Finn’s Reflections: Notes from a Summer in the Wilderness
ABWF’s 2025 Crew Leader, Finnian Bentler, shares his end-of-season reflections. Read on for a behind-the-scenes look at what a busy summer season is like for a wilderness crew leader like Finn.
There I was, sitting on Elk Mountain — finally some sweet relief. Next to me sat Matt and my brother George. We were staring out over the vast sea of peaks and plateaus all around us. We had started our day at Quinnebough Meadows — just west of Red Lodge — and had to bring camp over to Snow Lakes. We had just summited Sylvan Peak before Elk Mountain on our route over the Red Lodge Creek Plateau. It was nice to finally be sitting on this final summit, but here was George, eyeing up Bowback, declaring, “I mean it’s just right there, we should go do it.”
I wasn’t sure I had another peak in me, but wanting to be a good brother and give George a good trip, so how could I say no. Matt stayed behind and conducted solitude monitoring by keeping an eye out at the route below, taking notes of any human activity he observed, while George and I scurried over to Bowback. I don’t think I’ve ever seen George so inspired. We looked out for a bit, pointed out the impressive form of Granite Peak to the west, looked at the ski lines of Inabnit, and talked about all the possibilities in front of us. Because that’s what wilderness is: full of possibilities. We sat for a little longer, used our sliver of cell service to call Mom and Dad, and took some pictures. At that point I figured we should probably head back to Matt, and that was the moment George decided to say, “I think this was my favorite moment of the trip, but you know I was just joking about coming over here.”
All jokes aside, I think something clicked in George that day because, after that, he seemed fired up to do everything he could to help protect and steward our public lands. I had a lot of moments like this over the summer where I got to witness in real time someone become deeply inspired by the landscape around them. I count these as some of the most profound moments of my summer season working for the Absaroka Beartooth Wilderness Foundation. It is moments like these that make me want to continue to be a steward for our public lands. I learned a lot this summer about myself, my role in the outdoor community, and the importance of our public lands to people from all walks of life.
The season came with challenges, too. One of my hardest experiences this summer was the first trip. Frankly, I had no idea what to expect when hosting my first volunteer trail stewardship weekend. I felt prepared, sure, but also nervous. I knew I’d planned and prepped and had thought of every detail thrice over. My group was solid and we had a clear, straightforward goal: brushing a stretch of trail (which is the trail maintenance term for clearing the trail corridor of overgrown vegetation.
What I hadn’t anticipated was the heat. It was the first true heat of summer and there was little relief from the sun. On top of that, my whole crew was quickly introduced to the challenges of dealing with hawthorn, which have inch-long thorns and take over the trail. I felt like I had brought everyone into a death march of heat and thorns, and after that weekend, part of me wanted to run for the hills. I did not feel cut out to be leading people on these trips.
But, I have a particular love of suffering that keeps me coming back to hard things. I love being in what my dad calls “the pain cave.” Now I had to learn to apply that not just to a difficult physical task — which I will always get done with a smile on my face — but to providing leadership in tough times. This position as crew leader for ABWF brought new kinds of challenges, like the challenge of being responsible not just for maintaining and restoring miles and miles of backcountry trails, but overseeing the safety and needs of volunteer crews while doing it. I was hungry for this kind of responsibility, but the adjustment challenged me more than I’d anticipated.
This fall, as I reflect on the summer season, I can say I was very happy with the adjustment, and I’m eager for the opportunity to try my hand at it again next season. I’m grateful to both Joe, ABWF’s executive director, and Jarret, our senior operations manager, for giving me the space to grow and for being all-around amazing teammates. Looking at these two, I know the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness is in great hands.
And now, because I know you are all curious, let’s dig into some stats.
Across the summer, I led six different multi-day wilderness projects and hosted three single-day projects in partnership with other organizations.
Volunteers in these stewardship projects did everything from brushing vegetation, to clearing downfall, to removing weeds, to trail construction.
Together, we cleared nearly 100 trees, maintained 50 miles of trail, and removed 800 pounds of invasive weeds from the wilderness.
Trail maintenance activities consisted of clearing drains and brushing overgrown vegetation.
Finally, I had the chance to take on a solo trail project and I constructed a lateral drain and two culverts. (Last I heard, as of October 2, it is still standing).
I’m proud of all of these stats. But equally important and harder to quantify are the experiences had and human relationships built along the way.
It’s remarkably heartening to meet people willing to give up their time to help preserve our trail systems. I even had someone fly out from Missouri just to be on my crew for the weekend and to come check out the Yellowstone area. Despite never having set foot in the AB before, they spent the weekend working hard and giving it their all, and that was pretty sweet to see.
I also want to give a huge shout out to Schreiner University. They brought an amazing group of intelligent, funny, and hardworking people to give up an entire week to work on trails in the Stillwater Drainage – again, most of them had never stepped foot in Montana before! Not only were they given some difficult tasks, they did it all with enthusiasm. They brushed about two miles of trail and built a lateral drain and two rock culverts to help keep water off the trial. They dug a 30 foot trench and hauled rocks and gravel from all the way up to a half mile away. They conquered all these tasks and still managed to go explore, have fun, and laugh at the end of the work day. Thank you students and staff of Schreiner University, I hope our partnership continues for years to come so we can continue to cultivate outdoor advocates and leaders.
This brings me to my last thoughts of reflection for the summer: the gift that was the opportunity to explore an expansive natural landscape. This is very important to me and the same goes for a lot of Montanans. A lot of pivotal moments in my life have happened in these mountains. Each trip was like a communion of people who care deeply about this place. It was refreshing to see it all in action. To all the people I met and worked alongside this summer: I always knew you all were out there, but it’s nice to put some faces and names to people who are willing to show up for our public lands.
That sense of gratitude goes not only to those who joined me for stewardship work this summer, but to everyone who supports public lands in any way they can. Whether you donate your hard earned money, or your limited time, or your precious attention — I thank you. Your support of ABWF and our work have not only given me the opportunity for growth as a leader defending our public lands, but have created space for multiple people, ranging from age 15 to 75, to step into the world of being a steward for our public lands. In a time where our public lands are threatened by private interests, the opportunity for organizations such as our own to keep running programs like this means a lot. I got to see first hand how much it means to people to have these opportunities for expansive natural spaces, exploration, and healthy ecosystems. I got to see how much you all care. Thank you, all of you.
Lastly, I would like to thank a few more people. Firstly the Back Country Horsemen of the Beartooths. Thank You Sean for reaching out to anyone that could help pack to make our Schreiner Trip run smoothly this summer. Of course, I would like to thank our main partner, the trail crews of the USFS. You are all rockstars. You crush hard work all summer, and rarely get the gratitude you deserve. Thank you all for being hardworking, inspiring, and amazing stewards of our trails and our wilderness.
Overall I learned this summer that to face a challenge it is a sure lot easier to face it together than it is apart. I have to take this quote from our friend Maddison's speech on Public Lands Day recently because it perfectly captures how I felt writing this: “Every small act matters. Stewardship isn’t one big thing – It’s thousands of little things, done by people who care.” Thank you all for caring, I think together we could totally make mountains out of mole hills if we wanted to.
Happy Trails,
Finnian
