On March 14, I took a train from Strasbourg to Paris, France, to hop on a plane heading west. Twenty hours later, I touched land in Montana, at the same time as billions of snowflakes were falling from the Big Sky. I got back my luggage (minus one missing wheel) and went on my merry way to Helena.
The very next Monday, I anxiously walked into PPLT’s office with a box of macarons and was instantly warmly welcomed by everybody. (On second thought, maybe they were just excited to get macarons . . . .) A week later, I hiked 1906 Trail as my starter South Hills trail! As I arrived at the top, I was sweaty and tired, but I saw my first ever chipmunk and it made it all worth it.
My initial internship task was to learn, and so I did. For the first weeks, I juggled between doing communications work, learning skills, and being staff members’ sidekick, following my new coworkers around and doing miscellaneous (love that word) activities like moving logs, hanging up DFMI posters, drilling holes, and marveling at Costco aisles while shopping to feed the team.
Week after week, the efforts I was putting into building the Happy Trails online database (which was my actual work) started showing results. Armed only with old hiking boots, my trusted camera, a terribly folded South Hills map, and, every now and then, Nelly the HETAP cart and Pear the Cactus, I started ticking off every trail of the system. Working on the trail database was all sunshine and rainbows, and gave me cool new anecdotes:
- I almost fell off a cliff with the cart, but didn’t!
- I sacrificed my body twice to save my camera when tripping on branches and pebbles. (I still have a bruise.)
- I got lost and had to find my way back by climbing up rocks like a mountain goat (bonus point because it started raining).
Now that my internship is over, I can safely say that I am proud that I got to be part of PPLT for the past five months. Hiking every beautiful area, meeting so many lovely people, and participating in all kinds of events felt like I was the luckiest intern on Earth. Who never dreamt of being outside, getting creative, serving the community, AND building fairy houses for work?
Claire Gallani is the communications intern at Prickly Pear Land Trust.
