What I Didn't Know

Alex Grahe

Wilderness Ranger Fellow

Hitch #1 | June 8th-16th

Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forest | Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness

I found great difficulty attempting to write about our first hitch from my bunk. I feel it was easy enough to write about the events, our comings and goings, our activities clearing trail, but near impossible to capture the feeling of being out in wilderness. Even sitting on a hill behind the bunkhouse, ensconced between a rock and a tree-lined vista, I found it hard to describe the swelling of my heart. 

I think it might be hard for me to write about this in the same way it is hard to write about love. Working with Wilderness creates a feeling, a state of mind that crept up and then slammed into me once identified. With sweat and dirt clinging to me, I became enveloped in the hum of insects, roar of rushing water, and layers of green and blue. Time passed differently. Smiles came easier.

Not to say there weren’t difficulties. Hiking in with nine days of food on my back I thought I would keel over the edge of the trail. Our first night we had to sling a bear hang in the dark and tangled up our p-cord. On day three we ended work early for fear of hypothermia and putting my wet boots on the next morning was an act of pure will. As the days went on, I accumulated scrapes and bruises from wayward branches. There were times I was wracked with anxiety, but these centered around thoughts of returning to the world of cell phone coverage and capitalism. Despite my aching muscles and wet boots, I loathed to return to my old responsibilities. On the last day, I was speaking with my crew leader and said I was worried everything will have blown up by the time we got back, and he said, “what’s worse is everything will be exactly the same”.

As a child of the suburbs, I knew the outdoors were beautiful and I’d read enough to know the value of wild spaces for the ecosystem and the human psyche. What I didn’t know was the calm I’d feel from being 10 miles in the backcountry, having carried myself and my belongings there. I didn’t comprehend the satisfaction I’d feel making a crosscut flush with an older log. I didn’t know the relief I’d feel bathing in the stream every day, scrubbing myself with stones and checking for ticks. My dreams were filled with the sound of running water, and each tree we cut spat dust thick with aromatic compounds and the pungency of decay. 

Though typical of the human condition to see greener grass, the solace I found in wilderness work was unlike any I’d known before. There were no mirrors. What I saw of myself was refracted through others. Being out there loosens the trammels of the mind, encourages one to listen. 

I’m still going to curse my way through a five-mile hike with a full pack and grumble when I wake up to steady pattering on my rain fly, but I’ll look back and remember the quiet of my mind. The steadiness of the work, the relief of a warm meal, and the joy of every moment out there. I feel I’ll remember all of it fondly, no matter how miserable I was at the time, and that’s more than I can say for most of my life. 

I could only console myself leaving with the thought I would be back. I cannot do the wilderness justice. You must come see for yourself, for she speaks on her behalf far better than I ever could. 

The below images come from Alex’s sketchbook during his first hitch in the Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forest, Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness.

Boulder Creek at Horse Camp

Figure 4. Tree (cedar?) at Outfitter Camp

Figure 5. Four Brook Trout and One Cutthroat Trout from Boulder Creek, ID

Figure 1. Flush Cut

Figure 2. 74 Year Old Lodgepole Pine

Figure 3. Old Outfitter Camp

ALEX GRAHE

Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forest | Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness

York College of Pennsylvania

Major: Biology | Minor: Fine Arts, Chemistry

Alex grew up in Tacoma, WA and spent a lot of time at Mount Rainier as a child. He has always been interested in ecological relationships and has a fascination with stories of survival and life among wilderness. The more he learns about the workings of trees and microbes, the more he thinks humans can learn from their dynamic. Alex is excited to become more familiar with the labor involved in maintaining wilderness, and is excited to spend some time listening to the trees.

2021 Season Training

Liesl Magnus

Wilderness Ranger Fellow

May 17 - June 6

Missoula, MT | Wilderness Gateway, ID | Sam Billings Memorial Campground, MT

Hi! My name is Liesl, I’m a Wilderness Ranger Fellow on the Nez Perce-Clearwater crew for the 2021 trail season. I’m sitting and writing the first part of this from a laundromat (shoutout Green Hanger) on the north-ish side of Missoula, charging my phone and my laptop while my clothes spin in the dryer next to me. It’s been a whirlwind couple of weeks since arriving in Missoula and I’m here to tell you about it before the gang splits for the summer and heads off to their respective stations tomorrow! 

A view of our campsite.

This summer, there’s a dozen Wilderness Ranger Fellows and about the same number of trail crew workers, summer staff, and crew leads. Some of us are from the Missoula area, some of us (like me!) are from much further afield. Most of the fellows have been living at the KOA campground by the airport, which is a bummer when it rains but most of the time feels like a combination of summer camp and a college dorm. The weeks have alternated 40 and raining with 95 and sunny, keeping all of us on our toes and with our layers close at hand as May and June tend to do while we get ready for the season. 

The first few days with SBFC were a blur of paperwork and new faces, lots of office time, and a true death by PowerPoint. Later that week, we loaded up the old vans--Deer Hunter, Hobbes, and Murphy for those that know SBFC--and headed up to Wilderness Gateway over Lolo Pass for a few days learning to work with pack stock and clear load after load of brush from the old paddocks so that the fences could be replaced and they could be used again. 

At Wilderness Gateway the second night, everyone that had been involved in our projects the last few days stood in a loose circle around the fire as darkness crept down into the river valley. The shoulders of the mountains were shrouded in mist as they fell down to Boulder Creek and the Lochsa River, but around the fire conversation flowed through small groups and we were warm, full of the pleasure of good food and good company. 

Hanging out around the campfire.

We spent all of the next week south of Missoula at the Sam Billings Memorial Campground in another blur of new names, new faces, and new skills for many of us. We went over how to swing an axe, how to double-buck and single-buck a log, how to judge tension and bind and compression in a fallen tree and maybe most importantly, how to do all of this safely. In the evenings we explored the elk trails that wound their way through the pine groves by the river and used our new axe skills to get wood for the fire. We swam in the river most nights, too, in and out as fast as we could while still scrubbing all the dirt off. Our skin tingled and our toes were pink with cold--the river was still flush with snowmelt and the full day of rain only made the river run harder. Warming up around the fire, we played riddle games as we sat around burning this and that, trying to improve the flavor of what remained of our food on the last night. 

Learning how to single-buck.

Trails week concluded with a half a day of learning to dig out water bars and brushing where needed and we headed back to Missoula for a much needed day off. While we had been in the woods, something resembling summer had settled in the city. We spent Saturday enjoying the sun, wandering the market and the downtown area of the city half-in and half-out of the things going on around us; my mind, at least, was still somewhere cross-cutting logs in the hills outside of Darby, Montana. 

Sunday brought the beginning of Wilderness First Responder training for most of us. We reported to the city park bright and early and spent all of the next week learning the skills that would keep us and the people around us safe in the coming season. Throughout the week, the scenarios that we were presented with got more and more challenging and we learned the value (and the necessity) of staying calm in an emergency, but also that often the most valuable thing you can be (beyond competent) is kind. A week and a day later, we drove down to Lubrecht Experimental Forest for our final assessment (spoiler alert, we all passed!), and today everyone went their separate ways for the summer. I made the hour drive up to Lochsa Lodge and the Powell Ranger Station, and tomorrow we’re going back to Wilderness Gateway--full circle, really. 

Pack training with the Binnigers.

Tent life.

Family dinner at Sam Billings.

It was sad saying goodbye to Missoula, to the KOA, and to all the people we’ve come to know these last few weeks, but tomorrow brings the start of our first hitches and new challenges and new adventures ahead. We’re ready for this now, our time getting ready has been well spent, and I’m excited to see what the rest of the summer brings.

I’ll leave you with one final thought: These are good people. When I made the choice to leave New England and come to Montana, I wasn’t sure what I was walking into. I knew the work, understood the lifestyle, but I wasn’t sure who I’d be sharing it with. I knew trails people tended to be good--kind, openhearted, funny, and solid. These last three weeks have been proof of concept. At every campfire, under every array of stars that we have had the pleasure to witness, I have come to know this group of people as a good one. Good in the deepest sense of the word. Whatever happens this summer, we’ll be alright. I know it.

Thanks to everyone who’s been a part of the last three weeks, and thanks for reading, 

Liesl.

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Liesl Magnus

Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forest | Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness

Saint Lawrence University

Double Major: Environmental Studies, Government

Liesl is a trail runner and competitive mountain biker from Holderness, New Hampshire. She grew up hiking, running, and skiing in the White Mountains and went to college in the Adirondacks. As an avid outdoor athlete, Liesl is passionate about the wilderness and all it can teach us. She has a great amount of respect for the opportunities afforded by a life spent outdoors and can't wait for her first season with SBFC!

An Ode to My Boots

Parker wrote this entry in anticipation of his upcoming season with SBFC and as a celebration of his accomplishments over the years, and the boots that accompanied him along the way.

Dear Boots,

Crunching over snow, scraped on rocks, ran over by logs, and pinched in crevices is how you lived out your life. You spent your life in these hard places so that I could enjoy them. I want to thank you for having held up for three years and hundreds of miles. Because of your loyalty I have been able to accomplish great feats in my own life.

Sliding through lakes of glass in the Boundary Waters you were baked by the sun. Walking up and down portages you were coated in dust. The boy scouts I took on this trip--and the men I took home--changed the way I looked at Wilderness. You gave me the ability to lead both from the front and by example. Hiking up hills you saw boys trip and fall, only to get up again as men bold and strong. I saw the child that I once was behind their eyes, and it made me want to see if I still have that child in me. We were reunited with that unknowing naïve feeling the following summer when we took a solo trip on the PCT.

Hiking away from everything I had ever known into a place I had never been before, with nothing but my bag, was an eye-opening experience. You had never been in snow that deep, but you held up beautifully in the icy mornings and the slushy evenings. You were underneath me for that whole trek until I tripped and fell, sliding down a ravine to the feet of my friends, where they picked me up and carried me onward to another trip.

Iowa - Nebraska - Colorado - Utah - Nevada - California - Oregon - Washington - Idaho - Montana - Wyoming - South Dakota - Minnesota - and Iowa once again. You spent a lot of time in a car on this trek. When you weren’t, we were standing on the edge of Crater Lake, Lake Tahoe, and the Pacific Ocean. We were climbing glaciers, meeting new friends, and having the time of our lives. 

I'm sorry that your life had to end so soon after that trip. I wish we could keep going places until we’ve seen them all. I won’t forget the memories you hold in your soles and the hardship that we went through together.

Sincerely,

Parker Lane DePond

PARKER DEPOND

Payette National Forest | Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness

Iowa State University

Major: Animal Ecology

Parker grew up among the corn mazes in Iowa and is currently studying Animal Ecology at Iowa State University. He grew a deep affection for the mountains when he went on an SBFC IDAWA trip into the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness in high school. Parker has spent time hiking 140 miles of the PCT, exploring the mountains in Colorado, and adventuring in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness of Minnesota and southern Canada. This is where he learned what wilderness was, what true camping was, and what family was all about. He is excited and humbled to spend this season with SBFC.

Wilderness Podcast + SBFC

Enjoy this episode of Wilderness Podcast featuring our very own Executive Director Sally Ferguson! Join host Adam Bronstein as he chats with Sally about wilderness stewardship and the work that SBFC does in the backcountry, creating life-long advocates by virtue of deep wilderness experiences, acknowledging and appreciating wilderness values, and finding solitude in the Selway and the Frank.

Find more episodes of Wilderness Podcast here.

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SBFC is dedicated to connecting wilderness with the people who work, live, and play within it. Your support goes directly to boots on the ground stewardship work, provides educational and leadership opportunities for youth in the Wilderness, and ensures the protection and preservation of the natural, pristine character of wilderness.

News from Saint Mary Lookout

Clare O’Connell

Saint Mary Lookout Volunteer Liaison

Bitterroot National Forest

Saint Mary Lookout sits atop St. Mary Peak at 9,350 feet. It’s located in the heart of the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness area and is a popular hiking destination. 

Nine years ago, SBFC and the US Forest Service launched an experiment of partnering – to staff St. Mary Lookout with volunteer hosts/lookouts. Uncertain about the level of interest this opportunity might generate, a volunteer job posting was placed in the Missoulian and, to their surprise, it generated over 70 applications.

Each summer since then, St. Mary Lookout has been staffed by SBFC volunteers from mid-July to mid-September. Our role involves visitor education, smoke detection and maintenance projects. Visitors have the opportunity to see how a lookout operates. During the 2020 season 1,777 visitors hiked to St. Mary during the 8-week season.

The Stevensville District office of the Forest Service provides pack support to get water, wood, and gear to the lookout. 

Steve Brown, District Ranger in Stevensville, leading the pack string

Over the past 9 years St. Mary Peak has been the spot for marriage proposals, weddings, anniversaries, church services and big weather! 

A September morning after some big weather!

This project is just one example of SBFC’s mission to “bring citizens and youth to wilderness to work, live and play”.

2020 Season Summary

Tori Arnsparger

SBFC Program Director

2020 has been a year like no other. It brought many changes to our season but now standing on the other side, I cannot say enough how proud I am of our seasonal staff and Wilderness Ranger Fellows. Though handed the many uncertainties of life in the time of a pandemic, our seasonal folks showed up ready to work hard, reflect often and abide by new protocols to make this summer safe and successful.

Our four Wilderness Ranger Fellows came locally from the University of Montana. Two of them worked across the Bitterroot National Forest notably taking part in a blasting project with Forest Service personnel in the northern Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness. The other two worked across the remote Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forest monitoring many campsites and clearing many trees in the Selway Bitterroot Wilderness. At the conclusion of their season, all fellows reconvened at Packbox Pass to take in broad Selway Bitterroot views on the border of the two forests.

Connor, our Powell Lead Wilderness Steward with Madi, Phoebe, Isabelle and Will - Our 2020 WRFs

Our seasonal staff operated in smaller squads this season. We had three stewarding the Frank on the Salmon-Challis National Forest and a total of four on the Nez Perce-Clearwater: three clearing Wilderness trails on the Nez Perce-Clearwater and one leading fellows and stewarding the Selway Bitterroot.

In all, over 300 miles of trail were maintained, over 5400 trees were cleared, and volunteers contributed over 4500 hours of service. Talk about still getting things done, right?

Shannon, Pete, and Mike - Our NPC Trail Crew

Josh, Justine and Carly - Our Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness Stewardship crew

This year would not have been possible without the organization and flexibility of our Forest Service partners, persistence of our volunteers and the determination & resiliency of our seasonal staff and fellows. I am so thankful for their collective contributions in making our 2020 field season a success.

An Artist's Paradise Residency

Rick White

Paradise Guard Station Artist-in-Residence

July 6-27

Bitterroot National Forest

The view from Monica’s corner of Paradise

I was walking along the Missoula river trail on a chilly April morning when I got the call from Stoney Samsoe of Open AIR, letting me know I’d been selected for an artist residency in July. Thanks to COVID-19, I had been out of work for nearly a month. My girlfriend Monica and her dog Jude lived thirteen-hundred miles east in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. We were awaiting news on my applications to graduate school programs to see where — or if — we’d finally be relocating to be together in the same town. The long walks I took with my hound dog Finn were then my only connection to the world outside my apartment; at least, they were my only connection not mediated by a phone line or computer screen. Finn and I meandered in midday, between mornings of reading and writing and evenings of cooking soup enough to survive the apocalypse. Social distance, isolation, and quarantine were just entering the common vocabulary. To me they felt like coats I’d been wearing all winter long. Then Stoney called and offered me the residency: three weeks off-grid in the heart of the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness to focus on my writing. I hesitated. Was more solitude really what I would be needing come July? More disconnection from society? More social distance? More isolation? 

Social distance

The answer: absolutely…but only if Monica and the dogs could join me. Thanks to Stoney at Open AIR, to Krissy Ferriter at SBFC, and to Erica Strayer and others at the USFS, they did join me, and our three weeks at the Paradise Guard Station this summer were some of the best weeks of our lives. 

On the afternoon of July 6th, Tanya Neidhart welcomed us to Paradise and gave us the rundown: how to keep the water tank filled; how to use the radio and the InReach to check in with dispatch; how to use the propane fridge; where to watch for rattlesnakes. We unpacked our food, books, and clothes. We ate a quick sandwich and some chips for supper. Then, after a sunset stroll down to the Selway River boat launch with the dogs, we lit a red candle on the window ledge above the bed, watched the big moon rise over an unfamiliar ridge, and slept. 

Playing

We slept hard. Months of constant calibration to coronavirus curves, stock market fluctuations, and unemployment application numbers had taken its toll. The relief was astounding. Time in Paradise was suddenly, wonderfully measured not by the hours until the next COVID press conference, or even by the hands on a clock, but by the arc of the sun in the sky, by the length of shadows. Three weeks felt like three years. Also like three minutes. Each day was wonderfully similar. I woke early, made coffee, and wrote in my journal. Monica read, walked the dogs, and cooked breakfast. I wrote essays on yellow legal pads in the late morning, typed them up on my 1957 Smith-Corona in the afternoon, then went fishing. Monica took hikes up White Cap Creek or down the Selway, or relaxed with a book by the creek. I kept the campground weedeated and the toilets cleaned and stocked with toilet paper. We checked in with river groups preparing to launch. Chatted with campers. We cooked dinner, built campfires. I picked on a travel guitar for half an hour or so each night, then the sun set, the moon rose, and we slept, and slept hard. 

The dreaded blank page

Even more than time to write or a quiet place to write, every serious writer needs routine. At least, I do anyway. Fortunately, thanks to Open AIR, the Forest Service, and SBFC, this summer I had all three. I wrote more in those three weeks than I did in the entire year leading up to the residency. What’s more, Monica and I became deeply connected to one small chunk of an immense wilderness, and now feel like characters (however minor) in the story of that wilderness, and members of the team of stewards committed to protecting that wilderness and using it well. We miss being in Paradise. More than that, though, we feel grateful for the time we had together there, grateful for all the good people we worked with and met, and excited to do our part to make opportunities like this possible for others in the future. 

Hitch #7 - Live, Laugh, Lop

Connor Adams

Lead Wilderness Steward

September 15-22

Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forests

#421 East Moose Creek

Brushing is definitely among the least sexy and exciting things we do at SBFC, but also one of the most vital. Cutting back small shrubs with a pair of loppers isn’t quite as cool as pulling a crosscut saw or swinging an axe, but a trail can be rendered basically unusable without sufficient brushing. For the last hitch of the 2020 season, I joined up with the Trail Crew and we proved just how instrumental it is to an accessible Wilderness. We were tasked with clearing any blowdown on #421, and more importantly, brushing out the very overgrown riparian area of the trail along the upper reaches of East Moose Creek. We left for hitch a day late because smoke from fires in California and Oregon made hard labor outside a risky activity, but on Wednesday we were back in the Wilderness and setting to work.

In my now four years with SBFC, I have seen a lot of the downstream section of the #421 trail, and it remains one of my favorite parts of the Wilderness, but as of this year I had yet to explore the headwaters of East Moose Creek and the surrounding valley, or Lost Horse Cabin up by the trailhead. I’m very grateful I finally got sent on hitch there, as that drainage is even more beautiful and wild than I expected. The cabin was pretty neat, too. We spent the first few days of hitch tangling with some thick spruce blowdown throughout the trail, and with the dull teeth of a crosscut with a full season of trail work on it.

After a few days of clearing, we spent the inevitable rainy day of the hitch hiking out to the junction of #421 and #463 to replace a trail sign that had been scorched and knocked over in a burn since at least 2017, the first time I traveled that trail. It was satisfying to finally fix it after three years of passing by that junction and seeing the helpful little sign lying on its side, unable to accomplish the one task it was designed for. Our tools for this project were limited, and even more limited when our one Pulaski head snapped right off its handle. We didn’t let that stop us though. We gamely dug out the rest of the hole using the jagged end of the Pulaski handle, using our hands to scoop out dirt. Instead of packing in a spud bar on foot for 10 miles, we found the heaviest lodgepole pine snag in the area that we could lift, stripped it of its limbs, and tamped our sign in with that. It wouldn’t do for a hitch rail, but for a trail sign it fit the bill just fine (P.S. nobody tie your horse to that sign). Happy with our resourcefulness, we ended the day by cutting a huge spruce out of the trail that the Trail Crew had left earlier in the season for lack of wedges, nicely putting a bow on their clearing for the year as well.

The rain turned out to be a blessing in disguise, as it snuffed out the smoke in the air and gifted us the first blue sky in at least a week. The rest of the hitch was spent lopping and brushing the first 9 miles of the #421 trail from Twin Lakes Trailhead to just near the junction with #463 at Cox Creek. In my six years of Wilderness work, I have seen some trails with brushier sections, but none with so many and for so long a distance. We put our loppers and hand saws through their paces those last few days, joking and enjoying the sunshine and talking about food (and basically nothing else). Though brushing can be dull and repetitive, it was immensely satisfying to walk that full trail back to Twin Lakes without getting smacked in the face with alder branches or tripping over saplings every 100 feet. The #421 is now clear and waiting for the loving embrace of boots and hooves.

Hitch #5 - Learning About Guttation

Justine Bright

Trail Crew Member

August 19-26

Salmon-Challis National Forest

Clear Creek Trail #022, Bighorn Crags Trail #021

This season was the most varied I have ever experienced. Every hitch was about as different from the last as I could imagine, and each hitch in itself was full of a diverse set of challenges and rewards. We started off our late summer going from a hot, exposed burn area into a sub-alpine snow storm, hiking out a different trail to avoid unsafe walking on the one we worked in on. The following hitch we went to Marble Creek, and each day I woke and put on wet socks and sandals to hike through stream crossings and frosty strawberry plants. My feet ached with cold on the frozen ground, but I knew that by the afternoon I would do anything to get out of the heat and sun. I am constantly humbled during our work by the rhythm of the day and the character of the places we go. It feels like such abundance, to be in touch with the weather systems, what is flowering or fruiting or starting to turn color and dry out, the water level of the streams, and the length of the days. That is what I miss anticipatorily while we’re working, as well as the work itself.

Our past two hitches were out of the Bighorn Crags - the most popular area we work in, but it’s not overestimated. Getting to camp at lakes for more than one night of a hitch is probably one of the best rewards for our work during the day, and I felt so taken care of in the Crags. The huckleberries were in full swing while the smoke and shorter days reminded me that fall would be changing this place and our lives soon. We got to watch a fantastic thunderstorm from our campsite on a ridge by Sagebrush Lookout, and could see lightning striking the hills around us. Storms continued through the night, and the next morning we got a welcome break from the thick smoke. The sky was brilliantly pink and orange, and we could glance at the red sun, warped by pressure, without feeling its intensity.

During our last hitch at the Crags we found a mushroom guttating- secreting excess water from pores in the fruiting body. It looked like it was seeping amber. They do this after a period of sped-up growth during nourishing conditions. Every time we passed it, I was totally filled with joy and gratitude for the growing conditions we’ve had.

Hitch #5 - Issac Lake Trail and the Double Creek Fire

Shannon Filbey

Trail Crew Member

August 18-25

Nez Perce-Clearwater NFs

#486 Dolph Creek, #939 to Maple Lake, Junction #486 to Maple Creek on #421

Another hitch worth of fallen trees and overgrown Ceanothus brought Pete, Mike, and I back to Elk Summit with full packs, sharpened tools, and a rough plan for the week. This trailhead has become our jumping-off point into a wild abyss of old growth cedar groves, craggy ridgelines, wrought burns, and glittery waters pristine enough to reprieve even the most strenuous of days in the field. It’s the Selway! Our intentions were to clear the trail out to Isaac Lake down into the East Fork of Moose Creek and all the way up through its confluence with Dolph Creek. We set our paces and made way for Cedar Creek all the while gray jays taunted our efforts from their aerial domain and trailside vaccinium branches slumped into the trail under the heft of their numerous hucks. The bears there were obviously total slackers so, in their stead, we dutifully stuffed our faces and water bottles with berries and enjoyed a hike-through dining experience of a lifetime. Sawdust confetti poured from each curf under a blueberry-powered crosscut late into the day until that stream ran to a trickle and the three of us were drained. Cedar Creek greeted us with a riparian refuge that supported firs oozing in usnea all swaying in the evening’s breezes. Fall seemed imminent and sleep did too. Firs shuttered, ninebark reddened, and lightning clapped overhead throughout the night and into the morning.

We made haste for the drainage divide between Cedar and Maple Creek and managed to clear the entire section of trail by the end of the day. The prominence of the crest displayed the glacially sharpened peaks of the Bitterroots all in blue-tint atmospheric silhouette. More proximate was the staggering landscape in which we have labored in and navigated throughout for much of the summer. We sat there for a moment, eating our nut mixes, cracking jokes, and mentally taking account of our travels aided by the visual before us. Behind us, westward wilderness was pending our arrival; or so we thought. Instead, it was prepping kindling, smoldering, and not to be disturbed by the likes of any trail-tramps anytime soon. We foolishly cached our tools on the ridge and made our way back down to our camp on Cedar Creek.

We set off to continue towards Maple and Isaac Lakes in the morning with full packs, but our plans were quickly thwarted once we received notice via inReach of a lightning fire approximately one mile east of May Lake in the Double Creek Watershed. All our tools were cached approximately four miles ahead and 3,400 feet above us towards an active wildfire and now in the opposite direction in which we had to move. On a steep side-slope, we emptied our bags, threw a bear hang, scrapped our plans, and prepared for a mission to retrieve our tools and bump camp down to the cedars groves near Dolph Creek, making for a 13-mile crest to creek day of backtracking. Morale slumped further when we encountered down trees where we had cleared the previous day. The wilderness is clearly indifferent to our performance and determination; as it ought to be.

We enjoyed good rest overnight in the company of our giant western red cedars friends. Bright and early, we cleared the trail down the East Fork of Moose Creek.  Late in the day, we encountered a jam-up of toppled cedars extending along the length of the trail and requiring several hours of sawing, which we did not have in us that day. A bald eagle inspected the length of the creek for an opportune dinner while we made our way back to camp through a mosaic patchwork of climax forests and burns where a historic fire had managed a series of creek jumps. Raspberries clawed at our legs in the burns and we clawed right back at their fruitful berries. The husks of ancient cedars now scorched and hollowed-out bleached their cambium in the sunlight wherever their fibrous bark had weathered and peeled away.

We pushed on down the corridor to make camp at Elbow Bend and the trail became more overgrown and bear sign was steaming around every corner. The cedar groves taper off where the valley narrows and the soil becomes shallow. Black bears popped in and out of the woods around us in their quest for grubs, berries, and human avoidance. This area is incredibly wild and it certainly taxed our stamina so late in the hitch. Upon a mishap in communication, a spontaneous pull on a jammed crosscut caught my left index finger and left me to consider how much longer it would take to type this blog with just a stub. Luckily, the cut was but a flesh wound, and ol’ lefty still lands on the ‘F’ key just fine. East Fork Moose Creek showers were waiting for us at the end of the day and we were joined by an American dipper and kingfisher to ring out the day.

On the last two days, we had a long hike back, a cedar pile-up that we had saved for later, and a quest to retrieve a first aid kit that had gone missing when it had rolled down the slope when we were redirected by the Double Creek fire. The smoke had become thick, our shoulders were plenty sore, and the novelty of binge-eating huckleberries and raspberries had worn off. The comforts of Missoula were near and provided all the incentive necessary for us to finish our work. Fireweed seed pods sprung open in our retreat and the creeks were boney. We look forward to meeting the Selway as it makes its transition into the cool season in the coming weeks.

Mike hikes through a burn on the 421.

Shannon poses in front of an old growth red cedar near the confluence of Cedar and East Fork Moose Creek.