Field Program

Our time doing trails work in the Bridger-Teton National Forest this past hitch was an adventure from start to finish. A hitch goes by fast, and can often feel like a blur so I’m likening this hitch to the Disney movie Tangled to keep my thoughts in order.

We worked on 2 trails this week, the first was Dog Creek. While beautiful in its own right, Dog Creek is our Rapunzels tower for this story. While obviously not physically like a tower, dog creek’s thick mud and swarms of mosquitos made for an environment that was equally as frustrating at times. We waited here for two days while we cleared corridor. The plants here were taking over the trail and it was tedious work clearing, but rewarding to look back and see the trail visible again after the jungle-like state it was in when we started.

Friday came and our foreste service project partner, Tim arrived to take us to our next site. Tim is Flynn Rider in this case. Leading Rapunzel (us) from the tower to a city to see beautiful lights in the sky. Tim brought us to our next campsite at Granite Creek in Teton national forest and it was nothing short of stunning. The views here made all the mosquito bites at dog creek worth it. The Whole crew was radiating excitement as we set up camp and realized we were going to be staying here for 6 more days. ‘I See The Light’ was playing in our minds and Tim instantly became our hero for the rest of the hitch. Anything good that happened from now on was followed up by a praising of Tim for making it all possible.

At Granite Creek we worked on constructing a reroute for outfitters so they can take stock around the developed hot springs nearby. In the past, Horses walking right by an area where kids can run up to them while holding large bright colored floaties wasn’t ideal for safety. We spent the first few days clearing the corridor for the trail, and then the last day we started digging tread. This work was extremely rewarding, brushing went much faster than at dog creek and it was super cool to see a new trail emerge and be a part of making it happen.

Speaking of the hot springs, I have one last Tangled comparison to draw. The hot springs were run by people that had the same warmth and kindness of Rapunzels actual parents at the end of the movie. Their names were Fa and Marsha and they were so kind and welcoming. They even let us in to the hot springs for free! Which when you haven’t showered in 6-7 days, taking a dip in some warm water is indescribably awesome. Thank you Fa and Marsha, thank you to our project partner Tim, and also thanks to Sarah, Myer, Candice, and Gavin for being crew members/leaders to have this experience with.