Outdoors
Travel Awesomely Guide Vern Nelson specializes in world-class adventures to roads less traveled around the world. Story by Don Gilman Adventure Photos Provided by Vern Nelson
F
or Vern Nelson, the call of adventure began in the Calapooia Mountains outside Oakland. Experiencing the chilly creeks and verdant hills of southwest Oregon grew in Nelson the heart of a modern-day global explorer. “That was before we had iPads and iPhones, so we spent a lot of time running up the river, swimming,” Nelson recalls. When the river ran high, Nelson and friends ran it in an old, patched-up raft. “I completely should’ve died a couple of times, literally should’ve died a couple times,” Nelson says. “My childhood was great.” Meet the founder of Roseburg-based Big Life Adventures, a personalized guide service specializing in explorations both around the world and right next door. Nelson’s calling is leading unforgettable visits to places few have seen. That wasn’t always the plan. The original scenario involved Nelson earning an advanced degree then settling down, becoming a high school teacher, maybe getting married and leaving behind his youthful escapades. His lifelong love of adventure clearly was no passing fancy. But that was his plan, and it took a happenstance or two to get him fully back in the game. While Nelson was relaxing in the waters of Nat Soo Pah Hot Springs in southern Idaho, a group of international travelers appeared out of the dark to join him at the remote spot. When he learned that a guide working for Trek America had brought them there, a light went on. He recalls thinking, “I could probably do that job.”
for something more in their travels, something personal and meaningful — an experience uniquely theirs. Nelson’s next revelation, however, was nearly a tragedy. He had ridden his motorcycle to the tip of South America and was returning north to the Arctic when he had an accident in downtown Portland. Instead of continuing his trip north, Nelson wound up in Oregon Health & Science University hospital with broken ribs, a punctured lung, a broken scapula and spinal injuries.
Then he promptly dropped that thought for a few months until he ran into another Trek America group while in Mexico. This time, he turned his thought into action, mailing the company an application.
“I spent 10 days at OHSU and had a lot to think about, and just decided I wanted to get back into guiding,” he recalls. “I had a friend that started a company in Vegas, so I ran a few small trips for her in the summers and then, in 2015, I ran my first tour with my own company.”
“I sent it in from the jungle I was in, with apologies for the mud stains it had on it,” Nelson says. “Surprisingly, they hired me.”
Under Nelson’s guidance, Big Life Adventures has thrived following roads seldom traveled.
Nelson stayed for a decade, spending the first four years as a guide and the next six as a training and recruiting manager.
“That’s what my job is,” says Nelson. “That’s why people go on trips with me. They know I’m going to find the right people and I’m going to take them to places they couldn’t find with a Google search. Finding secret spots is a big part of my job.”
But as he worked for what was then the largest guided-tour company in the world, Nelson noticed potential clients longed 22
Vern Nelson photo by Thomas Boyd.
UV SPRING 2021
