Darby Hannon
Wilderness & Trails Intern
Big Creek Trail, 6/3/26 – 6/10/26
Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness: Bitterroot National Forest
Day 1:
We started the day at 5:30 a.m. to make it to the tool cache by 6:30. When I got to the cache, I set down my pack and notice my tent was not strapped to my backpack. I called my boyfriend, freaking out, and begged him to look for it at his house. After a couple minutes, he retrieves the tent, and races to the cache therefore saving my hitch.
My boss describes the main objective for the week at the trailhead: rerouting a creek that shifted and is now flooding the trail. We hike in and immediately start work on the creek. We finished the day by digging out the original creek bed. When sitting down to eat dinner, my fuel runs out. Then I curled up in my sleeping bag and read the first Hunger Games book until I fell asleep.
Day 2:
We continued working on the flooded creek and completed our objective, uncovering about 50 feet of trail!
Day 3:
Darby Hannon single bucking a hung up tree to clear the Big Creek Trail in the Bitterroot National Forest. Photo taken by Crew Leader, Berkeley.
We bumped camps, with a new objective of clearing the trail all the way up to Big Creek Lake.
Day 4:
Today was the best day. We had two saw teams for both saws: Berkeley (crew lead) and I were on a team, and Nathan (assistant crew lead) and Forrest were on the other to clear the trail, while Katie and Andrew spent the day de-limbing trees and lopping. We had lunch as a group on a ridge, with a beautiful view, where we sang “Boogie Wonderland” and laughed the entire time. We made it to Big Creek Lake, where we spent time taking photos, assessing the agenda for tomorrow, then hiking back.
Day 5:
This morning after deciding we weren’t bumping camps, I exited my tent to find it was snowing. We hiked to the last tree on the trail and decided to cut it into three-foot sections to clear the corridor. We sing songs, specifically from Frozen, and take turns sawing to stay warm. After deciding not to cross the creek crossing due to the waterfall, we work backwards to help Forest Service employees clear their trail. While I was lopping by myself, I heard rustling and looked up to find a moose near me. A couple minutes later he reappears in a clearing downhill from me, where he is eating and we lock eyes for about a minute before leaving to avoid getting charged.
Katie, Nathan, Berkeley, and I singing a song from Frozen, in the Bitterroot National Forest, during the Big Creek Trail hitch 1.
Photo of Big Creek Lake on June 7, 2026, by Darby Hannon on the Big Creek Trail hitch 1. This was taken after sawing the big tree seen in the video. To the right of the photo was a creek crossing with a giant waterfall below it.
Day 6:
Today I spent ten hours lopping with Forrest on the other trail. After the workday, I spend the entire duration of dinner laughing because Katie kept making me cackle about everything. Before going to bed, I finished the Hunger Games.
Day 7:
Darby Hannon standing in front of a mountain on the daily commute from work to the campsite on the Big Creek Trail in the Bitterroot National Forest. The photo was taken by Katie.
Today I spent another eight hours lopping back to the original campsite. It was raining on us the entire day, so all of my clothes were wet, making it hard to maintain warmth. We made it back to camp and spent some time eating to regain energy and warmth before joining the group in making a staircase out of rocks. We ended the day and I quickly ate my dinner so I could go change into warm sleeping clothes and get in my sleeping bag.
Day 8:
I was having a hard time staying warm, since we were cleaning tools in the rain before the packers arrive. We played hacky sack to kill time before hiking back to the cars. While we waited, I enjoyed a pickle and got warm. On the drive home, the only thing on my mind was a hot shower.
Hitch #1 in the books!
Darby, MT
University of Montana: Forestry
Darby was born in Arizona, and moved to Missoula, Montana to start her forestry degree at the University of Montana. She grew up taking trips to go camping, fishing, and hiking, where she first fell in love with the great outdoors. Darby has experience backpacking, where she discovered her love for nature. This is her first experience working on a trail crew, but she hopes to pursue a similar career in her future.