Clint Kingery

Nez Perce-Clearwater NF Lead Wilderness Steward

Three Links Creek Hitch

Aug 3-11, 2021

Nez-Perce Clearwater National Forest | Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness

*A few miles north of Frisco Peak, 2019.*

This past week we were told to work trail #405, so we did. When #405 was cut, cleared, brushed, and re-tread with half the hitch left, we decided to just keep on cutting up to Frisco Peak. I’ve been there a few times with a few crews and couldn’t really tell you what the view is like. My vista has always been thick clouds and icy blowing rain. Beautiful enough in its own right.

Back in 2019, weather hit as my crew was working towards Frisco. We wanted to start our way down Sixty-Two Ridge soon which meant we had to make it to Frisco on the day in question. We got the trail clear to the peak after a 14-hour day in near freezing rain. The crew got back to camp as the last cold rays of the day’s sun speared through the finally dissipating clouds. We made a little campfire to get the gear dried out before we braved our iced-over tents. Huddled around that pitiful lick of flame with my pitiful wet crew, I was happy.

*Clouds breaking on the way back to camp from Frisco, 2019.*

This year, weather hit on our way up towards Frisco. Rain really started coming down as one of the Wilderness Ranger Fellows and myself were pulling the saw through a little fire-toasted 30 inch log. Water flowed in thick rivulets down our now fully-permeable rain jackets. We caught up to the rest of the crew as they were on hands and knees cutting 10-foot tall brush that fully obscured whatever tread there had once been. There was plenty of cold and plenty of misery as the wind cut through the many holes of our trail-torn rain gear and rain soaked all. We were in the clouds as they grew and rolled all around us. It was all just as I knew Frisco to be and I was happy.

A few days ago I was strolling along the river a bit past Renshaw Creek. There was a rock-structure that we had built back in 2018 to bridge a culvert that I wanted to check in on. It got me thinking on a close call that I had with hypothermia as April rain poured down our backs and we wallowed in the mud while building that little structure. It had been my first time in the Selway and the first time that I knew I was done trying to experience every landscape out there. The first time that I knew I had found the place that I wanted to keep coming back to. I was happy.

I don’t think it’s the misery that makes me happy, I’m no masochist and I sure do like being warm and dry. I’m plenty happy in the Selway when I’m comfortable; no less and no more than those few experiences. The people are a part of it, but I’ve been plenty of places with plenty of people. It’s honestly not even that it’s Wilderness, I’ve been to quite a few and always liked them more than any other landscape, but there is just something special about the Selway. I guess there is no sense in trying to define it. I’m just glad that the Selway is still somewhere wild. I expect that once upon a time the Lochsa Corridor had something special about it too but that’s a thing of the past. It’s important to me that the Selway doesn’t go the way of the Lochsa. Roads and echoing motors and human-stink. I can’t imagine that myself or others could really find much happiness in that.

CLINT KINGERY, NEZ PERCE-CLEARWATER NF LEAD WILDERNESS STEWARD

Clint grew up in Helena, Montana. He first discovered his love for Wilderness while working on trails in the Sawtooth Wilderness. He has also worked in the heart of the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness and knows the Moose Creek area well. Clint is uncompromisingly passionate about Wilderness.