking College and the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS). and has an associates degree in Ecotourism and is pursuing a bachelors degree in Outdoor leadership. She's also a Wilderness EMT and Leave No Trace Master Educator. She enjoys backpacking, canoeing, alpine skiing, rock climbing and naturalist interpretation. Her passion for being outside has led her to pursue outdoor recreation as a career. As a native Ohioan she's been leading trips for over six years and has accumulated over 300 field days in the back country doing a variety of activities including climbing. She loves guiding in Ohio and helping people discover the exciting activities that the state has to offer.
Caleb Cole
Caleb Cole studies as a Plant Biologist at Ohio University with a focus in sustainable agriculture and experience in plant genome editing. Always interested in the great outdoors but being confined by the perpetual flatness of northwest Ohio that was his childhood stomping grounds, Caleb takes every opportunity possible to climb, mountain bike, and/or just to exist in the beautiful rolling hills of the Hocking/southeast Ohio region. Growing up with an autistic sister has taught him to treat all people with the patience and understanding that they deserve. Caleb is currently seeking out his facilitator license as a recreational tree climber and spends much of his time outdoors gardening under the sun, playing music with friends, and participating in as many outdoor recreational activities as possible.