Average Adventurer’S Age Between 30, 70

When author Evelyn Kaye surveyed 200 U.S. adventure travel companies, all of them said at least 50 percent of their clients were women.

Some put the number as high as 90 percent.

“And these weren’t all-women’s groups,” Kaye said.

She wasn’t surprised to learn that women outnumber men on the biking/hiking/sailing/rafting circuit. What did take her aback, while researching the “Active Women Vacation Guide” (Blue Panda Publications, $17.95, 1-800-800-8147) is how old many women travelers are.

“Like me, they brought up children, they’ve worked, they have time or money,” said Kaye, who lives in Colorado. “Their husbands or significant others are not interested in learning to canoe, or going hiking in the Himalayas.”

The average adventure traveler is between ages 30 and 70 and has a strong desire to try something new, said Kaye. Often, adventure travel is their livelong dream.

“My favorite story involves this lovely lady from Tennessee, age 51 or 52, who went on a trip called Montana Cowgirl Samplers. She went horseback riding, camping, river rafting. …Then she went home and took flying lessons and is about to qualify for a pilot’s license.”

Cowgirl Sampler trips are offered by Rainbow Adventures in Bozeman (1-800-804-8686). Founder Susan Eckert began organizing all-women’s trips 17 years ago, when she was 35 and fresh out of the Peace Corps.

“There’s an incredible demand,” she said. “Seventeen years ago, if you said you were going on an all-women’s trip, people would ask, ‘What’s wrong with your marriage?”’

Eckert has always offered trips to women over 30, but her average client’s age has been 50.

“I realized women wanted adventure but didn’t always want to carry backpacks. I don’t want to carry a 70-pound pack when I’m 51 years old,” she said. “So we use pack horses to carry gear, or llamas, or Sherpas.”

Her trips range from “ridiculously easy” (a sailing trip in the British Virgin Islands) to “high energy” (a Himalayan trek to the Annapurna base camp.)

Arizona-based Wilderness Volunteers (1-888-737-2888) organizes adventure-service trips, giving vacationers a chance to do good deeds on public lands. It’s offering an all-women’s trip as an experiment this year. Participants will clear trails in Colorado’s Hunter-Fryingpan Wilderness.

“A lot of times, especially in backpacking situations, women are intimidated. Men hike faster and carry more weight,” said executive director Debbie Northcutt.

In Gloria Smith’s three years of leading all-women’s bicycle trips, only one client has said that she missed having men along.

Smith owns WomanTours of Driggs, Idaho (208-354-8804). She recently asked 35 women on cross-country bike trips if they would be touring had the all-female option been unavailable.

“They said, ‘No way.”’