![[Image Description: Two MCC members taking a brief break; one is sitting on a rock, the other is standing nearby. They are both in their uniforms, looking out at the expansive, mountain view surrounding them.]](https://cdn.firespring.com/images/c3f85e97-43a9-4810-8081-e8e6338173d0.jpeg)
This week found our intrepid conservation crusaders saddled aboard a roaring jet boat, bound 40 plus miles upriver in the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness. A ride that would cost the average citizen upwards of $1,800 USD, the crew counted themselves lucky, though damp. In tow were truckloads of smelted and shaped iron: picks, pulaskis, poles, slings, saws, shears, and sharps of every form and kind. It all littered their idyllic beachside destination, post-landing.
Soon, they set camp, settled in at the set of the sun in the evening of the summer solstice, and in the brisk morn set off for the site of their labor. Our enbies, guys, and gals in green— stinky yet undaunted — worked on that rocky hillside for the better part of a week. All told, there were 60 hours of granite breaking, boulder slinging, and rock wall constructing action. With nothing but their resolve and semi-modern implements, they treaded nearly two miles of new tread. They identified and heartily consumed scores of wild edible plants. They swung, they dug, they sweat, they bled, they lived, and they slept well. Though their bodies were bound to the ground, their steward spirits soared. And in defiance of the wilderness’s title, they returned, triumphant at that, if a couple of tools shy.
