Backcountry trail crews offer pay, training and a rare ‘digital detox’ in Southern Oregon and Northern California wilderness areas

By Lee Juillerat for Ashland.news

The Siskiyou Mountain Club is hiring people willing to work this summer on its Wilderness Corps Crew.

Gabriel Howe, executive director of the Talent-based Siskiyou Mountain Club, said the jobs in regional wilderness areas could be especially appealing to college students and others seeking a “summer of digital detox.” He said the program’s most unusual aspect is the “digital detox.”

Interns don’t bring their phones or digital devices into the backcountry. “Most of them grew up with parents addicted to iPhones, so it’s a departure,” Howe said.

That’s because Wilderness Corps Crew members will backpack into the wilderness areas and spend up to two weeks at a time working from spike camps to restore trails that are “disappearing from America’s great national forests.”

First-year crew members will receive a $1,800 monthly training allowance and will be provided with accommodations on off-trail days. Howe noted the program has seen few changes in the last 12 seasons, saying, “A lot of the world went soft in the last decade. We didn’t.”

In describing the job, Howe said, “After waking up before sunrise, crews spend long hours digging out forgotten trails, clipping brush, and cutting downed logs, often in the footprint of recent wildfires.”

He noted that 2025 intern Samantha Zimmerman of Kansas admitted that she struggled with tasks such as hoisting a 60-pound back and keeping up with other crew members during her first days on the job.

“But,” she proudly said of adjusting to the work, “I pushed through, looked back, and was like, ‘Yeah, I can do this.'”

The work also offers other benefits, as interns consistently report forming strong bonds with other crew members. “They make more eye contact in a summer than they have in years,” Howe said, noting the friendships are a factor in why Zimmerman is returning this summer. Because of her experience, her duties will include supporting first-year crew members.

“Now,” she said of her responsibilities this upcoming season, “I’ll be able to help them figure it out. If I can do it, they can do it.”

After working remotely in the spring, crew members, who often come from a variety of communities, began working on one of two start dates in June. Once fieldwork begins, during off weeks interns participate in a program that includes a whitewater rafting trip and visits to places like Redwood and Crater Lake national parks and the coast.

In addition, they attend workshops, including one-on-one financial literacy and job seeking. Interns also receive first aid/CPR training and have the option to pursue nationally-recognized field certifications.

Several short films provide background information. “Grimes Goes Wild” is a 10-minute film following 2024 intern and third-year crew member Chloe Grimes. It is viewable here. “A Long Way to Nowhere,” a 30-minute film that follows a 2023 intern across the Kalmiopsis Wilderness, can be seen by clicking here, or on the video at the end of the story.

The Siskiyou Mountain Club YouTube channel is also “a great place to watch short films from the wilderness,” according to Howe. The channel can be viewed here.

Along with field workers, the Siskiyou Mountain Club is also searching for a backcountry crew leader. For more information about that and other jobs, visit siskiyoumountainclub.org/jobs/.

The program is funded by community support and partnerships with the Rogue River-Siskiyou, Fremont-Winema, Six Rivers, Klamath, and Mt. Hood national forests, the Mid-Klamath Watershed Council and the REI Cooperative Fund.

Email freelance writer Lee Juillerat at 337lee337@charter.net.