FOREST RIDGE CABINS & CAMPGROUND
Forest Ridge Album

Well, I’ve arrived at Forest Ridge Cabins and Campground. The place I’ll be workamping for the next 6 months. The campground is immaculate and the owners, Carrie and Bob Kandray, couldn’t be nicer! They were dragging wooden porch sections around to allow me to get my coach into place and helping with the leveling and hook-ups and everything else they could think of. Later I met their teenage daughter, Stacy and college age son, Nate; A couple of great kids

Because of the weird layout of my coach (both slides on the right side and the big awning on the left), I had to pull in front first, which caused a few headaches but we finally got it straightened out. Of course, I had to run my sewage, water and power under the coach but I carry extensions for everything just for this. Since the site is heavily treed, I’ll have to use my portable satellite TV dish instead of the automatic roof mount, but that’s not a problem.

The next day they gave me a set of keys, some “Forest Ridge” shirts, ball cap, and a golf cart. Carrie gave me a tour of the office and cabins and Bob showed me the rest of the campground. I made a quick trip into Clarion, the closest big town, to do some shopping and to get acquainted with what was there. After that, I told them I was ready to start work.

The other workamper won’t be here until next month so it’s just me right now. My schedule is as follows

Of course, since they aren’t really open yet, a lot of the above hasn’t taken effect yet. Bob asked how my carpenter skills were and when I said I could handle most stuff he had me start by building wall shelves for the TV’s and CD/DVD players they had purchased for each cabin (there are 5 cabins). I worked on those in-between my scheduled jobs.

The one scheduled job that we couldn’t ignore was the lawn mowing. This place has acres and acres of lawn! It takes 3 people using 3 different riding mowers a full day to do the major cutting. Then Bob has his son and a local kid spend a day doing the push-mower, trimming, and weed whacking.

Another one was the shower house cleaning. They are real sticklers about this! It gets checked, and cleaned as needed, 3 times a day! They brag (truthfully) that they have the cleanest restrooms in the whole state.

Some of my projects while here are;

• Rewire most of the ‘power and water’ sites for 30 amp receptacles.
• Build a wall-mounted podium style shelf for the reservations log in the office.
• Install an outside phone receptacle on the office porch so we could plug in a cordless phone. (the office building is cement block and cordless phones don’t penetrate it worth a damn).
• Stain or paint all the cabins exteriors, some with 2 coats
• Stain the pavilion
• Construct and install a light bar for across the top of the roadside sign
• Build and install an undercounter keyboard shelf for the office
• Set up a whiteboard for tracking site reservations and occupancy
• Installed headlights on all the golfcarts
• Set up a “training” geocache on the property
• Designed the new “Bear in the Tub” poster for the campground.
• Installed new gasket on ice machine.
• Repaired drawers in Jaco camping trailer,
• Replaced thermostat in guests RV

When Ron (the other workamper) showed up, he ended up with his own list. Turns out he is an excellent mechanic and carries his tools with him, including a welder.

Needless to say, Bob and Carrie were ecstatic. They had bad luck with their first workampers last year. The couple wouldn’t handle telephone reservations, didn’t know how to use the cash register, or the credit card reader. They also didn’t socialize with the guests.

When Carrie realized that Ron and I could handle the campground by ourselves, they spent more time doing other things that had been put off. She and Bob also took a couple of 1 week vacations, the first in 9 years!

About half of the 65 sites have trailers set up year round by “seasonal” guests that come up every summer. The rest are available for overnight, weekend, or weekly rental. Most of these are rented out to the same people every year. And most of these are ATV riders. This area is one of the few places where ATV’s are allowed in a National Forest. However, the campground has a policy that no ATV is allowed off its trailer while in the park, and quiet hours are strictly enforced, so the rowdy bunch go elsewhere.

The only major problem was with the seasonals in the trailer next to me. The husband would get drunk and sit outside and talk on his cell phone at all hours of the night. After a couple of warnings from me, backed up the next day by Carrie, they were told that their annual lease would not be renewed; and that they would have to move their trailer.

While there, I also traded my coach in on a new one; see the “New RV” tab for more info.

I spent most of my time off, hiking the local streams and creeks in search of the wily trout with a little time exploring the area.

All in all; I really enjoyed my time there, but even thought Bob and Carrie tried to talk me into returning next year, I had to turn them down. There is just too much to see and places to go to start retracing my path. Maybe later.