Trail Trip INFO and FAQs

Although each stewardship trip may include any type of trail work, each trip is planned around a primary type of work, and familiarizing yourself with the types of stewardship work we conduct will help give you an idea of what to expect on your upcoming volunteer adventure.

Trail Clearing
Opening trails by cutting and removing fallen trees using traditional tools like crosscut saws and folding saws.

Trail Maintenance
Installing or repairing irrigation features like water bars and lateral drains, repairing or improving trail tread, and clearing trails of overgrowth. Tools used include shovels, pickaxes, pulaskis, and loppers.

Habitat Restoration
Identifying and removing invasive weeds to improve habitat and allow native plants to thrive. Involves pulling, cutting, and bagging weeds like hounds tongue, knapweed, and thistle. Tools used include spades, shears, and loppers.

Construction
Project-based work such as building switchbacks, putting in a puncheon over a wetland, or installing a culvert. Wide variety of tools used, from saws and hammers to sledge hammers.

Stewardship Tours
Stewardship tours mix data collection and wilderness education with light trail work. Participants collect rigorous human-use data on specified trail segments while removing trees, clearing waterbars, removing illegal fire rings, and educating wilderness users as needed. These trips tend to cover a lot of ground and require more wilderness experience.

The difficulty ratings here are our best attempt to categorize the expected challenge level of the hiking you’ll encounter on any of our projects. Of course, every individual’s ability and energy levels are unique. Please be conservative when self-selecting an appropriate outing. If you need more information about the challenge associated with a project to make an informed decision, contact ABWF at info@abwilderness.org.

Easy
3 miles or less; mostly level ground or only slight incline. No prior backcountry experience required, but comfort with camping and enthusiasm for hard work are a must.

Moderate
4–6 miles and/or 500’–1,000′ of elevation gain. No prior backcountry experience required, but comfort with camping and enthusiasm for hard work are a must.

Strenuous
7–10 miles and/or 1,000’–2,000′ elevation gain. Prior backpacking experience is required.

Extremely Strenuous
10+ miles and/or > 2,000′ elevation gain and/or at significant altitude. Extensive prior backpacking experience is required.

Safety is our highest priority on all volunteer projects. Before any work begins, volunteers will receive training on the proper use of tools and ergonomics to prevent injuries while performing trail work. Each day begins with a safety briefing, which covers correct use of personal protective equipment (PPE), backcountry safety practices, and proper tool handling. Additional safety topics may include vehicle safety, proper food storage, hazard identification, warming up for physical work, wildlife and environmental awareness.

During your volunteer project with ABWF, you will be supervised by and experienced ABWF staff member who will lead and train you throughout your project. On occasion, we may be joined by U.S. Forest Service staff to provided specifics or expertise on a project. Our Crew Leaders are USFS crosscut certified an have extensive experience in trail maintenance and the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness. They also have thorough training in safety protocols for camping in bear country, human waste management and leave no trace principles, ensuring safe and responsible experiences for all.

Though our trips involve significant time working on projects, volunteers will have free time at the end of each workday to explore, fish, swim, relax, or enjoy the backcountry. For longer projects, there may also be a designated day off during which volunteers can enjoy the backcountry for the entire day. Check trip project descriptions to see if your trip has a rest day.

For data collection reasons, Stewardship Tours require adherence to strictly defined transects. But each segment is different and some days will be longer than others. The trip leader will determine daily schedules based on the day ahead and the group. The fishing opportunities are exceptional on all trips.

Attentive volunteers may have noticed we are introducing a new type of work trip this year: Stewardship Tours. These excursions, formerly known as “Solitude Monitoring” have evolved to include not just the data collection associated with solitude monitoring, but a dynamic variety of stewardship activities rolled into one rewarding expedition.

We’ll get into more detail about what these trips are, but it’s more important to start with what they are not. Stewardship Tours do not include any enforcement activity of wilderness or fishing regulations. While we do engage wilderness users and share information about wilderness policies, we are not there to conduct any kind of enforcement, simply to provide information.

Each trip covers miles of trails, observing what we see, what we don’t see, and performing stewardship duties as we encounter them while also engaging with our fellow trail users in a friend and polite manner. Our public engagement is strictly a resource for interested parties, an opportunity to share wilderness values, and provide information as needed. You will probably make a few friends along the way, or maybe run into some old ones!

Because these trips are often remote and cover a lot of ground, all of our Stewardship Tours require prior backpacking experience. This includes having all the necessary and appropriate gear and the ability to carry heavy packs, travel up and down steep mountains, and safely negotiate rugged, off-trail terrain.

We ask you honestly assess your suitability and experience. For the safety of others and to ensure we collect the data required, we will ask to see what gear you are using and reserve the right to approve your participation.