Hi, I’m Harry! I am a traveler, adventurer, athlete, and content creator. I am on a mission to document, share, and make accessible nature parks throughout the world. These include regional parks, forests, national parks, etc. The goal is to encourage responsible use of the lands so that we can do more to ensure their protection and appreciate their value. Below is the story of how I’ve gotten to this point.
My first taste of wilderness came when I was born, in Alaska. My parents would take me on hikes (in the baby backpack) when I was just an infant. Now, I am not sure how much this has really impacted who I am and what I do, but there’s certainly a connection I feel to nature, wilderness and wide open spaces.
Throughout my childhood, I would venture into the wilderness of the US West to hike, camp, explore, and adventure. By the time I was a teenager I joined the scouts and would go on every camping trip I could possibly manage. However, things changed after I dropped out of university because of some serious life changing events. To process this whole situation, I turned to nature. I decided to hike the Pacific Crest Trail in 2017 at age 19.
I would go on to complete over 800 miles of the trail from the Mexican border to the High Sierras. While I wanted to complete the whole trail, surging (very dangerous) creeks from a record-high snow year would keep me from crossing the Sierras. I returned to school, completing a degree in Geology – just as the pandemic began. So, naturally I took the highly-respected oil industry job that my professor lined up for me.
However, after a year of working there and seeing with my own eyes the corporate underbelly, I just knew it was not for me. So what now? I had always wanted to travel when I graduated, but the pandemic stopped that plan dead in it’s track. However, the woman I loved just happened to get into a master’s program in the South of France. So, we got married, got the visa and traveled to Europe. I began creating content and traveling around the continent often discovering beautiful nature areas wherever I would go.
I traveled about for practically 2 years straight, even walking from Amsterdam to Istanbul one summer. However, travel began to feel pointless. I felt like cities were all starting to feel the same and I was missing home (wife + dog) more frequently. So I stopped traveling, moved to Luxembourg and decided to make something for the world. You see, throughout my travels in Europe I always discovered that the websites, guides, and available information for nature areas was limited – especially so in the English language.
So I’ve started this blog in addition to a handful of social media pages to change that. I am going to make European Nature Parks more accessible by creating guides, maps, content, and getting first-hand, on the ground experience. So if you are looking for this sort of thing. Be sure to follow along for the journey!
Thanks for reading
– Harry