Welcome to The Wilderness Files!
Hi there, I’m Doug, born and raised in the great state of Colorado, USA. I’ve been traveling and exploring wilderness areas my whole life. And, now I’m building a wilderness and adventure travel content and service business on that bedrock of experience. I’m an award-winning freelance writer, and eminently curious traveler. Welcome to The Wilderness Files!
The Wilderness Files Substack Newsletter is centered on one driving principle: That adventure content must be human experienced and human created. I draw from thousands of wilderness miles hiked, hundreds of nights under the stars, and a solid baseline of international travel to places like Ukraine, Costa Rica, and Bosnia.
The Five Pillars of My Publication:
The Travel Writer’s Notebook: A look behind the curtain at the craft and the creative journey of building a travel writing career where you really can get paid to travel and write about it.
Adventurer’s Bucket List: A somewhat selfish look into the many places I haven’t yet been. The possibilities are endless. You won’t fine listicles here or the same “Instafamous” destinations you’ve already heard of. Here, we dig up the hidden possibilities and get to dreaming.
Boot Tracks: These are personal narrative dispatches from the places I HAVE been, whether a local “secret” or a shoreline half a world away. And, with my travel writing calendar, I’m always adding more explorations to come back and tell you all about.
The Compass: I get practical here and talk about logistics, planning, trips and ticks… I mean cricks and nicks… I mean TIPS AND TRICKS. I don’t focus heavily on this stuff, but we’ll throw in some gear nerd and travel hacks every now and again.
The River Current: This is the serious side. Anyone who values the outdoors, the wilderness, and adventure, should be informed on and invested in the issues impacting the natural world. Not overly political, but often analytical. I’ve won awards for my environmental writing and we’ll take a look at some of the issues, trends, and conservation initiatives.
Every article is anchored in the human adventure experience whether lived or dreamed. Stories of adventure require a human’s boot in the mud and a human’s gaze up to the stars through the pine tree tops. I make you this promise: While I may use AI to streamline my business and clean up typos, I will never use AI to write for me. What you read here is my voice—that of an eminently curious and adventurous human being. I touch the grass.
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