About the Program
Our ITA Youth Trail Crew Program provides opportunities for youth ages 14-18 to learn about the outdoors while building and maintaining hiking trails in a safe, teamwork-oriented environment.
Students will have the opportunity to live and work together in some of Idaho’s most wild places for a few days to up to a week at a time. Through this experience, they will build skills in teamwork and communication, as well as develop confidence in using traditional tools to perform trail maintenance. Our hope is this experience will inspire teens to become lifelong stewards and voices for their public lands and trails.
Stay tuned for our Project Schedule release on March 1 to see and sign up for our 2023 youth projects!
On The Trail
Our trips are led by experienced crew leaders who are passionate about the outdoors. These projects allow teens to meet new friends, try new things and explore Idaho’s best outdoor places.
ITA will provide all the meals and supervision for the week. Tents, sleeping bags, and pads are available. Crew leaders will have cell phones/radios in case of emergency.
Contact trails@idahotrailsassociation.org if you have any questions about our youth projects.
Upcoming Youth Projects
This Youth Trail Crew (ages 14-18) weekend project will have volunteers work on the trails out of Wilderness Gateway off Highway 12 and the Lochsa River. This is a popular access point to the Selway Bitterroot Wilderness, and we’ll work on the first few miles of several of the trails right in the campground. ... Read More
In the Sawtooth Wilderness near Atlanta, Idaho, ITA will be hosting a youth (ages 14-18) trail work weekend clearing up the Little Queens and Queens River Trails. Volunteers will camp at the Queens River trailhead for the weekend, returning to camp each evening where we’ll have a volunteer cook to help prepare meals. With ... Read More
Youth volunteers (ages 14-18) will be packed into a backcountry primitive camp at the junction of the Center Ridge and French Spur trails north of McCall, Idaho to spend a week camping and doing trail maintenance. This trail connects two others to form a loop and heads south toward Black Tip Mountain. Some sections ... Read More
This is a youth (ages 14-18) backpacking project, where volunteers will be carrying all their own gear, food, and trail tools for a week of trail maintenance north of McCall, Idaho. The crew will hike into Loon Lake, where we can visit what is left of the B-25 bomber that crashed here in the ... Read More
In partnership with the Wood River Trails Coalition, ITA crew leaders and youth volunteers (ages 14-18) will spend a weekend cleaning the trail up to Mill Lake high in the Smoky Mountains outside Ketchum. At the end of the day, we’ll return to our camp at the trailhead where an ITA volunteer cook will ... Read More
Youth volunteers (ages 14-18) will meet near Black Lake Campground in the southern Seven Devils where we will work on the Black Lake Creek Trail down toward the Wild and Scenic Rapid River. We’ll have a base camp at the Lake Fork Trailhead near the creek, where an ITA volunteer cook will prepare dinner ... Read More