Olivia Hinds

Big Rock Trail | Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness

August 7th-10th 2025

Volunteer / 2023 Wilderness Ranger Fellow

Two summers ago, I was a Wilderness Ranger Fellow with SBFC under the great crew leader Connor Adams. Based out of Powell Ranger Station, I enjoyed spending more time getting to know the great state of Idaho's wilderness, learned the hard skills of reading the binds of trees and how to clear the trail of them, and creating many close relationships that I still have today.

I have always been a dabbler in many aspects of the environmental world, in a story I wrote about my experience swimming with salmon as part of a snorkelling crew for Idaho Fish and Game, I said this about my time as a Wilderness Ranger Fellow:

“A year after this experience, I stand now frequently on dry land, working in another piece of Idaho’s wilderness. For 8 consecutive days at a time, I find myself immersed in the largest wilderness complex in the lower 48 states, spanning a total of 3.6 million acres. Today, I woke up at 3:45 am in pitch darkness to start boiling water for my new crew. As I sit and reflect in my solitude, I can hear wolves howling in the distance. I face different difficulties this summer, from hiking 24 miles in a single day to navigating over 2,000 logs in another. I am lucky enough to touch trees, using the traditional hand tools of a crosscut saw and ax to clear logs out of trails, sheltering in 100-year-old pine smelling wood cabins, and roaming rugged areas and gorgeous ridgelines in the Selway-Bitterroot. After a long and sweaty day of manual labor, I crave the post-work hot afternoons for the time I get to be in the water. I sit beneath it for as long as my body can withstand, feeding flies to the trout circling around my feet, singing to myself, and contemplating how lovely it is to feel the H2O molecules swirling on my skin.”

So early this summer, I was beyond excited to be invited to come volunteer for SBFC again with other volunteers! I was excited for a few reasons:

During my season with SBFC, our crew did not have any volunteer projects. As someone who loves working with and teaching others, this was exciting to me!
I have a deep connection to Idaho and after working in it, the Selway-Bitterroot. This was something I experienced when I climbed Grave Peak after my summer as a fellow, and found myself crying at the top from the emotion of seeing it so vastly.
Project in the Selway Crags! I mean come on…

Here's how the project went down:

Big Rock Trail #693

Thursday August 7th:

*Connor Adams smiles as he drives into an absolute downpour. (He hates the rain.)*

At 12 o’ clock on August 7th, Connor and I met two of our volunteers in an intense rain storm at the Kooskia Wilderness Inn. Their names were Jackie and Rod. The Fog Mountain road leading up to the trailhead was not exactly what we expected. The road had been recently graded, so it felt like it was in good enough condition. Jackie was following behind us in a sedan while Rod followed behind her in his truck. As we go up the road, the rain becomes worse. We started to get concerned about Jackie's car's ability to make it and low and behold on a slippery muddy corner, she got stuck. Luckily we are able to tow her out and carry on to leave her car at the corner of the next bend.

The car was aptly named “Freebird”. That thing ripped. As we continued on the road we heard the radio go off saying that there's a weather alert in the area and that NICKEL sized hail was incoming. No kidding. We were off to a good start and these volunteers were so dedicated that they drove through a nickel-sized hail storm to get to camp!

The plan was to potentially get some work in that afternoon. Setting up camp in the rain and hail was enough for us all to accomplish so we sat and chatted for the next few hours as it dumped on us.

One of us was brave enough to face the weather, our fifth crew mate Dan. Dan was so motivated to help the trail that he arrived early that day, worked through the rain, and spent the entire day lopping. I am sure that those reading this newsletter have an idea of how difficult loping or clearing brush out of the way of the trail is. Now imagine it in a nickel sized hail storm as you’re volunteering your time. This guy was crazy, in an awesome way. He runs the Hiking North Central Idaho trail group that is looking for volunteers if you’re interested!

Friday August 8th :

*Dan captured this image that showed the fog perfectly from the first morning.*

Yay work day one! It was awesome how quickly this crew just felt like a normal, experienced, and positive trail crew. We were all excited to work, curious, and had lots of fun relating about our love for outdoor spaces and trails. The morning was so foggy! It explained the Fog Mountain namesake.

We got out the crosscuts, axes, and Katana boys and cut 23 logs! It felt so good to be back out there and we could tell as we walked that this trail needed some serious brushing help.

Saturday August 9th :

This was our second work day, and to sum it up: we brushed, brushed, and brushed. We would leap-frog around each other to keep moving on the trail and keep where we were working interesting. Connor and Dan also accomplished a lot of drainage work together.

We really got invested in this trail and wanted to accomplish brushing the whole thing. By the end, everyone agreed we had to have a reunion the next summer to finish what we had started!

Dan was super amped about clearing the trail of the water that was building up on it. He and Connor spent the first half of the day putting in drainage after drainage. We saw even by the end of the day how much their efforts paid off in drying out the trail.

Sunday August 10th:

Sunday was the celebrated wilderness appreciation day. We hiked out from camp to the top of Big Fog Mountain to get an excellent view of the Selway Crags. It was wonderful to see the views that we did. On our way up we figured out how much we had all learned as we discussed what kind of work we would do on this trail if we had had more time.

For a short weekend volunteer trip, we accomplished a lot!

Overall:

We cut 23 logs.
Brushed a mile and a half of trail.
Put in 38 drainages.

Everyone was excited to work, knew when they needed to take breaks, and had great stories to share about times in the wilderness. When discussing how the trip went, one volunteer said “started out rough, ended up well.” I can't wait to return with the crew and see what other antics the crags bring!

*The whole gang appreciated the wilderness after a few good days of work.*

Olivia Hinds lives in Missoula, Montana and works for the University of Montana. She was an SBFC Wilderness Ranger Fellow on the Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forest in 2023.