Find Jeff and Susan

When Susan and I lost our home and decided to live in a travel trailer, we had never even been camping together.  We quickly learned that the campgrounds we found along the way were tended by camp hosts.  Camp Hosts are basically seasonal care-takers.  They live on site, provide assistance to campers, pick up the sites after people leave and sell firewood.  Some Camp Hosts are paid but most exchange a couple hours a day of their time in exchange for free rent.  Camp Hosts are often retired couples traveling as snow birds.  They might host a campsite up north during the summer and drive their camper to Arizona or Florida during the winter.  We were surprised at the number of people involved in this activity.  There’s an entire network of folks that live in RV’s and exchange their time for free rent in a beautiful campsite.  We did run into some that couldn’t wait to stop camp hosting – it’s not for everyone.  And the word to the wise is that “professional” camp hosts line their gig up between labor day, before the new year so now is the time to check with a park if you’d like to host for them.

Our experience in North Idaho occurred because Farragut State Park has a different type of camp host need, the Cabin Cleaner.  The park has ten cabins that are rented nearly every day all summer long.  When campers vacate a cabin park personnel clean up after them so it’s ready for the next camper.  Enter Jeff and Susan.  We found Farragut online and volunteered to clean the cabins.  We were offered a camping spot on Volunteer Lane – an area in the park dedicated to volunteer’s living space but your trailer has to have a septic system.  Ours didn’t so they offered us to use the “hostel” – basically a little cabin with a common kitchen and set up for multiple sleepers.  We lived in the park for free in exchange for cleaning the cabins.  Now, cleaning the cabins was anything but difficult.  They’re only 10×10 and most vacating campers clean up after themselves.  I never had a day with more than three hours of work.  Most days I got it done in an hour and occasionally there weren’t any cabins on a work day.  I heard many people state that the Cabin Cleaner is the easiest job in the park and I’d have to agree.  I often felt guilty about this so I volunteered to do some work above the cabin cleaning position.  I worked on the asphalt and helped out with some other projects but this was completely voluntary.

Originally Susan and I intended to return as cabin cleaners for another summer of free rent but for one reason or another, we’ve decided we need to do something else.  So there may be an opportunity for some lucky person to have what I think is the best volunteer job at Farragut State Park this summer but you’d better act fast as the position will fill quickly. If free rent isn’t incentive enough, Farragut State Park on beautiful Lake Pend Oreille is a gem of unparalleled beauty.  Go to the Idaho website and submit your application today.  You might like it there so much that you decide to stay, that’s what happened to us anyway.  You can use the money you save in rent to go down to bayview and rent a boat for a fantastic day on the lake.

If you’re looking for camp hosting in another state just google camp hosting (state) and you’ll find loads of links to check out.

UPDATE:  A friend emailed me and said my photo reminded him of Russell (but without hair) in the Pixar Movie UP.  You be the judge.

Personally, I don’t see the resemblance.