Category: Volunteer At A Florida State Park

Report From Adams Tract River Camp

June 12, 2013September 14, 2025 Jolene MacFadden

We have Solar Lights Now! Our time here at Adams Tract River Camp is coming to a close. We have about 2 weeks left before we move onto St. Joseph’s Peninsula State Park. We can only hope that they people who work there will be as nice as the ones we have working here at the Suwannee River Wilderness Trail Office as well as the great guys at Troy Springs State Park who have been keeping us in supplies and helping us out with repairs and trash pick-ups. Thanks so much for all your help and we look forward to our return assignment here next summer.

Campground Host Experiences, Florida State Parks, Volunteer At A Florida State Park, Workamping

Happy Memorial Day

May 27, 2013September 14, 2025 Jolene MacFadden

We hope everyone is having a fun but safe Memorial Day and remembering our Veterans. This holiday has long been considered the start of the summer season. A lot of campgrounds up north don’t really open until then. Our little river camp was no exception. Although we expected a large group on Saturday and another one on Sunday we only got the one on Sunday. And let me tell you they were enough. We never realized that we had gotten use to only having a few people camping over night every so often until this weekend. The entire area around us seemed to have let out a sigh when the last of the kayakers went down the boardwalk to the river. Don’t get me wrong the Lakeland Florida Kayak Group was very nice but a little rowdy and there were so many of them. The two other couples that we had got sort of lost in all the activity from the big group. But everyone had a good time and they mostly cleaned up after themselves. For some reason we cannot get many people to read the “Recycle – Aluminum Cans Only” sign. I guess it’s because it looks like all the other trashcans inside a wooden barrel except for the little sign we have on front.

More Camphost News

May 21, 2013September 14, 2025 Jolene MacFadden

We just got confirmation on our last campground host position for next year. We are now completely booked for the next 19 months with April and September off next year! We have updated our Calendar Page with the everything we have so far. Mom, Katie and I are hoping to be able to visit some parks during those two months off on our way to the next one.

From Adams Tract to St. Joseph’s Peninsula State Park beginning July 1, 2013 until August 31, 2013
From St. Joseph’s to Dade Battlefield State Park beginning September 1, 2013 until December 31, 2013

Adams Tract River Camp

May 10, 2013September 14, 2025 Jolene MacFadden

Now that we are halfway through our first assignment we thought we would create a little movie to show everybody where we are a campground host till the end of June. Yes, we have posted some pictures already but a movie is always a nice thing to share with everyone. We have been having a good time. The work so far hasn’t been so hard. We haven’t really had too many campers till this weekend. With the bad weather, school still being in and the river being fairly high until this week means we haven’t had to do much yet. This weekend is the first time we have a full house. Three boy scout troops from our hometown is staying here this weekend. That is two dozen boys and a couple of scout masters will cause quite a bit of work for us. We have already mowed about 3 acres of grass, blown off all the sidewalks, camping platforms and down the boardwalk. We also refreshed the bathroom and set up a recycle station to collect aluminum cans. The all drove in about 8:00pm this evening dropping off their camping equipment and supplies for the weekend. Tomorrow should be interesting.

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Florida State Parks, Lessons in Camping, RV and Campers, Volunteer At A Florida State Park, Workamping

Being a Camphost

April 18, 2013September 14, 2025 Jolene MacFadden

Most of us “Full-Timers” will, at one time or another, become camp host somewhere along the way. We have taken two camp host assignments so far. We scheduled one for July and August when we first started out because we wanted the experience and who wouldn’t want to camp next to the ocean for two months. Money being tight we have taken an earlier workkamping gig with Suwannee River Wilderness Trail.

Manatees and Other News

March 12, 2013September 14, 2025 Jolene MacFadden

Since our February Park Fees Campaign didn’t do so well we have decided to take more Camp Host positions for the rest of the year. We have had to postpone our southern leg of our Florida State Parks visits until next year. For now we have been granted a Camp host position at one of the river camps located along the Suwannee River Wilderness Trail for three months. We are looking forward to this new experience though with a little bit of trepidation as they had to close 3 of the 6 camps due to the rising water of the Suwannee this past week. But after a quick call to volunteer headquarters today we were told that they hope to have them all opened by this Sunday. That’s good because a lot of the schools will be getting the spring breaks soon. There is nothing like a kayak or canoe adventure to get away from it all that stress for a week or so. We expect to see quite a few people over the Easter Weekend. Phooey, we are starting our assignment on a holiday. :< Come to think of it our camp host assignment at St. Joseph's starts July 1st just before the holiday as well.

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Florida State Parks, Funding Our Adventure, Lessons in Camping, Volunteer At A Florida State Park