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

There is something very self-serving about trail work. The rainy work days and hot, dusty hikes with heavy packs are transformative, filling, cleansing, healing. This is what we signed up for. We leave the trails full, now having something to pour out. Weatherizing at the end of our season brings us to the folks that need that outpouring the most.

Going into weatherizing I felt hesitant to leave the immaculate wilderness for the strange smells and tragedies of impoverished places. What could be for me there? Seeing their need, however, quickly (and thankfully) changed that question into ” what could simple trail workers do to help and comfort people who had been through so much?” We were able to offer them a little more warmth for the winter and the piece of mind that someone out there cared about their well-being. As we put up plastic on their windows they shared what had brought them into those places, often crying. The most heart wrenching thing was the apologies for the way they lived. We tried to be reassuring and friendly as we worked, sometimes simply leaving the weatherizing kit uninstalled because they had needed an ear more than a smoke detector. Our short time with them was just as deeply impacting as our months in the wilderness; equally transforming, filling, cleansing and healing. 

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