About

I’m Sam.

I live in the Surrey Hills in England, with roots in Scandinavia and Scotland, and I’ve been drawn to the outdoors for as long as I can remember. Fishing, camping, carving, lighting fires, making things with my hands.

A few years ago I spent six days in the Montana wilderness. We flew in by bush plane, then hiked in for hours with pack horses carrying the heavy gear. Life got simple fast. We waded the river fishing up and down it, cooked what we caught over fires we made, built our own fishing rods, twisted cordage from cedar bark, and slept out in the open without a tent. At one point we ate a rattlesnake. The people out there started as strangers and ended as great friends. Guided by people who really knew that land, I saw what a week of real wilderness actually does to you, and I came home wanting more of it.

Since then it’s been trips closer to home. Wild camping in the Scottish Highlands, Dartmoor, the Lake District, and the countryside around where I live in the Surrey Hills. Along the way I’ve been making my own gear, learning the skills properly, and filming it all as I go. Scandinavia and the Alps are next.

What draws me to trips specifically is living off the land, keeping traditional skills alive, and doing my bit for conservation. Things like catching a fish and eating it, then sleeping under the stars on bare ground, used to be normal. Now it’s rare, and for a lot of people, unheard of. I want more people living wilder.

This site is the trips side of Walk Wilder. It’s where I point people towards guides and experiences I genuinely rate, because a guided trip into wild country is exactly what started all of this for me.

Right now this is a directory of guides I recommend. Over time I want to personally vet more of them, build out proper trips and content around living wilder, and make Walk Wilder the place people go when they actually want to learn this stuff properly, not just read about it.