Glacier Book Club: Dirt Work

About The Book: A lively and lyrical account of one woman’s unlikely  apprenticeship on a national-park trail crew and what she discovers about nature, gender, and the value of hard work.

Christine Byl first encountered the national parks the way most of us do: on vacation. But after she graduated from college, broke and ready for a new challenge, she joined a Glacier National Park trail crew as a seasonal “traildog” maintaining mountain trails for the millions of visitors Glacier draws every year. Byl first thought of the job as a paycheck, a summer diversion, a welcome break from “the real world” before going on to graduate school. She came to find out that work in the woods on a trail crew was more demanding, more rewarding—more real—than she ever imagined.

Watch the Zoom book club discussion with author Christine Byl here.