Making a game about wilderness adventures

I'm working on a project focused on wilderness adventures more than anything else. Sure, there'll be some combat and some social interaction and all that, but the wilderness is what I'd like the game to keep coming back to.

Influences include:

• Lewis and Clark's expedition
• Samuel Champlain
• Alexander Mackenzie
• the American fur trappers and traders

Any suggestions on how to capture the feel of wilderness travel and exploration? So far it's been feeling very mechanical to me, which I'd like to avoid. I'd really like to make it much more evocative of the wilderness.