Goodbye Woods Ferry, Hello Big Shoals! Well, we finally made it to our new assignment. We will miss Woods Ferry River Camp with it’s sewer on-site, being able to take long, hot showers and free washer and dryer. We may even miss the river campers who came almost every weekend and some through the week. Big Shoals State Park has a cement pad park host site with electric and water behind the bathroom building and across from the picnic area next to the Suwannee River. The site itself may seem like it was put in backwards but it works. We had to drive in the wrong way around to pull into the park host site. This small park area has a circular, one-way, paved drive and with the RV utility hook-ups on the drivers side it was easier to come in the wrong way than to back into the site. Luckily, through the week, the park doesn’t get a lot of visitors. Since we don’t own a “Blue Boy” we had to purchase about sixty feet of sewer hose to be able to dump our black and gray water tanks. The sewer outlet is right next to the bathroom building on the side along with an outdoor cold shower. Since, it is a “Day Use” only state park when we lock the entrance gates at night there will be no visitors.
Category: Workamping
What We All Want As Volunteers
As I am putting in the finishing touches on my first eBook I thought about all the volunteer assignments we have had and all the ones I am writing about. How they differ and how they are the same whether the management is the Florida State Parks, Florida State Forests, Florida County Governments or even the National Parks/Forests departments they all want volunteers. However, they are not all willing to give us live on-site volunteers the bare essentials to work there. Yes, most will give you a campsite but a lot of them do not think it is necessary to include a sewer on site. Now, I can see not putting sewers on all the campsites in the campground because the cost is tremendous and the impact to the environment may not be all that good. But, hey, come on the volunteers campsites are generally located next to the bathhouses. How hard is it to run a sewer line to one or two of the camp host sites? Below is an excerpt from my upcoming eBook that I thought you might like to read about this very thing.
Well We Are Not Going to Adams Tract
Well, we are not going to Adams Tract River Camp. Apparently, the volunteer who was coming into Woods Ferry has gotten another assignment elsewhere. If you want to try out being a campground host then starting out at Adams Tract River Camp for the next two months or so will be a great way to start. They need someone immediately so please contact them directly. We have already posted a notice on a couple of Facebook pages and tweeted. Here is the information we posted:
Our Final Month at Woods Ferry
Our final month at Woods Ferry River Camp has been an eventful one. We have had over 400 visitors this month. Most stayed over and camped for a night or two and we even had some family members drop in on us to visit and take advantage of our lovely camping area. Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts and regular canoeing and kayaking people abound during the summer months along the Suwannee River. We will be moving to Adams Tract River Camp tomorrow to finish out our summer months with the Suwannee River Wilderness Trail. It will be opened in time for the big 4th of July weekend!
Our First Month at Woods Ferry River Camp
Our First Month at Woods Ferry River Camp has been kind of slow but nice. It is pretty hear and so far not a lot of people have been stopping by. Mostly, this is due to the Suwannee River water levels as they peaked just above flood stage when we first arrived and the fact that kids are still in school. We anticipate to have more visitors once school lets out and people start taking their vacations. We have cleaned, bleached, mowed, swept and shoveled sand, cobwebs, mold and other things off the very boardwalk, the bathrooms, the cabins and around the camping area. The hardest part about the river camps is getting the chlorine water filtration system to work properly.
The flooding along the Suwannee River is a real nuisance and messy too. Although we were campground hosts at Adams Tract River Camp last year this river camp is different in a couple of ways. We still have a very nice campsite with water, electric and sewer on-site. We also have a picnic table and fire pit should we chose to use them. We sell firewood here as we did at Adams Tract but they have a small freezer here so we can sell bags of ice to the campers as well. The camp is smaller in land in compared to Adams Tract. Not as much to mow so we only have a push mower here as well as the commercial grade weed-wacker and gas powered blower. I miss the riding lawn mower very much.
Volunteer On An Island For The Summer
Volunteer On An Island For The Summer. What could be more fun than spending a little time on one of our various Islands around Florida? True, most that do have live on-site volunteer facilities run towards a tent or boat camping. But, why not give it a try? We contacted a few of the state parks that are only accessible via boat or ferry and found that a few of them would like to have volunteers this summer. Some of us oldsters may find that being in a tent for two or three months is a little bit too much but for those hardy and rugged souls out there we hope you will give it a try. If you have a boat with sleeping quarters and galley some of these parks has a spot for you too.
All of our Florida State Parks could use more volunteers this summer and every summer!
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