Day 1- Two Wolf Foundation WST-002

The majority of my trip up until kickoff day (June 4th) was filled with rain and cloudy skies. However the morning of the 4th, our first official program day for the Two Wolf Foundation WST-002 had different plans for us. It was a perfect blue bird day, hardly any clouds in the sky.

We spent the first few hours of the day making final preparations to the vehicles, with some of the final pieces of equipment finding their homes, routes being confirmed and green lit through onXmaps, Inc. , groceries being put in the coolers and portable refrigerators like the Dometic , among packing all of my camera gear up in my truck.

Around nine am we ( Brian Flynn , Justin, and I) departed the Bitterroot Valley for Missoula to pick up Anthony, Nate, and Lorenzo. Anthony J. Longo a Marine turned nonprofit Director and Founder himself, leads the Warriors Choice Foundation, Inc. which places service dogs in veterans homes. Nate, an Army Infantry Veteran who lives in Missoula and is an outdoorsman to his core. Then we have Lorenzo Aguilera , oh where to begin. First off, this guy is a Cav Scout, now if you didn't know this already, I am (Cameron) an Infantry Vet myself. Now if you are reading this and you were either a Cavalry Scout or an Infantryman, you know that there has been a long lasting rivalry between the two MOS's. So you know I had to give my man a hard time for a huge portion of the first day (actually probably the whole trip). Now with everyone in the group besides Rick accounted for and all in the same place it was time to load into our assigned vehicles and make our way north.

Anthony and Bourbon (the OG dog for WCF) would be riding with Brian in the 4Runner (Tango Whiskey Two), Nate and Lorenzo would be in the Tacoma (Tango Whiskey One), and Justin and I would be in my Tacoma. We quickly pushed out of the Missoula traffic and were on our way north with plans of meeting Rick in a small town halfway to our destination of Noxon Reservoir.

This is where a lot of the magic happened, during the movements. At least that is how it was for me. With a huge portion of this program being engulfed in overland travel, each vehicle team had hours and hours of time to engage in conversation. Justin and I talked about everything and anything. From our families, mens mental health topics, him wanting to move to Montana next year, to me even realizing that it was the 8 year anniversary of my first surgery (the surgery that changed my life and started the decline of my health). I can only assume that the other guys did the very same.

The hour and a half drive felt like it had been a short ten minutes when we pulled into the gas station where we would meet Rick and pick up the last snacks that each guy wanted. Rick a retired firefighter from Arizona who now lives the nomad life joined the team at our meeting place. After the last introduction and snacks were grabbed, we were back on the road for another hour and a half movement to Noxon.?

When we first arrived at the reservoir, Justin and I were tasked with scouting the area for a good place to call home for the evening. Our goal was to find a dispersed camp site on public, unfortunately that wasn’t in our favor this time around. However just around the bend we found an official forest service campground that was vacant besides some locals who were just using it for the day. Now that we all had settled our vehicles into their homes for the night, it was time for the crew to familiarize themselves with the equipment we would be using for the next week. This is where Brian had his hands full, he had to walk each person through the setup of all of the vehicle tent systems, the trailer setup, and more.?

Now that all of the tents and beds were setup, it was time to collect some firewood and start sharing some stories. The crew split up and began collecting small pieces of branches that were around the camp. Justin and myself head off into the woods with a chainsaw in search of dead and downed trees to get some bigger pieces of wood to keep the fire burning through the rest of the day and into the evening.?

With chairs being setup, and team members taking their seats, the stories quickly started being shared among the group. People talked about their struggles of finding purpose after leaving the service, my story of a military surgeon essentially ruining my life, the discussions of public lands and protecting them were often talked about, among loads and loads of inspirational and captivating stories were all shared.

Now it was time for the inaugural dinner, hamburgers, potato salad, and beans. Dinner on programs like these are never a one man show, everyone is always doing something. Whether you’re cleaning the area up, preparing vegetables, cooking the meals, or cleaning up afterwards, there is always something to do. For me, of course I had to make it all look good on camera! So I snapped away with my photo camera and filmed a bunch as well with my rigged out FX6.?

After dinner, the campfire stories continued, but it also was time to game plan for the coming days. So we scoured various routes on onXmaps, Inc. , talked about the work that we would be doing in the Kootenai National Forest on public lands, and chatted about how many of us needed a trip just like this.

Despite everyone being tired and worn out from the day, I don’t think that we called it a night until nearly one in the morning. We watched the sunset and blue hour linger to nearly eleven pm, we continued to sit by the fire and create lasting friendships and bonds, before finally calling it a night.

Cheers to day one, and I look forward to sharing day twos adventure in the coming days!