Close to: Cooke City, Gardiner, Red Lodge

Spots Available: Full, Accepting Waitlist

Description: While staying in a cabin at the Cooke City Forest Service Admin Office, we will drive to various trailheads each day and cover miles on foot to clear trails. This is the time of year that these trails start getting more use, so it is important that the Gardiner District trail crew gets them opened up for smooth travel. Trails cleared on this project will leave from the Beartooth Highway 212 to the north, heading onto the Beartooth Plateau, providing views of Pilot and Index Peak, and the Plateau itself. This can be a buggy time of year in Cooke City, so volunteers are encouraged to bring protective clothing and a headnet if they’d like.

Local volunteers are welcome to commute to the worksite each day, rather than staying with us at the FS Admin site.

Work: On this project, we will be clearing trails of downed trees using crosscut saws.

Difficulty: Moderately strenuous. For trail clearing, the amount of hiking vs. cutting really depends on how wooded the trail is and how many trees have blown down since the last time the trail was cleared. This means that some days could be more hiking intensive, when a steady pace will be key to allow our crews to cover more distance to reach down trees. Other days might be more cutting intensive, asking more of our upper bodies to cut and move trees.

Meeting time & location: 9:00 a.m. at the Cooke City Forest Service Admin Office.