Tuesday, August 10, 2010: Our host campsite provided by CLM is in the middle of the Indian Valley Campground about 11 miles west of Downieville, CA. They provide us with 30 amps of electricity, water, company phone and a method to dump our holding tanks when needed. We are surrounded by tall trees but have a very tiny slit in the trees to the southwest. It took me about twenty tries but I finally got the Internet satellite signal by moving the tripod around. We also get DirecTV on the same satellite dish using a separate LNB (receiver) to get television. In this case however, the slit in the trees is so small we can get either Internet OR DirecTV but not both. We chose the Internet and have put DirecTV on vacation hold until the end of October when our contract has expired. Honestly, we have found we are so busy, we have no time for TV anyway.

What is "workamping". A workamper is basically a person with an RV who takes a seasonal job, usually at a resort or campground to provide a small amount of income and almost always a free location to park and live in the RV for the season. In some cases, like many state parks and some national forests, the workamper is NOT paid for their service, they are volunteers, but get a free camping location for the duration of their service. You can learn everything you need to know about workamping by subscribing to the Workamper News which I mentioned yesterday.

Friday, August 13, 2010: Famous California hwy 49 is the hwy passing all our campgrounds and the county seat of Sierra County, Downieville, just 10.5 miles up 49 to the east. As 49 passes through Downieville, it becomes a one lane road crossing over the Yuba River on a one lane bridge. This is the main street of Downieville, click to enlarge.

I debated with myself the advantages and disadvantages of workamping before accepting the camp host position. I currently

Each of our campground hosts must cover more than one campground so that makes everyone busy. Yet, we all found time to rush to Wayne and Char's for sour dough pancakes. Now we even have another meeting planned for a week from today.

The campground at Sardine Lake has great views of the Sierra Buttes. Click the photo to catch a glimpse of the Buttes from the Sardine Lake Campground.

After the meeting, Gwen went to work while I rode my road bike on up the mountain to Gold Lake, about 5 miles, then turned around and peddled (not coasted)

Friday, September 3, 2010: This is the day most Labor Day campers have arrived. It has been surprisingly easy with many huge family groups renting multiple spaces where we can check in multiple sites by talking to just one camper. By the end of the day, we have been able to register about 85% of all the campers. Others who were not in their camp or who are arriving tomorrow will be registered tomorrow. Now the challenge is to be sure all these campers have plenty of toilet paper and clean bathrooms for the next three days. So while Gwen's doing THAT tomorrow, I'm going for a bike ride. Well, I did work alone TODAY until 3 pm for the first round catching all the early arrivals so I don't feel too badly about leaving her to work while I play, besides, I'll cover the late afternoon round. I achieved my goal of cycling 500 miles in 30 days yesterday so I've set a new goal of 600 miles in 30 days beginning tomorrow.

The photo is of the walking bridge over the North Yuba River at Rocky Rest Campground. It leads to a favorite swimming area and to the North Yuba trail heading up-river.

part of the job which takes the most time is dealing with camper arrivals and registrations. Nearly all the campers, say 97% are very pleasant to deal with, glad to be at the campground and happy to have a camp host to greet them and to take care of the campground. Some campers even offered us treats or invited us to eat with them. The most physical labor required for the job was clearing the ashes from the fire pits and loading the ash bags into garbage dumpsters. We just made sure not to fill the bags too heavily.

California Land Management has been a fine company to work for. Our pay was automatically deposited into our checking account and we were paid regularly for the use of our truck. We were also very lucky to have a wonderful “Site Manager”, our immediate boss, and “Opps Manager” the boss above him. They have made our time here enjoyable and always followed through with everything they promised. We hope both will remain our friends for the rest of our lives. We also had some great co-workers and other hosts who were always helpful and the folks we had fun with. Again, we’ve heard stories of having to work for Site Managers, Co-workers or Opps Managers which were NOT pleasant so we are grateful for all those we got to work with during our three months. Our campsite at Indian Valley Campground had water, power and a method to dump our holding tanks at any time which we appreciated. Finally, the camp host job did exactly what we wanted it to do; it got us back to “financially zero” by paying the medical bills we created with our two day visit to a hospital emergency room in May.

Now for the “deal-breakers” with workamping. California Land Management has many types of jobs available to workampers. Campground hosting is one of those and the one we did which I’m commenting on here. Some of the other jobs are Site Manager and Opps Managers which I’ve mentioned above. The campground maintenance person works at many campgrounds fixing things. There are also retail store clerks, food cart vendors, and marina workers too. So, the first deal-breaker to keep us from ever doing this again is using our own truck. We were paid 30 cents per mile to use our $35,000 diesel truck (2004 price) to drive from one campground to another. We were paid honestly for our mileage but the CLM policy is to pay “from gate to gate”, not for driving inside the campground. CLM wants the host to “walk the campground”. Some of the hosts we know were paid that way. So I guess CLM expects the host to carry the broom, mop, bucket, sprayer and all the rolls of toilet paper needed to service the multiple pit toilets spread throughout the campground. Even if you don’t own a diesel truck you should be able to imagine how 30 cents per mile will not begin to cover the cost to move an 8,500 lb vehicle for a short distance. Additionally, we covered six campgrounds with an average of 3 starts per campground per round with two rounds per day. That’s 36 starts per day times 5 days per week or 180 starts per week. 30 cents per mile will NOT pay for a new starter on the truck either. Just driving into any one of the campgrounds is risking damage from other camping drivers, trees, stumps, boulders or even the miscellaneous gear thrown in the pickup bed. It wouldn’t matter if the damage was our own fault or someone else, 30 cents per mile would not cover our deductable either. You could get around this deal breaker by becoming stationed at a single campground where you could wheel around gear in a wagon. Or, the company could supply a truck for multiple campground hosting. Or, you own an older, smaller pickup where fuel mileage is better and small damage risk is no big deal.

The second deal breaker has to do with our retirement lifestyle. At the beginning of this page I explained that this was not our style of camping. The sites are too close, too expensive, and dirty. The only tent camping I’ve ever done was backpacking. We have enjoyed our retirement and generally move every two weeks and otherwise enjoy our days by visiting the area or being “tourists”. Our camp host responsibilities kept us in one place for three months and kept us near our trailer to help campers with their problems. So, we had to do our jobs rather than continue to enjoy our retirement.

The third deal breaker is dealing with the 3% of the campers who are essentially “low class”. First, let me say, if you are a “people person” who enjoys visiting for hours with campers, listening to stories about their kids, jobs, camping gear, vehicles, hobbies and ex-spouse then this may not be a negative for you. Anyway, part of the host job is to “keep control” of the campground. Many campers go camping to leave social rules at home and essentially begin drinking alcoholic beverage by the case as soon as they arrive. Those campers tend to be loud in one way or another and bother other campers. The host must ask that they follow the quiet hour rules and the host usually must clean up the mess after they leave. The only real power a host has comes from the respect the camper might have for the uniforms we must wear. We can call the sheriff and hope that someone responds other than that, we have no power. When I began this review I stated that we had no campers who did not respond to our requests but we were lucky. We’ve been told stories of other host experiences which weren’t so pleasant and the potential is always there. The whole time as a host I felt like a parent, teacher and policeman who must ask the campers to “behave”. At the very least, half of the campers never intend to pay for their space unless someone comes to ask them for payment. Most gladly pay their “rent” while others are obviously disappointed that they had not left ten minutes earlier and avoided the fee. Again, if you are a person who likes to be “in authority” and likes to visit with a variety of personalities, none of this may be a negative for you.

Finally, not a deal breaker but an annoyance, many campers come unprepared and the first thing they do is come to the host to ask to borrow something. We’ve been asked for a bicycle tire pump, duck tape, tent stakes, WIFI connection (off our satellite Internet), axe, playing cards, swim suit, change for the pay telephone (which was never repaid), and bicycle. I’m sure there was more but that’s all I can remember for now. It’s a good thing these folks did not know I have an air compressor or that would have been in demand to inflate their river floatation devices. You must learn to say “NO” or expect to lose some of your gear.

To end on a positive note, the California minimum wage of $8.50 per hour really added up quickly. I told of my community college teaching position paying $59/hour but because of the limited hours they pay, our first two weeks wages working for CLM was nearly what I earn in an entire quarter working for the college. Additionally, the long hours in August turned into much shorter hours in September and October where we were paid to sit at our site relaxing while waiting for customers to buy firewood. In other words, we were paid for eight hours where the physical part of the work was really only 2 hours. Just remember, there were days in August we worked 14 hours each and were paid for only 8 each. I believe CLM knows this and knows for those who work the entire season, the balance comes at the end of the season so does not cut our hours so drastically that we end up feeling cheated. I’m hoping this evaluation will help in your decision making should you be thinking of becoming a camp host. By the way, I know of hosts who do this job ONLY for a free camping space, no wage, but they don’t usually have to clean the toilets. Go figure!