Jenny O’Connell
Trip Leader in Costa Rica
Outdoor guide, writer, and educator blending adventure with creativity—from Arctic treks to tropical forests and storytelling journeys.
Fun Fact
Guides adventures with neon spandex, a ukulele, and wild stories.
Jenny O’Connell’s fifteen years as an outdoor guide and naturalist have brought her all over the globe leading hiking, backpacking, sea kayaking, cultural exchange, and river trips from the Costa Rican cloud forest to the wild waters of her home state of Maine. She’s passionate about connecting people to themselves, each other, and the natural world.
When she’s not guiding, Jenny is a professional outdoor writer. Her writing appears in magazines across the country, and she’s currently working on her debut adventure memoir, Finding Petronella, which traces her 2014 solo trek across Finland following the footsteps of a female legend across the Arctic Circle.
She is a professor of creative writing at a gap semester program in Maine, and she guides creative writing trips that blend creativity and outdoor adventure. In her free time, you can find Jenny singing in a band, playing ultimate frisbee, salsa dancing, and exploring the outdoors. She never leaves home without a trusty pair of neon spandex adventure pants and a waterproof ukulele.