Field Program

The first hitch with the Montana Conservation Corps is a daunting prospect. For nine days your life will be centered around the wilderness of the west coast; you will eat in the wilderness, sleep in the wilderness, and work in the wilderness. You may be fifty miles away from civilization or cellular service, all while living with people who were just strangers to you a month prior. A month of orientation and training might seem like enough to prepare you for your first hitch, but you have no idea what it’s like until you’re actually out there in the middle of it.

Nine days of 9-to-10 hour days is not only taxing on the body, but on your mind and patience as well. You’ll quickly learn where your limits lie, what you can put up with, and that almost anything and everything can go wrong. It’s bad enough working nine hours in ninety degree heat, but when issues start piling up like faulty chainsaws, missing tools, and a smelly food cooler, you’ll find that the work you originally thought would be rewarding can become downright frustrating in a matter of minutes.

That’s why it’s important to appreciate the little joys, and good moments when they present themselves. Learning more about your crew members at break, or cooling off with a splash of water from a nearby stream, or discovering one song that the whole crew can jam out to on the way back to camp, (like Lana del Rey’s "Summertime Sadness") can turn a bad day into a good day in an instant. It’s these little moments that help us to remember why some of us drive from all corners of the country to be here: to do some hard work and make new connections in the process.

So, when the lows of conservation work really get you down, remember that you’re not alone out there in those thick forests. You’ve got a whole crew of other people going through the exact same thing, and you can find solace in the little moments, and in each other.