Amelia Green

Wilderness & Trails Intern

Lower Gospel Lake | Gospel Hump Wilderness

July 2-7, 2026

I was really nervous getting ready for this hitch. It would not only be just me and my crew lead, April, from SBFC, but also my first youth crew hitch. However, April was amazing at reassuring me and giving me some solid expectations for the hitch.

The biggest concern that I had was not really any significant dangers on the actual hitch – bears not being too prominent in the Gospel Hump Wilderness (though I will say that our bear hang was it’s own little story, that I’ll elaborate later). No, my biggest concern was more of the social aspect of going on hitch: whether the youth we’d be spending the next six days with would get along. However, my concerns turned out to be unfounded, and the kids got along rather quickly. Even the car ride to the trailhead was already filled with conversations and some laughter.

Some after dinner swing dancing at camp with April, Amelia, Liam K., Liam G., Orin, and Morgan.

Getting onto the trail – while a bit difficult to find – was a nice and easy decline towards the creek (if you ignored all the trees that we had to climb over). When we got to this waterfall, the trail kind of disappeared and you had to climb up the rocks to get back to the tread, and the kids took their time. None of them pushed too hard, taking breaks as they needed – which was best with the heat of the sun over us and very little shade in this section of the hike.

Arriving at the lake was an amazing relief. We all worked to do the regular camp chores and pulled out all of our group gear before setting up our tents. We got through our lessons, which the kids genuinely participated in each day, before being set free to do as we pleased until dinner.

I took the chance to get changed and have my first dip in the lake before I was to help out with dinner – burrito bowls that night. The lake was the best part of the day. It was cool, refreshing, and perfect after a rather hot hike down and up a little mountain. The burrito bowls were the final cherry on top, and a nice heavy dinner to fill us all up after such a long day.

Setting up the bear hang at camp beside Lower Gospel Lake. April tying it up, Morgan, Dellin, and Orin holding the bags up.

Now, back to that bear hang – we had only one pulley, so we were attempting to get all of the group gear into one bear hang. Using a double-figure 8 knot, we got all of the bear bags onto the rope, but it was so heavy that we had to get help from the youth. With some heaving and pulling, were able to get the bear hang up and tied securely to the tree.

Overall, the day was a great start to my first youth hitch, and I would love to something like this again. The crew was great, April was an amazing leader, and the trail itself was fun to work on.

Amelia Green

Moscow, ID

University of Idaho: Environmental Science

Amelia grew up in Marsing, Idaho, about 45 min Southwest of Boise. She has been in the outdoors her whole life and did some trail work in the Fall of 2025 on top of a lengthy background in agricultural work. She adores the outdoors, especially the mountains, and attends the University of Idaho for Environmental Science to continue working in the field. She loves learning about plants and animals and how ecosystems work together.