Last weekend, we welcomed our first 10 Wilderness Conservation Corps interns for the start of our 2026 summer season. This crew is the 13th since we named the program in 2014.
It had been months since these interns had first applied and started their remote onboarding. Now, they were finally gathered together and about to embark on their first hitch. Noah Delgado, a college decathlete from western Massachusetts, admitted he was both “nervous and excited” for his first foray into the backcountry.
After settling into the Club’s Gold Hill facility, receiving a day of training, and undergoing a pack test, the interns set off to the Babyfoot Lake Trailhead west of Selma, OR. Their goal was to restore a loop traversing the Little Chetco River by way of the Babyfoot Lake, Babyfoot Lake Rim, Kalmiopsis Rim, Little Chetco and Emily Cabin trails.
The hiking would be challenging. The loop is approximately 15 miles long and includes thousands of feet in elevation gain and loss.
And the work wouldn’t be a breeze either. The crew would be up against dust-covered tanoak brush, dense thickets of poison oak, and stiff cankers of slick leaf ceanothus — one of the fastest-growing and hardiest plants in post-fire areas.
But the interns had a great group of staff to guide them. Tiffani Ayres, Chloe Grimes, and Ryan Debreceni were there to teach the crew to clip out brush, repair damaged tread, and crosscut fallen logs. The Club’s executive director, Gabe Howe, was there too.
“This was my first orientation in a number of years,” remarks Gabe, who struggled on the hike in. He published a blog post about struggling into camp an hour after everyone else and spending a few days with the crew. Read it here.
As the interns struggled to hoist on their packs at the trailhead, Tiffani warned that this hike would likely be “the hardest day of their summer.” It was the hump they would need to get over — a sort of break-in period. As the crew climbed up to Babyfoot Rim, intern Kirill Lopatnikov of Russia stopped to rest on a rock.
“We’re getting screwed,” he said. “But we’re getting stronger.” Kirill is in the US attending university.
After seven days of backpacking, swinging tools, pulling saws, and clipping brush, the crew had returned to the Babyfoot Lake Trailhead in a rainstorm. They were shivering cold but smiling, happy to receive some homemade sandwiches and sodas to refuel.
And they certainly had become stronger.
On Saturday, June 13, these interns were head out on their second hitch of the summer. And this time, after having learned all the skills they’ll need to be successful this season, they’re expecting more from themselves.
