Jay Majersky
Trail Crew Leader
Nez Perce-Clearwater NF | Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness
When it comes to field work, there is so much that you experience: the comfort of a warm sweater on a cool night after a hot August day; laying in a hammock with stars up above you on a moonless night as frogs and crickets chirp in chorus and a lone bull elk bugles far far away; the hoppy scent of pine trees and the smoky aroma of cedar, or the rich smell of petrichor, wet leaves, and creek water as you walk -tools in hand- to the worksite a few miles away from where you set up camp. Let’s not forget the mornings when you wake up to frost and are camped at snowline, or the storms, the heat, the bugs and any other things that make this job difficult.
In the Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forests- Selway Bitterroot Wilderness
Yet, every single year I am routinely reminded that the most important thing is that people and not places make the experience. It’s best to hold on to the laughs shared, the mud-caked boots circling around a campfire to dry out, the foraged mushrooms shared and sauteed and added to dinner, or the crew gathered around a propped up phone and watching a movie, or “going it alone” in a game of Euchre. The moments when teamwork prevails and the impossible becomes reality; building bridges you’ve been planning for weeks to do, the feeling of pointing out different peaks when you finally get a break from brushing and get to climb up to the peak of a mountain you and the crew have been working on for months.
The last few nights I spent during our last hitch of the season I would lay down and think about how it could be possible to hold all of Wilderness in one’s heart? What shape does it take internally and what does that look like? Was it even possible? Maybe it is only possible to contain the entirety of any space within yourself through the memories you share with others and the feelings you experience within yourself.
SBFC’s 2022 Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forest Trail Crew
JAY MAJERSKY, NEZ PERCE-CLEARWATER NF TRAIL CREW LEADER
Jay hails from Connecticut. They started doing trail work when they moved to Missoula in 2017. Jay started backpacking when they spent three months on the Appalachian Trail in 2015 and has gone on to work in nine different Wilderness areas across Idaho, Montana, and Arizona over the last six years. Having a job that allows Jay to backpack, work, and explore these wild and remote areas of America feeding their wanderlust is a surreal dream. This is Jay’s second season with SBFC.