Tag: Suwannee River Wilderness Trail

Volunteering in State Parks

March 28, 2020May 23, 2022 Jolene MacFadden

It has been a couple of months since I have taken the time to write up posts for all of my websites. With one thing and another, I just haven’t had the time or I should say that I am not organized enough to get everything done. This weekend I wanted to encourage more people who are living full time in their RVs to consider volunteer workamping in our Florida State Parks this summer. Quite a few of my fellow RVers are being displaced in their current stopping areas and are scrambling to find a place to land for a little while. Well, I say check with your local state parks about becoming a workamper. Yes, all the state parks around the country are being closed due to this social-distancing thing but the parks still have a long list of projects that need to be done and the park rangers just can’t get to all of them. So, volunteer to help them out in exchange for a campsite!

Volunteer At A Florida State Park, Workamping, Working While RVing

Summer on the Suwannee

June 4, 2015 Jolene MacFadden

Summer on the Suwannee River is going to be exciting and it will be hot and muggy too. It’s a very good thing that we will be in a Florida State Park that has a cool spring for swimming. As we speak our little RV air conditioning unit is thinking about quitting on us and we just don’t have the money to get it fixed. 🙁 Major bummer for us. We may have to move to the front of the park behind the ranger’s station to get under the shade of some trees pretty soon. The barn area campsite for the residential hosts is extremely nice with a huge yard, electric, water and sewer set up, a fire ring and picnic table. We also have an extra bathhouse inside the barn that we use. It was made for the boy scouts who primitive camp in the park in exchange for some service project they do for the ranger. They were trying to get equestrian primitive camping approved to utilize this great horse barn that came with the property as well. But due to some “right of way on private property” snafu that has been put on hold indefinitely. The bathhouse is A.D.A. accessible. However, there are no shade trees where we have to park in order to reach the utilities. It gets pretty warm in here fairly quickly in the morning then all the way until dark.

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Campground Host Experiences, Lessons in Camping, RV and Campers, Sights to See, Volunteer At A Florida State Park, Workamping

Well We Are Not Going to Adams Tract

July 2, 2014 Jolene MacFadden

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:

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

Our Final Month at Woods Ferry

July 1, 2014 Jolene MacFadden

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!

Campground Host Experiences, Camping Resources, Funding Our Adventure, Park Info, RV and Campers, Volunteer At A Florida State Park, Volunteer at National Parks and Forest, Volunteer in Florida State Forests, Workamping

Our First Month at Woods Ferry River Camp

June 2, 2014 Jolene MacFadden

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.

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

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