Camp Hosts at McCormick - August 1-13

Yes, we are the Camp Hosts at McCormick Park on the Snake River at Hells Canyon! Here we are, all set up in the Camp Host spot.

McCormick Park is about 30 miles west of Cambridge, Idaho. Across the river is Oregon. It is one of our favorite places to be. While we were here in July with our family for our yearly camping get-together, we learned that the Camp Host was leaving the first of August to have knee surgery. We joked with him that he should have let us know and we would have taken his place for the the next two months. The next day, the Park Manager was knocking on our Condo door and offered us the job. It doesn't pay anything, but we get the site with full hook-ups and are only asked to keep an eye on things, do a little watering, and keep toilet paper in the bathrooms! We will be here until the first of October.

The park wasn't very busy the first week we took over, but there was a lot of excitement. The first evening, two fishermen were crossing the lawn and found a snake. They weren't sure what kind it was, so they called us over. The grass was a little tall so they couldn't see the button on the baby rattler. We heard it buzz and spotted the little button on it's tail and you can see what happened to in in the picture.

Terry's brother, Verel, was our first visitor. He stayed for a couple of days in his camper. He and Terry fished a lot because the camp wasn't very full.

I was watering the flowers one evening, after turning several valves in the bathrooms to get the water turned on, and a man went in to take a shower. While I was still watering the flowers, he came out and said that there was no cold water in the men’s shower and that that had made for a pretty hot shower! After he left, I checked the valves, and sure enough, I had turned off the hot water to the men’s shower! I was going to have Terry apologize to him the next day, but he left early that morning before I could talk Terry into it!

One afternoon, we were sitting around and terry glanced at the tree he was sitting by. There was a big bull snake slithering down the tree! Terry moved pretty fast!

We watched him come down the tree and then "guided" him across our patio and out into our woodpile. We have seen a bull snake twice since then around the bathrooms. Terry has taken a shovel and picked it up and thrown it across the fence into the pasture. I don't know if it the same one or different ones.

Friday night, the 3rd, a woman on a motorcycle hit a deer as she was riding on the road across the river from the Park. She ended up with a broken leg and some scratched, but her motorcycle caught on fire and totally burnt. Thank goodness some boaters close by grabbed their fire extinguishers, jumped onto the bank, and kept the fire from starting on the sides of the road. I called 911 and Terry took off with one of our walkie-talkies to check things out and report to me so I could report to the Sheriff and ambulance. It was all pretty exciting!

Things were pretty quiet during the first week, as far as the number of campers. We thought,
"This is going to be a cinch, being Camp Hosts."

Then the park started filling up. A big group came in from Oregon for ten days and the rest of the park was totally filled! It stayed pretty busy all week and then a bachelor/bachelorette party started on Thursday and lasted for five days! We felt like babysitters and went to bed several times with knots in our stomach wondering if we would have to get up in the middle of the night to quiet people down. There was one group of boys that got out of hand who were drinking and fighting and swearing until all hours of the night and they were kicked out of the Park. We don't have authority to do that--we just call our boss from Idaho Power and he handles it. The boys were very apologetic and got to come back after three days. (They were part of the Oregon group.)

Then last Thursday, a drunk guy pulled in down at the end of the tenters area and was going to spend the night. He was swearing at the campers and sicking his dog on them. Terry went to check on it, along with several campers. The guy pushed one of the campers and the camper "decked" him. He almost landed on the ground and ended up passed out in his pickup. We called our boss who called the Sheriff. He hauled the guy off to jail.

This past weekend was even busier than the first one. We had a Hispanic group come in and got an RV site where they could put up the three tents allowed. Soon she came and got another site and more and more people started coming in. We counted nine tents they had put up, so we made them get a third site. There must have been at least ten cars and 50 people! They did pretty good, but stayed up kind of late.

We had visitors this weekend. Terry's brother and wife, Ron and Alice showed up, and later their son and family, Matt, Stephanie, and Mason, came. Then Larry and LouAnn Sutton came with their grandson (and my nephew). It was fun having them here. They got to see all of the craziness that is part of being Camp Hosts when the camp is full!

We are really hoping things slow down, but they will probably keep being busy, especially on the weekends, until after Labor Day.