Multi-Day Trail projects
Muddy your boots and fill your cup with a multi-day stewardship adventure with ABWF. These service trips offer a unique opportunity to explore new parts of the wilderness while learning the art of trail maintenance. Trips range in length and difficulty — please review the details of each trip to find the right one for you.
For single-day volunteer opportunities, visit our events page.
Our multi-day stewardship adventures are currently available to preview Below. Registration begins April 1!
June Trips
June 11-14: Annual West Boulder Trail Project, Big Timber
Work Type: Trail Maintenance
Difficulty: Easy
Kick off summer in the stunning West Boulder valley, digging tread and clearing brush.
Work Type: Stewardship Tour
Difficulty: Strenuous
A three-day expedition in the aptly named Lake Fork, engaging users and maintaining trails.
June 17-19: Lake Fork Trail, Red Lodge
Work Type: Trail Clearing
Difficulty: Strenuous
A high energy jaunt covering up to ten miles per day, clearing as many fallen trees and waterbars as we can.
June 22-26: Annual Cooke City Trail Clearing
Work Type: Stewardship Tour
Difficulty: Strenuous
Join our ED Joe Josephson for three-day stewardship tour of geologic wonders around Elbow Lake.
June 26-28: Agate Springs - Elbow Lake
July Trips
Work Type: Trail Maintenance
Difficulty: Moderate
Help clear overgrowth from these often overlooked trails close to Livingston.
July 3-5: Mission Creek, Livingston
Work Type: Stewardship Tour
Difficulty: Strenuous
Take advantage of the long weekend to celebrate one of our nation’s finest Wildernesses.
July 3-5: Lake Fork Trail, Red Lodge
Work Type: Trail Clearing
Difficulty: Extremely Strenuous
Join us for one day to four days as we undertake effort to restore one of Red Lodge's favorite trails.
July 9-12: Face-of-the-Mountain, Red Lodge
Work Type: Stewardship Tour
Difficulty: Strenuous
Spend your days overlooking Yellowstone’s northern range and nights camping lakeside.
July 14-16: Horse Creek Divide, Jardine
July 16-21: Annual Stillwater River Trail Work Project, Fishtail
Work Type: Trail Maintenance
Difficulty: Strenuous
Our third annual week of clearing and improving flood-damaged trails throughout the drainage.
July 17-19: West Fork Trail, Red Lodge
Work Type: Stewardship Tour
Difficulty: Extremely Strenuous
Our most rugged route of the year takes stewardship to elevations over 11,700 feet.
July 24-26: Mill Creek Trail Clearing, Paradise Valley
Work Type: Trail Clearing
Difficulty: Moderate
Clear fallen trees from trails that typically see more wolves and grizzlies than humans.
Work Type: Stewardship Tour
Difficulty: Moderate
Monitor impacts and clear trails and campsites along Wild & Scenic East Rosebud Creek.
July 30-August 2: East Rosebud Trail, Roscoe
Work Type: Trail Maintenance
Difficulty: Moderate
Camping at more than 9,500 feet, this may be the most spectacular and unique trail project of the summer.
July 31-August 2: Upper Stillwater, Cooke City
August Trips
Work Type: Stewardship Tour
Difficulty: Extremely Strenuous
Wandering amongst Montana's highest peaks in a trip that is the epitome of alpine hiking.
August 5-7: Beartooth Plateau, Cooke City
Work Type: Stewardship Tour
Difficulty: Moderate
Conduct trail and camp stewardship while traveling to remote alpine lakes from a base camp at Mystic Lake.
August 7-9: West Rosebud Trail, Fishtail
Work Type: Stewardship Tour
Difficulty: Moderate
Spend four days on and off trail during a stewardship expedition across the iconic Lake Plateau.
August 14-16: Lake Plateau Trail, Big Timber
Work Type: Stewardship Tour
Difficulty: Extremely Strenuous
Our most rugged route of the year takes stewardship to elevations over 11,700 feet.
August 19-21: West Fork Trail, Red Lodge
August 19-25: Bull Creek, Frenchie's Meadow, Cooke City
Work Type: Trail Maintenance
Difficulty: Strenuous
One of the most remote projects we've undertaken, join us as we restore this legendary connector trail.
Work Type: Stewardship Tour
Difficulty: Moderate
Conduct trail and camp stewardship while traveling to remote alpine lakes from a base camp at Mystic Lake.
August 25-27: West Rosebud Trail, Fishtail
August 31-September 3: East Rosebud Trail, Roscoe
Work Type: Stewardship Tour
Difficulty: Moderate
Monitor impacts and clear trails and campsites along Wild & Scenic East Rosebud Creek.
September Trips
Work Type: Stewardship Tour
Difficulty: Extremely Strenuous
Three days off-trail surrounded by countless lakes and outrageous beauty.
September 4-6: Beartooth Plateau, Cooke City
Work Type: Stewardship Tour
Difficulty: Strenuous
Wake up to morning fog and bugling elk as part of our last trail stewardship trip of the season.
September 11-13: Horse Creek Divide, Jardine
Hiking
Difficulty Ratings
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—and a brief application—are required.
Extremely Strenuous
10+ miles and/or > 2,000′ elevation gain and/or at significant altitude. Extensive prior backpacking experience—and a brief application—are required.
Primary Work Types
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.
Questions?
We’ve Got Answers
