Sophia Evans
Wilderness Ranger Fellow
2025 Wilderness Ranger Fellowship Recap
I write this blog shortly after completing my final hitch of the 2025 Wilderness Ranger Fellowship season. It is hard to put into words what runs through my mind as I transition from life on the trail back into my “city” routine.
It feels disingenuous to me to try and write about just this one hitch, as this one hitch was much more than 8 days of trail work. It was the culmination of many hard days and nights on the trail, and many pensive days thinking about my place in the world, the woods, and my path forward after the summer ends.
As a photojournalism student, I remember in photos, and inversely they help me remember as well. I would like to share some of my favorite photos of the summer with you all and relay anecdotes and musings along the way. Come along with me as I take you on a visual tour of my summer!
Wilderness Skills Institute, Powell Ranger Station, Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forest, 5/19-5/23
After a week of getting to know each other and the organization we were about to start work for, my coworkers and I were finally released into the woods! We traveled about an hour out of town to spend a week at the Northern Rockies Wilderness Skills Institute.
We took classes on trail work and crosscut fundamentals, working on local trails as part of our training. This really felt like adult summer camp though. We shared meals together and laughed late into the night as we got to know each other through storytelling and long walks along the Lochsa River, and I was lucky enough to run into folks I worked with during my Montana Conservation Corps season and learn from them further!
May 20- I stumbled upon Kara, Abe, Jack and Raegan all journaling simultaneously after work one evening in the yurt that functioned as our living and dining room.
May 22- One of the first times I carried, and used, a crosscut saw. Look at how clean that work shirt was!
Hitch 0, Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness, Salmon-Challis National Forest, Middle Fork of the Salmon River Trail, 5/26-5/31
Shortly after the skills institute, we geared up to be flown into the Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness. I flew in the copilot's seat over the Big Horn crags and Salmon River, following the tiny shadow of the plane over the ridges and peaks in nervous anticipation of the week to come. After the short flight, we found ourselves deep in the Frank, hiking through the deepest canyon I had ever been in. This week challenged me mentally and physically in ways I had not prepared for. I lost my phone just a few days in and picked hundreds of ticks off my clothes. I felt weak and insecure in my abilities, as I had never done trail work while carrying all of my supporting gear on my back.
These feelings of doubt quickly turned into feelings of pride and strength by the end of the week. I reveled in the fact that I completed something that felt so unattainable, and I can say that I thoroughly enjoyed myself and had a silly time with my crewmates, despite the pain and hardship.
May 26 9 AM- Josie, Sam, Noah, Bryce and myself prepare to board our flight into the Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness.
May 26 10 AM- The crew shelters their faces and plugs their ears as the plane prepares for a dusty takeoff. We were dropped off at the Flying B ranch and then walked 20 miles to the airstrip we were picked up at.
May 29- One of many, many dirt naps I took this summer. Again, admire how clean that work shirt is at this point in the season!
May 30- After a long, hot day on the trail we discovered that the camp we had planned on staying that night didn’t have enough room for our tents. Lucky for us, there was a cave a short distance down the trail that us fellows had dinner and cowboy camped in for the night! We were all in agreement that it was one of our best nights of sleep that hitch.
Hitch 1, Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness, Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forest, Main Salmon #96, 6/4-6/11
We traded in the airplane for a boat! From the skies to the river, the adventure continued. We were put on a jet boat and taken nearly 50 miles upstream to work again in the Frank. The boat rides there and back had us giddy with laughter like children while we clung onto the railings of the boat and “surfed” the rapids upstream.
We were lucky enough to be joined by Josh Thompson from the Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forest to construct a rock wall along a section of trail that had been wiped out by a landslide post wildfire. Josh brought rigging equipment so we could more easily maneuver large rocks into the precise place we wanted them. Seems like all of our lego filled childhoods paid off!
We were camped above a popular boater camp and were generously and kindly given a few dinners from different groups of rafters. Although, one night of copious amounts of lasagna and bread has some disaster consequences for a select few of us…
We spent many nights giggling our hearts out after dinner, although at this point in the season I had a bad case of laryngitis, so my giggles were more like squeaks. It’s hard to stay on vocal rest when you have so many funny and entertaining folks on hitch with you.
I spent nearly every night of this hitch trying to patch back together the seat of my only pants, which seemed to rip more and more everyday. In addition to these holes, I also lit my pants on fire with my pocket rocket and singed my hair off in a separate pocket rocket incident. I am happy to report those pants have been all put back together, with an awesome new addition of a lizard my crew lead, Berkeley, taught me to embroider! On the last day, we were picked up by the boat and spent the two hours back to the boat launch dancing and singing our hearts out to Weezer, courtesy of the boat's stereo system and bluetooth capabilities (again, not great for the laryngitis…)
June 6- A highlight of this trip were the swarms of butterflies that would enjoy any remnant of salt, or stink, left behind on the trail, our backpacks, our dirty work shirts and our socks.
June 9 1PM- My crewmate Nick and our project partner Josh and myself enjoy a post-lunch siesta.
June 3 PM Myself, Serenade, Nick, Berkeley and Josh Mendoza sit atop our newly constructed rock wall at the end of the hitch.
June 10 The last night the hitch we cowboy camped on the beach together. A millipede crawled across my face in the middle of the night, but it was well worth it to be greeted by the sunset over the canyon walls.
June 11 Josh Mendoza and Berkeley are all smiles as we jet boat down the Salmon river and back to civilization.
Hitch 2, Sawtooth Wilderness, Sawtooth National Forest, 6/18-6/25
I think it is safe to say we were enchanted by the people and places we visited in the Sawtooth National Recreation Area. SBFC was contracted to do burn area relief as a result of the 2024 Wapiti Fire. We spent a few days clearing out the burnt remnants of a punchin, which is similar to boardwalk and is used to keep hikers out of marshy areas, replacing signage that had burnt and installing check steps and drains.
Later in the week, we worked to log out fallen burnt trees and widen tread for stock usage. We also rangered a few very popular backcountry lakes.
Our biggest day of logout we did amongst 6 inches of fresh snow, a welcome sight for myself, as I am always enchanted by summer snow out west. Some of us spent the day chopping logs to stay warm, as opposed to cutting them, and we were joined later in the day by our new friends with the forest service and MCC’s individual placement program.
We explored Stanley when we had down time, which led us to a long night at Redfish Lake, where we went for dinner and stayed for sunset due to some battery issues with our work rig. Despite this, we had a night full of impressions and giggles and were wooed by Sam’s juggling talent! By the time Berkeley, Emma and myself made it back to Stanley, John Craige had taken the stage at a music festival in town and we got to listen to part of his set from Berkeley’s car, a memory I will cherish for many years to come.
We ended our hitch devouring breakfast sandwiches and pastries at Stanley Baking Co. with our Forest Service project partner Bryce, who we all became very fond of.
Jun 22- Emma, Sam and myself on the trail during a small snowstorm! The forest was transformed into a winter wonderland for one day of the hitch.
Jun 23 3:07 PM Emma and Sam pose for a photo during a hike up to Sawtooth Lake. We were on the lookout for fire rings to disperse, but the residual snowpack made it challenging to find anything at that elevation.
Jun 23 3:59 PM A small portion of Sawtooth Lake.
Jun 24 10 AM Berkeley and I working on clearing a large log from the end of a section of trail we were working. We had been looking forward to cutting this log, as it was the largest we cut on this hitch.
Jun 24 12 PM A group of hikers passed us and informed us they had found an old crosscut saw along the trail. It turned out one of the hikers had been a wilderness ranger in the area in the 1970s. Here is our crew lead Berkeley posing with the weathered saw.
Hitch 3, Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness, Salmon-Challis National Forest, Langer Lake, 6/29-7/2 / Gospel Hump Wilderness, Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forest, Moores Lake 7/9-7/12
Well this part of the summer was a blast from the past! This summer was my second season of trail work, because last summer I led youth trail crews for the Montana Conservation Corps. I was given the opportunity to work with SBFC’s budding youth program this summer, and it was an absolute delight to work alongside April for two mini youth hitches.
The first took place in the Frank and we taught the youth how to cut and chop fallen trees out of the trail. We also took them up to Ruffneck Peak to see an old fire lookout tower, where we took time to enjoy the solitude of wilderness and journal. It was a joy to watch the youth overcome hardship on the trail and feel proud of themselves for harnessing their inner strength. They even, lovingly, gave April and I trail names. April’s was Ruffnut, from the movie How to Train your Dragon, and mine was “unc”, which I later learned means old (I was 23 at the time).
My second mini youth hitch was in the Gospel Hump Wilderness. We had the pleasure of cutting some big trees on this hitch. This hitch we also taught the youth how to brush, in addition to cutting. The scenery was beautiful and rugged, and there was no shortage of mosquitoes. However, the youth snapped branches off trees and used the leafy portions to swat at the pests, similar to a cow or a horse tail.
The hike out was challenging, and I found myself nearly being overtaken by the youth’s speed and energy! It must have been the many packs of oreos consumed on this hitch.
Jun 30 Two youth program participants, Wyatt and Hudson, admire their chopping skills.
Jul 1 12PM The view on the way up to Ruffneck peak.
Jul 1 1PM Our little crew, led by April and assisted by myself, celebrates making it to the top of Ruffneck Peak. This fire lookout was built in 1932 and was swarmed by ladybugs.
Jul 11 3 PM April teaches our crew how to read a USFS map.
Jul 11 4PM Our youth participants act out wildlife encounters after learning best practice for different animal encounters in the backcountry. Can you guess which animal they are practicing for here?
Jul 12 7 AM April gives the crew a mini lesson on tying knots on the last day of the hitch.
Hitch 4, Sawtooth Wilderness, Sawtooth National Forest, Baron Lakes, 7/16-7/23
What a treat to be back in the Sawtooths! This was a really special hitch for me, as I turned 24 in the middle of it! We spent our first night of the hitch with many horses that got loose and trotted amongst us as we cowboy camped. I woke up the next morning to our crewmate Bryce wrangling them and tying them back to the hitching posts.
We had the pleasure of being packed in by Bryce, our beloved project partner, allowing us to stroll in the four miles to our basecamp. Many affectionate and grateful pets were given to the mules that carried our loads. We were camped on a cool, rushing creek that provided ample opportunity to rinse our sooty faces and clothes throughout the week. On our first day of cutting up the trail, Emma, Kara, and myself worked as a saw team and cleared about 30 downed trees in one day. Kara and Emma inspired a lot of strength in myself, especially when Kara would suggest we “just move it,” when coming across large logs.
The first portion of our hitch we worked seven miles up the trail to Baron Lake. We saw many thankful backpackers and outfitters along the way. On the day we reached the lake I turned 24 years old. I spent the morning collecting wildflowers on the outside of my backpack and ended the day with a warm beverage at camp, shared among my friends, but not before putting in 15 miles on the trail that day.
We got jammed up by a few pinchy trees and a massive pileup to end the hitch, but we had a joy of a time solving binds and making jokes on the trail. We, of course, had to end this hitch one last bakery date with Bryce.
Jul 18 Kara and Emma saw in a less than ideal position.
Jul 19 Myself at Baron Lake. I turned 24 on this day!
Jul 21 Bryce, Brendan and Emma pose with a log that ended a section of a massive pileup we worked on for a couple days.
Hitch 5, Gospel Hump Wilderness, Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forest, Moores Trail #312, 7/30-8/6
We’ve come to the final hitch of my 2025 Wilderness Ranger Fellow season. I worked on the smallest crew I had been on this season, a grand total of four of us. We worked a 12 mile stretch of trail, ending at an unmanned lookout tower.
This hitch was mostly cut and run, and some days each saw team would clear 50 downed trees. We stumbled upon more huckleberries than I had ever seen, a welcome treat as I had yet to find any ripe ones all season.
We had a few soggy days, but lucked out at the end, being far enough away from the weather to enjoy watching evening lightning storms amid the skies turning pink and orange. Our crew lead Enzo gave me my second trail name of the season, “stinkbug,” I’m sure you can use your imagination to find the origin of that one…
Many nights were spent doing impressions and leaning hard into the bit, and I was grateful to end this season the way I started it: laughing.
Aug 2 There was no shortage of huckleberries on this hitch. We would feast on them until our stomachs hurt.
Aug 3 Myself, Bryce and Jack taking a huckleberry break during a brushing session on the trail. If you look close enough you can see our lips turning purple.
Aug 4 10 AM Our crew lead, Enzo, single bucked this leaner.
Aug 4 4 PM The view from the end of the section of trail we worked. This was at the Black Butte lookout tower.
Aug 5 Bryce, Enzo, Jack and myself in front of the wilderness boundary on our way out of the Gospel Hump.
As I end this blog I want to highlight why I chose to highlight so many photographs. This work may seem place based and focused, but more importantly, it’s people based. Every single person I had the pleasure of cutting and digging and brushing and giggling and sweating and crying with has a fire lit inside them, and they are hell bent on protecting and stewarding wild places. I am still in awe of all the brilliant, hilarious, strong and kind folks that SBFC found to staff their organization. I want to thank them for teaching and uplifting me through the hardest and the goofiest times. Now go forth and advocate for our public lands!
Sophia Evans
Missoula, MT
University of Montana - Journalism
Sophia’s work in conservation began early in life, when she would volunteer with her dad on community trail builds. Growing up in Southern Illinois, the two were avid climbers, cyclists, and backpackers, leading Sophia to later move west to attend college and be closer to the mountains. After two years at the University of Northern Colorado, she left to pursue the seasonal work life in rural Montana and Utah. Now, Sophia attends the University of Montana School of Journalism, although education is her true passion. When she’s not chasing seasonal jobs, she is a preschool teacher at a Montessori school in Missoula, and has previously worked as a youth expedition leader with the Montana Conservation Corps. In her free time, she enjoys skiing, camping, hiking, climbing, and cycling.