Sam Rardin

Wilderness Ranger Fellow

Stanley Creek / Alpine Way Trails, Sawtooth National Recreation Area

6/18 - 6/25/2025

This hitch was exciting because growing up in southern Idaho, I've heard people talk about the Sawtooths a lot. I’d never spent much time there before. I was even more excited to hear that since it would be a frontcountry camping situation, I would get to bring a couple of extra luxuries. My coworkers brought camp chairs and blankets; I just brought extra food. I think I ate more than 2000 calories for dinner alone every day. I had given myself about 500 calories per dinner on the previous hitch and lost some of my valuable insulating fat, so I decided it would be bulking season.

The other important change I had made was an additional sleeping bag liner; on the previous hitch I was uncomfortably cold almost every night. Unfortunately this hitch was much colder, getting down to 26 degrees some nights. It even snowed on us for a day or two, right on the summer solstice. It was beautiful and reminded me of being a kid, but it was also wet and cold, and made it wicked hard to get out of bed in the mornings. I'm proud to have worked through it and love seeing the pictures we took.

*Sawtooth National Forest- Columbia Spotted Frog*

On the first day of work, I saw a tadpole the size of a marble. I asked our USFS project partner, Bryce, about what kinds of frogs lived in the SNRA. He told me that there weren’t many, but that it could have been a spotted frog. The next day I saw two adult frogs hanging out in the water next to the trail we were working on; then I saw the same two in the same spot on our way back to camp at the end of the day.

Seeing wildlife is without a doubt my favorite part of this work. At night we would hear coyotes and sandhill cranes calling, some nights we also heard turkeys and elk. I have never seen as many pronghorn as I did over this last hitch, and I think they are some of North America’s most evolutionarily interesting species, being more closely related to giraffes and okapis than any other American species like deer. On the last day of work the co-leader of our crew, Emma and I spotted a male/female pair of Western Tanagers, and we watched them sit in and spend time around their nest, right along the trail we were working.

*Sawtooth National Forest Bush Cricket on Jack’s glove*

My coworkers saw how much I like to take pictures of the bugs I see out here and started calling me over or gently bringing bugs to me throughout the work day, which always made me really happy.

On the second to last work day we hiked 12 miles, up to Alpine Lake and Sawtooth Lake. We took care of a handful of campsites around them, but the work was easy to forget since the views were so off the chain.

This was my first time getting to work with packers and I got to meet the most handsome mule I could ever have imagined, Howard.

*Howard the mule and me* (photo by Jack Whitney)

Sam Rardin

Spokane, WA

University of Idaho- Communication

Sam grew up in Southcentral Alaska, dip netting, hiking, and camping. Finishing high school and college in Idaho provided many more opportunities to enjoy the outdoors, from cycling, skiing, and running in the high mountains of southern Idaho to trail work with the ICC in the north. Sam is always striving to spend more time reading and drawing.