I Love The Outdoors Interview #8

There are so many great bloggers, YouTubers, podcasters, and photographers out there creating amazing outdoor content on a daily basis.

Not only did I want to personally get to know them better, but I also wanted to explore outdoor influences and passion for nature.

Thus, we’ve launched the I Love The Outdoors Interview Series.

If you are interested in participating in the series, please contact us and let us know!

Douglas Scott

Tell us a little about yourself. How old are you? Where are you from? Where do you live now? Are you married? Kids?

I was born in the early 1980s in the shadow of the recently erupted Mount Saint Helens.

Growing up, nature was always a part of my life, from spending summers in Yellowstone, to camping in Olympic, the North Cascades and Mount Rainier.

After college I lived abroad in the Peace Corps, returning to the states with a rekindled love for the wilds of the country.

I now reside in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, in the perfect western town of Livingston, Montana.

2.What is your favorite outdoor activity?

I absolutely love summiting mountains and then running the trail back down. I don’t do it as much as I would prefer, but that is probably a good thing.

As soon as I get above the treeline, I turn into part mountain goat and stop feeling any of the wear and tear of the approach.

Instead, I become euphoric and smile from ear to ear as I scamper to the top.

3. Where is your favorite trail?

My favorite trail is always changing. It is typically the one I was last on.

However, my current trail love is the route up to Mount McKnight in Montana’s Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness.

It is largely ignored, but is a geological wonderland at over 10,000ft in a nearly one million acres wilderness, with views that leave me speechless in all directions.

4. Where is your favorite camping spot?

Right now, it would be any of the upper lakes along the Beaten Path in Montana.

Dewey Lake is one that is so serene and perfect, I wish I could sleep there pretty much every night in the summer months.

There is zero light pollution, the lake is clean and pristine and all around are mountains to summit.

5. What was your first outdoor memory as a kid?

Growing up always going into nature, there are a few that pop into my head. I recall a cloudy, misty day in Washington’s North Cascades National Park.

We rounded a corner and up on the rocks were marmots, lazily lying around. In my memory, they were as big as mountain goats.

I also used to beg to go camping for my birthday, which falls in July. Each and every year, without fail, we would experience a thunderstorm while camping at this time. I also fondly think back on my first trip to Yellowstone as a six year old.

We were in Hayden Valley during the bison rut and our small Ford Festiva was surrounded by these massive mammals. I was hooked on wildlife from that moment.

6. Who was your biggest outdoor influence?

Growing up, I was exposed to a lot of the stories about Antarctic expeditions, so Shakleton and Mawson’s trials and tribulations in the region definitely helped me understand how rugged and wild the outdoors could be.

Later in life, Grinnell and Leopold heavily influenced me.

7. What was your all-time best camping or hiking experience?

Being able to hike across the Olympic Peninsula as a kid, with my immediate family and my grandpa, was definitely a highlight.

We took a week to cross the whole thing, spending time scrambling up mountains and enjoying the density of flora and fauna in the unique ecosystem.

It is either that, or soloing my first off trail mountain, taking in the grandeur and scale of the wilds and knowing that there wasn’t another person around for ten miles.

8. Who is your favorite person to camp or hike with?

Pretty much anyone and everyone. I love getting to know people on the trails and find that the conversations and connections forged on adventures tend to be the most pure and long lasting.

I like to joke that there is nobody in the world with which I wouldn’t hike.

9. What is your favorite piece of gear and why?

I never leave the house for the wilds of the west without my Garmin inReach Explorer, bear spray, and my Joby Gorilla Tripod for my phone and GoPro.

The inReach is for my safety in case something terrible does happen.

The bear spray is to help prevent something terrible from happening, and the tripod is to capture the beauty and scenery as best I can.

10. What do you love about the outdoors?

The outdoors is healing.

It is a place where no matter how stressed or worried I am, no matter what issues are plaguing society, I can find a moment or two to recharge my soul and remember that there is so much more to the world.

The outdoors are where I find happiness, wonder and moments that are impossible to describe.

11. What outdoor places are on your bucket list?

Some day, I will spend a few weeks to a month in Wyoming’s Wind River Range. It is a region in which I know a lot about, but have extremely limited experiences in.

Nearby, I also have dreams of spending weeks and months in the glacier carved wonderlands found above 10,000ft in the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness.

12. What is your goal as an outdoor content creator? How can we support you and where can we find your content?I have two separate websites at the moment. The first is my podcast, A Life Outside Podcast. This is where my co-host Dani and I write and read short stories about our lives outside.

A new episode drops every Friday on every podcast player I am aware of. Subscribe and see if you enjoy it as much as we do!

I also run and update outdoor-society.com, which is currently focusing on experiences in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.

It is where you can find my guidebooks and my weekly series, titled “This Week in Yellowstone,” where I share everything one needs to know to have a fantastic trip in and around America’s First National Park.

Douglas – thanks for the great interview and participating in the I Love The Outdoors Interview!

If you are interested in participating and sharing your story, please contact us and let us know!

I Love The Outdoors Interview #8 – Douglas Scott

Douglas Scott

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