The Minimal Travelers

This past fall Jason and I spent a few months workamping as resident volunteers with the Army Corps of Engineers at Carters Lake, located in the NE Georgia area.

It was our first experience working with the USACE so we were a bit anxious about meeting a new group. We chose to try out the COE because in our travels usually every COE campsite we’ve been to has been a surprisingly great place to camp at with some gorgeous views and uncrowded campsites.

In years past, volunteering for the US Army Corps of Engineers was a bit more of a waiting game since there was a type of lottery system in place making it a bit more challenging for one to just put in a request or application to apply. Now there are open applications available for more interested workampers and volunteers.

Intros

After meeting with the Volunteer Coordinator to go over a couple of pages of rules and regulations, schedules, and an overview of the workshop discussing where to find tools and such, we were handed the keys to the gate locks and were ready to start a new volunteering gig for a few months.

Getting into the Camp Hosting

Now since we got here at the beginning of August it was still warm enough to enjoy the outdoor water activities on the lake.

One of our job duties as resident volunteers will be running the gatehouse for “The Beach” at Harris Branch Park on Carter’s Lake. The job was super lax with greeting guests and directing them to pay at the pay machine. At times I would assist the littles with life jackets and if I got real lucky, I did some actual administrative work to issue an annual pass! The average total of visitors was about 15-20. So there was plenty of downtime. Now this shift was a 10 hour day sitting inside the gatehouse with no wifi, egads! But we took advantage of breaks and went for fun drives in the UTV to patrol the beach area.

Soon after Labor Day weekend the water activities start to die down and the recreational beach park shuts down for the season. The next workamp spot in the park for us will be at the Doll Mountain Campground where we will be part of the camp host team.

For us camp hosting typically isn’t our thing, we prefer maintenance and day use work and that usually means your site will be in the volunteer village and not in the campground. This set-up works better for us from past experience, since you tend to get a little more privacy from the campground campers. However this campground will be going into their winter season which will be less populated.

sunset views from campground

The Doll Mountain campground has three loops offering full hookups, tent sites, primitive and boat in sites. During the fall and winter months theres only the two main loops open, they close off the upper portion due to weather and less occupancy.

As camp hosts you work a 12 hour shift, 7 days on, 14 days off. They can have this schedule if they have all 4 volunteer spots full. Duties were very light since the bathrooms were under a cleaning contract with outside contractors. Entry tags are printed out and left on sites for the campers and after they leave hosts make sure the fire pits and sites are cleaned.

Our New Gig Turned Out To Be A Great Time

We had a pretty good experience during our stay and enjoyed meeting and talking with the other camp hosts and also some of the campers throughout our stay.

In our downtime and on days when Jason wasn’t working, we usually hung out around the house, doing a little baking or cooking. Taking walks around the lake or exploring things around the campground was also part of our routine. There are plenty of activities such as hiking, fishing, hunting, boating, mountain biking, rafting, and more to keep us busy outdoors. Additionally, the downtown area of Ellijay has been satisfying our taste buds with some truly delicious meals. I wrote about some local events and activities in this post.

Jason and I were absolutely loving being back in an area to experience the change of seasons. It was very reminiscent of living in Tennessee. The fall leaves were gorgeous in different hues of golden yellow, oranges and reds.

We ended our time just as the weather started to get a bit too wet and cold for us, right around the first week of December. It was a nice experience all in all and we saw some new sights and thats always a plus for us. Fills up those positive soul points!

If you’re searching for your next mountain air adventures we highly recommend a visit to the area if you’ve never been.

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