Liam G.

Youth Wilderness Program Participant

July 16-23, 2025

Selway River Trail | Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness

When I signed up for the Big Creek Lake 6-day Youth Expedition in spring last year, I had absolutely no idea what I was getting myself into. Before this experience, I really hadn’t gone more than five or six miles from the nearest road, let alone backpacked into a designated Wilderness area, where things like roads are few and very far between (or just nonexistent). When my trip wrapped up last summer (2024), I was left wanting nothing more than to have a six-day break and haul that pack right back up into the hills.

I finished my latest Youth Expedition just over a month ago, joining Abe, Berkeley, and Ian on the Upper Selway River. And it reminded me, again, of just how amazing, how stunning, and I would go so far as to say how almost supernatural— in its harsh rugged cliffs and grassy meadows stilted with sun-bleached trees— this Wilderness area is. I learned how to cut retread, got to swing a pulaski again, and got to know my crew, all amazing people. I swam at the beginning of a river, met a massive bull snake (yes, Big L is real, and I have proof), played an insane amount of cards, and stayed up late watching sparks whirl into the sky like sparrows under the eye of a hawk.

It was the highlight of my summer. I will never forget the sound of five people hiking with heavy backpacks singing the refrain of “Pepper” by the Butthole Surfers on repeat, nor that of the river as it clashes over rocks and logjams, nor the smell of “hitch-giving” (an Ian tradition) and Annie’s Mac ’n’ Cheese (a Berkeley classic) at the end of the day. I am extremely grateful to SBFC and to my crew leaders for providing this opportunity to experience these things. The ability to cut trails and have a deeper appreciation for land stewardship is by far one of the most important skills that I have gained through these experiences. The opportunity to know the Selway-Bitterroot & Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness is one that I will always remember.

And this brings me to think of one of the questions that Abe and Berkeley asked us on this trip—do people belong in these Wildernesses? I believe I said in the moment that, yes, I think that people do belong in this Wilderness. Yet, as I sat beside the fire that night and thought more of it, I struggled with my conclusion. People, including myself, will often want to have what they cannot or should not. We drained the swamps of the midwest to create grids of corn and soy. We cut more and more trees every day out of the Amazon Rainforest. The vast majority of Americans live in expansive concrete jungles. So when an area is set aside to be left untouched by people, the general desire, myself included, is to experience these areas, because they are untouched, untamed, and unwelcoming. This is why organizations like SBFC are so important. They keep the trails maintained, and the paths and campsites clear and defined so that people can concentrate their impact on the land to a single area. Without these organizations, people would wander through the forests, and disturb the life that was blooming in fragile balance. This is ultimately why I choose to join these expeditions, and this is why the protection and survival of these organizations is so crucial to the protection and survival of these lands.

The more I think on it, the more I keep ending up in the same spot: the experience. It is the essence of our lives, and what we make of each of ours. Our experiences are what makes each of us unique as humans. We will all find ourselves at the end of our road eventually—this is one of the critical things that makes us human, alive, and brings beauty to that life—it’s like they say, ‘it’s not the destination that matters, it’s the journey’. It’s our experiences, our love, hatred, kindness, spite, the places we go, and the places we want to go, the things we do and do not do—our overall humanity—that is what truly matters at the end of the day. For me, that’s hiking miles into the mountains and meeting my trail crew.

Liam is 16 years old and is from Missoula, MT.