![[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)
From May 20th to the 27th, 11 members from crews 4 and 6 converged on the Line Creek Basin and the Face of the Mountain Trail for a rigorous restoration. Both crews camped outside the mouth of the Beartooth Mountains. We would endure rainfall and blistering sun while clearing trails, digging drains, lopping fresh pines, and using chainsaws to clear the brush for the coming season.
Trails wound up and down the line creek plateau, the residue from glaciers that tore away at the land. A wildfire had scorched the valley, leaving only blades of tall timber that stood out like blackened pencils. You could run your hand along a trunk and it would leave it stained black with soot - but, bright green ferns sprout from amongst the fallen timbers.
As a crew member pointed out to me while hiking up the Line Creek Basin trail, “New life is beginning to grow out here”.
At times, we would have to navigate uncut trails, often getting lost in the process. All the while hauling pickaxes, shovels, tree loppers, and 20-pound chainsaws. Over the course of 7 days, we would hike over 80 miles.
We slung rocks and pebbles down into the Line Creek river. Lopped thorny Pine ferns that stained our skin with dirt. And dug over a hundred drains to help keep the trail from disappearing. If for only a few days, we were stewards of the land.
As Emily from Crew 4 hunched over a medkit to pull out a patch of Moleskin for a callous, she said, “It’s hard work, but it’s satisfying, you know? Because whenever you go on a trail in this world, you can say ‘thank you to whoever cleared this trail to let me walk on it, you know?”
