It was February of 2021. We had been full time RVing since the last September and we were trying to plan how we would spend our spring when we returned to our Home Base area in Maryland. We had doctor appointments and our grandson’s birthday and other things that we wanted to do back “home,” but the question remained where we would park the trailer while we were there doing these things.
One day I was looking around on the Interwebs and I started searching for Camp Hosting volunteer jobs at the Maryland State Parks that in the area of our Home Base.
I found a few prospects and sent in my resume and cover letter. Not a long time later, I got a reply from Claudia, the volunteer coordinator at Cunningham Falls State Park in Thurmont, MD. I had been to this park twice before. Once to be a volunteer in an all women’s adventure race and the other to find a geocache.
After some back and forth emails and a video interview, we were offered a position as co-camp host at the Manor which is the smaller campground in the park. It sits right off of Route 15 on a hillside called Bob’s Hill and is wooded and a little secluded.
Lisa and I would team up with another camp host who had served the year before and was returning for the whole season. She would break us in and teach us how to do the job.
The original plan was to arrive at the very end of March and stay for about six weeks. They ask for a minimum time of 30 days and we thought that 45 days would be plenty of time to get all of our appointments completed and then we would start exploring somewhere else as summer started.
Being the time of COVID, our plans changed as in person appointments were harder to get than we planned and our six-week gig stretched to three months.
It was really fun watching the forest transform from a mid-spring sparseness to a lush, fully leaved summer forest. We really didn’t mind extending our stay. We both enjoyed the work and our daily walks up the mountain was a good workout for both Ginger and myself.
Our co-host stayed at the other end of the road from our site. Her site also had a sewer hookup, which I would use every two weeks to dump our blue boy. It was a little bit of a hassle to maneuver it around the small trees and rocks in her site, but still better than hooking up the trailer and driving seven or eight miles on mountain roads to the main campground where there was a dump site. Not having a dump site at the Manor is really the only minus of camping or hosting there.
We were issued a set of keys, for the Visitor Center, Maintenance shop and the bathhouse. We were also issued a t-shirt each that said Volunteer on it, a florescent vest that said the same, a radio and charger. The radio was our main means of communication with the rangers, camp office, park office and maintenance staff.
The Camp Hosting agreement stated that we would be required to provide 20 hours of work a week per adult and would be provide a site with electricity. There are some flaws with this system, since the cost of a site is the same if a regular person is reserving it no matter if it is one person, or six. But Claudia assured us that as long as the work was getting done, the hours would happen. She was right that we had no real problem doing that amount of work each week between the two of us, but as a stickler, I tracked what I was doing each day, just to make sure. I still thought we were being “underpaid,” but we needed a place to park the trailer and I really did enjoy the work.
One thing I realized as we were finishing up our first three month stint, was that I had not taken a single day off. I had done some work every day for three months. Now, to be fair, some of those days consisted of about an hour or maybe two as Ginger and I walked through the camp and down to the day use on our morning walk, but I was technically working as I checked sites and picked up trash along the way. I’m not complaining, but when we came back for our second stint, I made sure we took actual days off where we actually left the camp, sometimes for the whole night.
The schedule at the Manor was pretty loose. Sharon and I would coordinate our movements with each other, ensuring at least one of us was always on board. If both of us had to be out of camp, we would let the Duty Ranger know, and they would cover us until we returned. We didn’t have a set “day off” and that was ok. It was flexible enough for us to take time off when we needed and not have to wait for our day off to roll around.
Our co-host, Sharon, was a very nice lady. She did a lot of the greeting work with her open personality and we did most of the grunt work. We shared a Gator which carried all our tools for cleaning the sites. An ash bucket, shovels, rakes, water to put out hot ashes and a broom. We parked the Gator at her site, where we also kept the charger. It was an electric Gator. I really liked that thing. It was easy to drive and we didn’t have to deal with refueling with gas. It also ran way quieter than the gas models. Ginger really liked riding in the Gator. Every time we appeared to be heading to the Gator, she was getting up and trying to come along. We weren’t allowed to head out without her or we would be subject to her high yips of abandonment.
Cleaning the sites each time they were vacated. We started calling it T & A, which stood for Trash and Ash. It was the minimum we would do to a site to get it ready for the next camper. Another thing we liked to do was rake the site of any leaves, sticks or other debris and make it look real nice.
Our routine would be to roll up on the site in the Gator. The three of us would disembark, I would grab the shovels and handle the firepit first. Ginger would jump off and start checking the area for any edible refuse, carelessly left by a camper. She was also our supervisor. Lisa would grab trash picker and trash can and check the area for any trash. We developed a real good Trash Eye doing this job. No piece of micro-trash would escape our gaze. It is something we both can’t stop doing even though we have completed our gig as Camp Hosts.
I would flip back the fire pit on its side. This was our signal to each other that the site had been cleaned. That way, as we or Sharon made a round, we could easily tell if a site needed cleaning. I would check the ash for heat and then transfer it to the ash bin in the Gator. If it was hot, I would sprinkle some water on the coals to make them safe.
After that, we would both grab the rakes and clear the debris off of the site. I liked the little lines the rakes made as you scraped them across the fine gravel. It had a Zen effect. Also, I found myself thinking of my dad a lot as I raked. He loved to rake and our campsite we owned when I was a teen always was spiffy looking and well raked. I would channel him as I did the job. It gave me peace.
Other parts of the process was to make sure the breakers were off if it was an electric site and check around the edge for any discarded items or trash.
When we were done with the site, I would give Ginger an indication that we were done and if she approved, she would head to the Gator and hop in, ready to head to the next site.
During our first part of the gig, I brought up a wheelbarrow from the maintenance shop down the hill and had my own set of cleaning tools. I would use it to do some of the sites near our side if I didn’t feel like getting the Gator at Sharon’s or if she was using it. It was a pretty good workout to push the barrow all the way up the hill. Especially if I had a good load of ash on board. I think I lost about fifteen pounds during that first three months.
Greeting the campers was another part of our duties. We would basically say hello and introduce ourselves. Pointing out the rules and amenities of the camp, where the bathhouse was, firewood, trails, etc. Answer any questions they had and let them know where to find us if they needed anything. My and Lisa’s basic method was to not bother a camper if they were in the middle of something like setting up or unpacking. Most times I would just wave and say hello, then move on. Sharon had her own method of greeting, so we were happy to let her carry that load. She was also working full time from her RV, and was a night owl, so we easily settled into a routine of doing the jobs that we excelled at. I was always up early and started cleaning sites as soon as they were available. I would have most things ready early in the day. She liked to do rounds later in the day and sometimes well after dark. It worked well for both of us.
Another duty was to fill out the camp permits each day. The Manor is isolated from the main part of the park and the larger campground and we were mostly on our own here. There was no camp office on this side, and the contact station at the gate was unmanned. At first, Ginger and I would head down to the Visitor Center (which was mostly closed early in the season due to COVID) and use the computer there to run a report on the comings and goings of the campers. With report in hand I would write up the permits, which were a basic form that showed the site, check out date and check out time. We would also write the campers last name on the side, so they could easily find their permit. We would place these in the registration shed which was at the entrance of the campground. A clip with a site number was where we put the permits.
Unfortunately, not every aspect of the job is unicorns and rainbows. The camp had rules and our job was to only inform and remind errant campers of those rules. The rangers and, if needed, the Natural Resources Police (NRP) were the enforcers.
Being a resident of the campground, though, we were the first people the campers went to when they had a problem. Luckily I only had to deal with loud or unruly campers a handful of times. Site 25 seemed to be the campsite that attracted the most attention. Mainly because the campers thought it was the furthest away from the hosts, and it was, but we had named the site Isabella and it was always on our radar. The first time I had to go to site Isabella was to help a guy find his girlfriend who had ran into the woods in the dark in the middle of the night. It was about 4 am and I was heading to the bathhouse when I heard some noise and then saw a guy riding down the road the wrong way. I stopped him to ask if everything was ok, and he said his girlfriend had run off. Long story short, they had actually snuck into the camp that night and she was unstable in some way. I had actually had to call the NRP for help and three cop cars showed up. Two state police and one NPR. That was exciting. They ended up abandoning gear and never came back to claim it or pay for their night in camp.
Another time I had to calm down a rowdy party of drinkers at Isabella. Alcohol is forbidden in the park, but as I always say, discretion goes a long way with a lot of rules. These people were showing no discretion, so I needed to remind the site renter of the rules. They quieted down and complied, but you could tell they were just having a good time. The last time I had to got to Isabella, I was awakened by a knock on the trailer door by a tent camper down the hill from Isabella. She said the group up there were having a loud party. I put on my fluorescent vest and headed up the hill. It turned out to be a small group of Jewish boys who were just having a late night fire with some maybe a little too loud conversation. One guy was actually at the next site over where he had gone to pray and read his bible because they were talking too loud. I reminded them of quiet hours and walked back to camp away from the rowdy party, not.
A few other times I would need to remind people to use cups or keep the alcohol inside their trailers. One group of older ladies had a whole outside bar set up next to their trailer. They were celebrating one of the girl’s birthdays. It was all about the spirit of the rule, not the letter, as we were told during training by the Park Manager. I always use the word discretion when I warn someone about the rules.
After we had extended our stay, I got my own sign on the the reservation system and was able to download the software on my laptop. It made the whole process so much easier. Especially when there were late reservations during the day. Not having a printer, I would just save the report as a pdf in my Google Drive, copy it to my phone and have an electronic clipboard of the report in my phone whenever I needed to reference it.
The bathhouse was a special challenge during our stay. We weren’t responsible for cleaning the building, the maintenance crew were responsible, but we were to check it each day, make sure it had TP and no major messes that needed to be cleaned up. If we found a problem, we were to call the cleaning van and they would take care of it. The problem with this was the cleaning crew were mostly made up of post millennials who weren’t very good at the job. You would think that keeping a common area like a bathroom would be a high priority, especially in the middle of a pandemic, but each day we discovered that they really weren’t doing the job they were supposed to be doing.
One of the problems were these same guys were also responsible for other jobs like mowing the acres of grass at both sites, and other maintenance jobs throughout the park. It became a bone of contention during our stay and to be honest, led to some outright frustration on my part, which at one time, led me to express my anger a little too verbally.
It took several weeks until I was able to score a TP key so I could properly keep the dispensers full as they should be. I mean, they would let both of the huge rolls expire before replenishing the dispenser and that just isn’t the way it is supposed to work. I’m gonna stop here on my harping. Let’s just say, we didn’t agree on the proper way to clean a head.
One more duty was to keep the wood shed full for the campers. Three pallets of wood would be delivered down to the maintenance shed ever two weeks or so and we would transfer the bundles from there to the wood shed each day. It was an honor system where the camper would take their bundles then put their money in an envelope and shove it in an honor box. I like throwing those bundles around. Another mindless, menial, task that got your blood flowing.
Down the hill from the camp was a Visitor Center, Aviary (where a number of owls, hawks, turtles and snakes lived), a playground and several picnic tables with grills. At the bottom of the parking lots there was also the parks only large, rentable picnic pavilion.
We were responsible for checking these areas and picking up trash and cleaning the grills. On our morning walks, Ginger and I would walk down and wind our way through the area, looking for trash and checking the grills. If a grill needed cleaning, we would pull off the grate and let it hang. It was a another signal between the hosts. When a grill was clean, we would put the grate on the top most shelf.
After checking the whole area, we would head up the Catoctin Trial for a little ways. The trail crosses the Little Hunting Creek here then heads up Bob’s Hill. We would go up a ways then head back down on another trail. It was a good part of our morning routine.
Being at the less busy side of the park, we had a lot of autonomy. The rangers would make regular rounds through the day use and the camp and always asked if we needed anything. They were also available on short notice with a quick on the radio. There were two different types of ranger, but they all did the same jobs. The classified, I think they were called, were the full time rangers, working the whole year. The seasonal were hired to cover the busy months of the season. We got to know and like all of the rangers at the park. They were all well qualified and would help us whenever we needed it. They also left us alone a lot of the time, which I also liked a lot.
Listening to the radio traffic on a busy summer weekend made us very thankful that Claudia had placed us on the Manor side of the park. The main park has a very popular waterfall, as is evident by the name of the park and the parking lots fill up pretty much every day from late spring throughout the summer. Listening to the rangers, park office, camp office and contact station coordinate that hectic pace mad us really happy to be on the sleepy side of the mountain.
The wildlife over on this side of Bob’s Hill was also plentiful and varied. There was a herd of deer that would move up and down the mountain and a few turkeys that had a very large brood that would move through the camp, looking for scraps and whatnot. I was the only host on this side to see a bear. Well, Ginger saw it too. I was sitting in camp chilling out with Ginger. Lisa I think was off visiting her father. Our patio area faces the side of the hillside that we had scoured endlessly in the spring looking for Morel mushrooms with no success. Suddenly I saw out of the corner of my eye some dark movement. It was a very large bear moving across the hillside and down towards the creek that ran behind out site. I checked to make sure Ginger was secure on her leash as I fumbled to get my phone out and grabbed for the radio.
I called in the sighting to the Duty Ranger as the bear crossed the creek and stood looking at me from about 50 meters away. Still fumbling for my phone, I brought up the camera app and thought I had hit the start video button. Of course, in my excitement, I messed that up somehow and the only video was a short second of me actually hitting record, when I thought I had hit stop record and then turning off the phone. I had failed at capturing the bear’s visit on digital film.
At about that time, Ginger caught sight of the bear and started barking. The bear headed up the hill away from the annoying canine.
Shea, the Duty Ranger arrived as we were walking up the road with Ginger still barking into the forest where the bear had disappeared. We briefed her on our encounter and I tried to show her my footage. That was when I realized my fumble.
The bear seemed to have moved away from Ginger’s racket and we walked up the road to where a couple of campers were. We gave them a heads up on the sighting and reminded them to not leave any food or trash out at their sites. It was an exciting encounter.
Another resident of the rocky, wooded hillside are snakes. We came across a couple garter snakes and black snakes, but the most interesting residents were the copperheads and timber rattlers. I saw my first copperhead ever when I was once again chilling in camp. I was sitting on my chair and saw movement not five feet away from me. It was a young copperhead that had come into camp. I jumped up and grabbed a broom, steering the critter away from the rug and trailer. I guided him a little bit away from camp as Ginger slept unwary. I called in the sighting to the Duty Ranger and I think it was Cody who showed up along with Cricket, the park’s environmentalist. She quickly bagged the young thing and we moved it across the creek to be released. This one I had good video of.
Our next snake encounter was a rattler, that was reported by one of our regular campers at the park. I called it in and followed it along a trail in through the high brush near the bathhouse. I also got some good video of this guy.
Aaron had the Duty on this day and he also had some snake handling gear in his truck. The bag had a short pole, so he was understandably cautious as he tried to figure out the best way to get the snake in the bag. This was the largest snake we saw this season, so his caution was warranted. He called a few people for backup and no one was available to help. I reminded him that I was right here and very willing to help. I think he was afraid of me getting bit, and blah , blah, blah, whatever. I was going to help one way or another. After a bit more waiting, he made the grab and it was text book.
I helped him bag the snake and we released it across the creek again. This was starting to be routine to release poisonous snakes near our camp and Lisa pointed that out. I know the water wasn’t much of a barrier, but this one we walked up the hill a lot further than the first one.
I few days later I was talking to Melissa another of the classified rangers and she mentioned she had snake handling gear in her truck that she never planned on using, and offered it to me. I happily took possession of it and put it in my camp. It was a grabber, a hook (that helps support the snakes weight as you lift it) and a bag with a long handle. Little did I know I would be using it a couple days later.
It was dusk on a weekend night and I heard the call on the radio that a camper had called the ranger reporting a snake in their camp. I luckily had the Gator with me and I grabbed the snake gear, and headed up the hill just as I saw Shea head up there in her duty van.
I was really excited to be using my new gear and after checking with Shea who had no snake handling gear, I moved in for the capture. The campers had cornered the critter under their canopy and it was well lit with their flashlights. I grabbed it quickly and Shea held the bag as we bagged it. She held the bag as we used the Gator to move to the “snake release area” and once again we released a poisonous snake about 60 meters from our camp. I had found my calling.
July was approaching and our three month stint was coming to an end. Most of our doctors appointments were complete, but there were still a couple to take care of, but it was time for a break from cleaning other people’s campsites. After the forth of July weekend we packed up camp, cleaned site 15 and headed out.
As we were planning our departure, I mentioned to Claudia that we might want to come back again later in the year and she heartedly agreed that we were surely welcome back if we wanted to. We had promised to watch our daughter’s dogs when her and her husband went on a long delayed vacation to Hawaii in October. We might need a place to put the trailer for that week and their house was only about 30 minutes away from the Manor.
The next two months were spent in the general area of PA, MD, NJ, and NY. When we started to look at our plans for the end of summer and beginning of fall, we thought it might be a good idea to come back to the Manor for another sting. I emailed Claudia to see if they needed us and her response was something like, “Yes, a million times, yes.
As September was waning, we pulled into site 15 again and set up camp. For both of us, it oddly felt like we had “come home” again.
We quickly settled back into the routine of being a Camp Host. The busy part of the season had ended after Labor Day and we easily handled the duties of keeping the Manor clean and ready for campers. During the week now, the camp would only have a few campers, but the weekends still would fill the camp and keep us busy doing our duties.
The forest once again transformed from full summer lush to the crisp scents of autumn. Fall has always been my favorite season, so it was good sitting in one place and watching it arrive.
The next five weeks went by quickly it seemed. We did the work and received no pay. Our site was our pay, and it was worth it.
Our daughter’s vacation arrived and we watched the house and dogs. Lia stayed at the house with all three dogs and I would either come back and forth and do the work each day or stay the night in camp if needed.
At the end of October the main campground closed for the season, but the Manor remained open. We would now be catering to the hunters who would come to walk up the side of Bob’s Hill looking for their prey. The bathhouse was scheduled to be closed around November 1st and they brought in a porta-potty for the winter. The Manor would stay open for campers until mid-December. It was time for us to move on.
We had made our plans to start running from winter, but had a few things to take care of in Pasadena first before heading south.
Sharon had taken a much needed break from the campground the last week we were hosting, but got delayed down in North Carolina waiting for windshield wiper motor for her RV.
We headed out on the afternoon of November 2nd, leaving the camp temporarily hostless. The rangers would cover until Sharon returned. She is scheduled to stay until the end of the season.
We really enjoyed our time at the Manor and will most likely return if they will have us sometime in the future. Claudia is an excellent ranger and supervisor and it would be a pleasure to work for her again.
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