Brave the Dark Forest

My adventures and how you can get involved.

I have always wanted to live a life of adventure. As a very young boy I was most moved by stories of exploration, heroic journeys, and travels through distant lands. I don’t think I ever believed that the whole world has been thoroughly explored and all the greatest mysteries have already been uncovered.

Unfortunately, we do not live in an age that encourages young men to seek out an adventurous life. The school system forces young boys to sit still and raise their hands but punishes their natural energy and aggressiveness. Some only complete high school, or even drop out, and our culture provides them with few honorable options for employment. Then, those that graduate high school and college are provided with very few life paths that offer any sort of excitement, or adventure. There’s a fast track to cubicles and a mid-life crisis.

And its this lack of adventure that almost every young man I know feels deep in their soul. Part of that is biological, I’m sure. Young men have always felt this way to some extent. But we live in a uniquely oppressing time for the young male spirit. Everyone knows our government isn’t worth giving your life up for anymore, so military service has lost its appeal. And there aren’t exactly advertisements in the paper looking for crews to go on grand expeditions.

What’s worse, the adventure we do get can be a bit dull. Much of the mystery has been sucked out of the world. You can go on vacations, hiking expeditions, road trips, but without a sense of enchantment, it may not feel like true adventure. Young boys that grow up dreaming of enchanted woods, ancient swords, and dragon-slaying may find the modern conception of adventure a bit lacking.

We want true adventure and romance, but we don’t know where to find it.

And that’s why I started Dark Forest Company.

A recent adventure

Dark Forest Company is my private men’s adventure club. We organize group expeditions, provide fitness coaching, hold challenges and competitions, and perhaps most importantly, have brought together a fantastic group of like-minded men. We have an active online club, but focus on meeting up in real-life to adventure and train together. Essentially, our mission is to provide a space that will allow men to seek out the adventure, challenge, and camaraderie that so many of us feel is missing from regular life.

But our goal goes deeper that just organizing cool trips and helping men get into good physical condition. Our goal for Dark Forest Company is for it to bring a spark of enchantment back into the world. Which is why we make the esoteric and legendary a large focus of our culture, and why so many of our adventures involve exploring mythic locations or ancient mysteries. I do not believe the world has been thoroughly mapped and documented. Quite the opposite. I believe the world is still an enchanted realm, it is simply that we forgot how to look at it.

We have members all over the world (including a very active U.K. division), and we have been organizing trips for over a year now. Some of our upcoming adventures include a quest through all of the Arthurian locations in southwestern England, a multi-day backpacking trip through the Bob Marshall wilderness in Montana, exploring the legend of a lost kingdom deep in the Dolomites, a group expedition to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro, a guided Alaskan winter trek, and a road-trip through the Scottish Highlands. Just to name a few.

However, I don’t want this Substack to turn into a marketing tool. While I do plan to post more about my adventures and tie them in to my other writing, for general updates on what the club is up to and for full logs of our adventures and other endeavors, I’ve created a new publication. If interested, you can subscribe below:

If you want to learn more about what we’re doing or inquire about joining us, feel free to DM me here on Substack, on our Instagram, or fill out this form.

See you on the Quest.

- Andrew