Emilia Anders
Wilderness & Trails Intern
East Moose Creek Trail | Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness
July 1-8, 2026
The view from Elk Summit overlooking the Selway-Bitteroot Wilderness with Blodgett Pass in the distance. Photo taken by Abram Wilkinson
Whenever I get back from a hitch, there are always a couple of moments and stories that stand out to me that I tell my friends and family. These are my favorite ones from my last hitch. My crew and I worked clearing Cedar-East Fork Moose Trail #486 to East Moose Creek Trail #421 in the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness. We first camped at Elk Summit, an awesome campground with views of the Selway and Blodgett Pass. There were nine of us, and we operated as a Supercrew, which led to lots of laughs and fun moments. We were able to bring out four saws and cut lots of trees, which was super fun. I am so grateful for the opportunity to work with and get to know so many cool people in such a cool place. We had a great time and cleared almost 400 trees out of the trail!
Katie and I taking a water break! Photo by Emilia Anders.
Our hitch ran from July 1st to July 8th, so we celebrated the Fourth of July in the Selway Bitterroot Wilderness. On the fourth, we were cutting and heard the screech of a red-tailed hawk. This call is my favorite bird call of all time, and is iconic for being the “bald eagle screech” used in movies when things are supposed to be patriotic. Bald eagles have a much softer, high-pitched chirping call, and at some point, someone in Hollywood decided it wasn’t majestic enough for our national bird, so they substituted the call of a red-tailed hawk. I have never felt more patriotic than I did while listening to the call of a red-tailed hawk in the wilderness.
Crew lead Emma in the cedars at our camp. Photo taken by Riley Sterling
On the fourth day of the hitch, we bumped camp from Elk Summit down to the junction of East Moose Creek Trail and Cedar-East Moose Trail. This is down in the canyon, 2500 vertical feet lower than Elk Summit, where we were coming from. It is near the East Fork of Moose Creek, in a giant cedar grove. Walking down into the cedars for the first time was captivating. It felt prehistoric. We set up our tents under the canopy of cedar, and I felt like a little kid, so excited and grateful to be in such a magical place. It is the prettiest place I have ever camped. There are huge cedars all around, living, standing dead, or decomposing into the ground. The ground was completely covered in ferns and other vegetation, and there was so much life. Never have I been in a place with birds that sing as they do there. All day and night, birds are singing, even at three in the morning. Living and working in such an awesome and otherworldly place for five days was such a cool experience, and I am already planning my trip back.
Katie hiking with a crosscut and lopers on the East Fork Moose Creek trail. Photo taken by Alex Newsom
One of our crosscut saws hanging on a cedar behind a fresh cut. Photo taken by Emma Cianek
My last tree of the hitch was incredibly top-bound. Riley and I were on a saw team together and had spent five hours earlier that day making three cuts on a large tree that had the same problem, so we were not stoked to face it again. It was 3:45, and we knew we were hiking back to cache tools at 4:15. This was going to be the last tree of the day. As we tried different strategies with little success and started to think about how to tell our crew lead we were going to be late, the saw teams around us began to wrap up. As they finished their trees, they came and offered help. We soon had six members, and we used a Katana Boy to cut through one side and chopped the other with a single-bit axe. Both jobs are exhausting and time-consuming, but by rotating through the six of us, the work went surprisingly fast. Somehow, dancing and singing started, and Andrew started playing music on his phone. Abe, Andrew, and I danced as we rotated with the others, and many laughs were shared. A tree that started with low energy and seemed to promise a hard end to our last cut day turned into a dance party that boosted the morale of the whole group. It is the most fun I have ever had on one tree, and it was an awesome way to wrap up a very silly and fun hitch.
Boise, ID
University of Idaho: Environmental Science
A Boise native, Emilia is a junior at the University of Idaho, studying Environmental Science with a focus in policy. She was first introduced to trail work through two seasons with the Idaho Conservation Corps. She had the opportunity to work on a backcountry trail crew in the Frank and fell in love with the wilderness! She is so excited to live outside, explore more of our awesome public lands, and help make wild spaces more accessible to everyone. When not on hitch, you can find her climbing, river surfing, or singing in choir!