Montana Conservation Corps - Tools for Living. Experience for life.

So you want to know what it’s takes to make it on a Vet crew with MCC?

Well, lets start with the basics. stuff everything you need for ten days into a backpack, grab your tent, sleeping bag and other miscellaneous items required for living in the mountains of the great outdoors, in any weather condition be it snow, rain, wind, heat, cold, day or night and be able to eat what is in front of you(no matter how much or how little)be willing to swing a tool all day long and to run a chainsaw for hours at a time and sometimes having to carry all that gear(gas, oil, food, water, tools, daypack, medical kits, chainsaws and all your PPE gear)for feet to yards to miles at a time across back fire roads or up and over a variety of hills and slopes of varying terrain…be willing to work in the rain or the cold or the sun burning heat all the while attracting as many mosquitoes, bees, flies, spiders and even snakes.  Sometimes getting bit by as many as you can in as many places as possible all the while getting generally filthy as you possibly can, and whatever you do..Don’t Bathe.  Also be prepared to fall down..alot. Bang yourself up on rocks, roots, trees , sticks and in the brush getting scraped up.  All the while moving stuff you see during the day like brush, tree branches, entire trees, rocks, logs picking them up and moving them around.  Keep this up for the entire ten day hitch, and if you think your having a good time, you may just make it as a Vet Crew Member.  And if your genuinely having the time of your life and want more of it, someone just may want to hire you. Hey, no one said it was going to be easy.

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• Montana

I would say the only thing that seperated immersion crews from all the rest is our days off.

Last day of hitch, my crew debriefs and then chaos ensues while we prepare for tomorrow. We are leaving for what we think will be a leisurely group trip the next morning. I stay up late organizing my tent, packing everything and debating countless times whether I should bring my fleece or my flannel- who cares right? I finally decide. We need to make sure our camp is organized and pristine. Our camp is in a remote location 20 miles into the Selway Bitterroot wilderness along a trail that hasn’t been worked on in around 20 years. Our plan was easy (or so we thought), we would hike 9 miles to Frisco Peak, then over to Lizard Lakes, 4 pristine sub alpine glacial lakes to fish and frolic, and whatever else we wanted to do, these are our days off!

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• Western Wilands - Missoula, Montana

My father is a horse farrier. He’s been self-employed for several years, traveling all around southern Maine in a van full of anvils and chaps. Most people I encounter don’t even know what that title means. A typical response from someone I’m explaining the profession to might be, “Fairy, you say?” I’ll calmly explain that, no, he doesn’t have special flying dust; he puts shoes on horses’ feet.

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• Missoula

We discuss what it means to have a “sense of place” and focus on our personal goals for the season. We’re a crew consisting of members from all over the map—Florida, Indiana, Minnesota, Illinois, Ohio, Montana, and Maine. We come from varying backgrounds. We have different stories. Sitting around the campfire at night, I think about how something lead each and every one of us to this place, to this point…to this crew in this town at this time.

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• Frank Church Wilderness of No Return

We struggled to set up camp in the pouring rain together, we shared about our lives while hiking to work each day along a wild and scenic river, we dug in the dirt all day, side by side and singing non-stop, and we hung out and laughed in the evenings while huddled around our soggy campfire.

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• The best place on earth - Montana

Julia is at the center of the room, debriefing the N. Rock crew leaders on the schedule for the week.  Done with her piece and wanting to make sure everyone understood, she puts her thumbs out and asks, “Thumbs?”

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• Kalispell

We traveled to the Special K Ranch for the developmentally disabled one rainy March day to help out with potting plants and a few other related projects, but the interaction with the residents seemed to be the overriding attraction.

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• Eastern Wildlands

We have completed our final hitch on the Blacktail bridge and I must confess I feel a mixture of sadness and excitement. Over the past two months, our MCC crew has grown close to the Yellowstone NPS trail crew. They are great dedicated people that I truly enjoyed working with and will miss. But, at the same time, I feel a sort of relief that we are changing locations. Maybe my feet are just feeling the need to wander.

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• Yellowstone