Joshua Mendoza
Wilderness Ranger Fellow
5/26-5/31/2025
Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness
In "Les Misérables", Victor Hugo writes the words “curiosity is gluttony, to see is to devour,” and hardly a day goes by when I do not think about it. What a good word, gluttony, what other way to describe the dilation of one's eyes like the opening of a miniscule maw.
The crew flying into the Frank.
Each moment on the hitch reminded me of my own hunger. From those first moments looking out of the plane window onto snowcapped peaks and frozen alpine lakes, I was wide eyed and at the edge of my seat. Shortly after being greeted by ranger Andrew and his loyal cattle dog Josie, filling our bottles from the stream because these clear waters had been tested and were clean. Setting up camp by a ceaseless, rushing, and raging river referred to as Big Creek, I knew the sound of those million gallons would lull me to sleep each night.
The author enjoying a hard day’s work!
As I wipe sweat from my brow and look upon this lost garden, I am reminded of the frailty of the present, the vacuum of moments past, and the aching heat of the new. I am reminded what a privilege and an honor it is to take my lunch break in a meadow surrounded by balsam root and shaded by fragrant ponderosa.
I have told my loved ones that this is simultaneously the hardest and easiest work I have ever done in my life. Not one moment was spent bored and not one moment was spent without the taste of salt from the sweat on my face. Lots of bugs.
The crew on the trail.
The crew found the trail!
The author with the ranger’s dog.
Joshua Mendoza
Albuquerque, NM
New Mexico State University- Fish & Wildlife Conservation Mgmt.
Joshua Mendoza is a Junior at NMSU pursuing his degree in Fish and Wildlife Conservation Management. Having been raised in New Mexico, Joshua has an ardent desire to be immersed in the pleasures of solitude, often seeking dark skies in search of the Milky Way. With a background as a hiker, and more recently as a research assistant, he relishes the opportunity work hard and learn about the natural world while doing so.