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thatguy
Feb 5, 2003
Hey fellas.

I own a business with another dude. Him and me hike around all summer and do trail work for the forest service. Construction and maintenance both. We've been all over the US doing it, since 2004. Georgia, North Carolina, Virginia, Idaho, Montana, Washington, Alabama. We won a 4 year contract last spring to do trail maintenance for the next 3 years on the Frank Church and Selway-Bitterroot wilderness working out of the West Fork, Red River, Rapid River and Moose Creek ranger districts. We work out of Missoula MT, and Elk City, ID. It's maintaining roughly 400 miles of wilderness and some non-wilderness trails.

That includes using things such as a crosscut saw, bowsaws, a pulaski, a pull saw. And backpacking, a lot of backpacking. What it isn't is seeing a lot of recreators. We're working from May 15th until October 1 for 2017, 2018, and 2019 and it's rare if we see any backpackers. At all. For 6 months. And I'm tired of it. So come out, or don't, but like, do. Here are some random pictures from I don't know what year and honestly I don't even know what forest. There's some loving cool poo poo out there though. If you guys got questions about contracting for the USFS or endurance backpacking or you need a hug because you're all scared of black bears or w/e I can answer that too. But I bet nobody asks questions about backpacking because backpacking is dead and gay.

I can also tell stories about being dumbshit contractors, like getting giardia (cool), having your work partner tell you brokeback mountain style that he's gay and gay for you (not cool) and then spending an entire summer with other gay dudes telling him straight guys can all be had (uncool as gently caress man come on) so he gives you doe eyes thinking that'll just romance you. Not to mention the days when you just wake up and you see him staring at you like a loving creeper because he "likes to watch you sleep".





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Levitate
Sep 30, 2005

randy newman voice

YOU'VE GOT A LAFRENIÈRE IN ME
The Frank is pretty cool! I've mostly just been up to the Bighorn Crags in my day. Hoping to get up there a bit next summer/fall

thatguy
Feb 5, 2003
We've never had construction or maintenance anywhere around there but Clearwater/Selway-Bitterroot off the selway river, or way down south in the Sawtooth NRA. I don't know why Salmon-Challis never has contracts other than random stuff like campground renovation and ATV trail stuff, but they never do. We've barely even been into Hell's Canyon NRA and that place looks like it's the bees knees. I like to pretend that when we're not working I'll do tons of backpacking, but honestly it's just a job now and I think as soon as we quit working we'll never do backpacking again. btw why is there such terrible advice in some of these threads

Mons Public
Jun 22, 2006

Sometimes I look for Rupees.
tell me more about how you're totally not gay but you want gay dudes to come visit you and also there's no one around for miles

also what's your favorite food on the trail? pro squirrel / anti squirrel? what does trail maintenance entail besides clearing fallen trees? what color are your eyes?

thatguy
Feb 5, 2003
I'm not gay, dude I work with is. He found out he was gay a few years into working with me and was convinced by some of the dudes he boned that any straight guy can be had, he just had to put the charm volume onto 11. So he'd like go out and do extra poo poo for me while we were working, like the pulaski would be 100 ft back or whatever and he'd be like lemme go get that for you and then wink at me. Then loving run full sprint back to get it for me, like a dog getting a ball.

I didn't know what the gently caress was going on and he's half aspie anyway so I just chalked it up to him being weird. It took him a whole year of him giving me doe eyes and fetching poo poo for me like he was my servant for him to finally come out and tell me he was gay. Plus he had an older pear shaped lady girlfriend, so even though a few of our friends were like "he might be gay????", I couldn't explain the girlfriend. It ended up ok though.

So we do trail construction and maintenance both. We've done heavy trail construction like stone steps, asphalt trailbed handicapped accessible stuff with railings and such, etc. We mainly do new regular class 3 trail construction too, standard dirt 24-inch tread stuff. What you'll normally see everywhere.

But a lot of it is us doing trail maintenance, especially out west where there's tons of miles of trails to recreate on but the USFS usually doesn't have money or crews to maintain. For maintenance, you're just clearing downed trees and doing basic maintenance stuff like clearing diversion bars and cleaning culverts. We're usually in wilderness, which means he backpacks around a crosscut and pulaski while I backpack my own pulaski, bow saw, and something like a silky saw, but cheaper and better. Sometimes it'll be brushing so sometimes I carry a pair of loppers too.

We eat quesadillas with meat of some kind, pre-cooked sausage later in runs or ground beef early in runs and dried refried bean mix once we run out. I'm pro-squirrel I think but grouse are dumb as poo poo and have a lot more meat

thatguy fucked around with this message at 02:32 on Nov 7, 2016

Mons Public
Jun 22, 2006

Sometimes I look for Rupees.
How does the business part work? You are responsible for certain trails, you hike them and fix whatever, and then a ranger hikes them to make sure you did a good job? And then you do it all over again next year?

thatguy
Feb 5, 2003
Basically yeah, only forget about the dude hiking to check our work. Field people other than wilderness rangers are too busy to do that poo poo with strict hourly and per diem limits and wilderness rangers usually have too much area to cover to waste time hiking 30 miles of trails we just cleared. At the beginning of a contract they might do a few trails to really show us who's boss.

Free Market Mambo
Jul 26, 2010

by Lowtax
I'll visit you, but only if you don't play this hard to get act.

I have needs.

thatguy
Feb 5, 2003

Free Market Mambo posted:

I'll visit you, but only if you don't play this hard to get act.

I have needs.

in 2011 we were working for the sawtooth NRA out of Stanley and Ketchum ID, and we'd routinely just drive to Boise to eat at this Mongolian buffet downtown and so he could pick up some rear end. If he picked up rear end, which he usually did, he'd just get a different hotel room and they'd gently caress while I stayed out or stayed inside doing business poo poo or watched horse porn, whatever. So first night we were there, he picked up some dude and they hosed for awhile and then they were cuddling. My partner then proceeds to tell this guy about me and how we work together and how I'm like not gay (lie), so then for some loving reason this random dude starts to obsess about me. Nonstop the next day when they're together he keeps bothering my partner that he wants the two of them to gently caress while I'm watching and he's gonna hold out on my partner until they do it. He won't loving shut up for like 5 hours until my partner who's been driving him around town, just loving up and leaves him in Nampa (like 25 miles away, pretty much a wasteland) because he's so pissed about it.

But if you want rear end my business partner will gently caress anything with an rear end in a top hat, top or bottom he don't judge. Although, tbh lately he said he prefers the trans dudes because they're even easier than the normal gay guys, like they're too hard to pick up or something.

Epitope
Nov 27, 2006

Grimey Drawer
Hey man, uh, like, no offense, but, you kinda make the desperate rear end goons in the online dating thread seem fulfilled. Maybe spend a season in the city being social and getting laid?

Jay Kay, I'm just jelly you get to have the woods to yourself for that long.

hold hands at the park
Apr 12, 2008
I recently did some 2-nighter backpacking trips in Salmo-Priest Wilderness; Selway Bitterroot Wilderness both out of Kooskia, ID and Hamilton, MT; and the Anaconda Pintler Wilderness near... idk that place is in the middle of nowhere. I've been wanting to visit Frank Church River of No Return mainly because the name is so badass - that and Hell's Canyon Wilderness. But Frank Church seems hard to access, like a lot of forest road driving is required to reach any of the trailheads.

Anyway it's funny to think there are other goons trudging around out there. I figured goons simply don't exist in Idaho. Are you looking for new employees? No gay stuff though.

George H.W. Cunt
Oct 6, 2010





https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgaRd4d8hOY

Just come on and out with it man

thatguy
Feb 5, 2003

hold hands at the park posted:

I recently did some 2-nighter backpacking trips in Salmo-Priest Wilderness; Selway Bitterroot Wilderness both out of Kooskia, ID and Hamilton, MT; and the Anaconda Pintler Wilderness near... idk that place is in the middle of nowhere. I've been wanting to visit Frank Church River of No Return mainly because the name is so badass - that and Hell's Canyon Wilderness. But Frank Church seems hard to access, like a lot of forest road driving is required to reach any of the trailheads.

Anyway it's funny to think there are other goons trudging around out there. I figured goons simply don't exist in Idaho. Are you looking for new employees? No gay stuff though.

Last summer we had to sub out $7500 worth of trail clearing, mainly because a lot of trails get snow-clear at about the same date and with due dates for trail clearing, it was just too much overall in July/August. However, we started mid-May. This next summer we're going to try to start in mid-April. tbh we're greedy fucks and we're trying to keep as much money as possible but it's a legit possibility. I have plat if you want to pm me about it, or list some way I can get a hold of you.

thatguy fucked around with this message at 17:45 on Nov 20, 2016

Hotel Kpro
Feb 24, 2011

owls don't go to school
Dinosaur Gum
When I lived in Idaho I spent three years bagging as many peaks as I could but I never ventured that far north. You guys are really gonna be in the middle of nowhere. I'd swing by but I don't really backpack unless there's a peak involved and it's a long drive from Utah

got any sevens
Feb 9, 2013

by Cyrano4747

thatguy posted:

Last summer we had to sub out $7500 worth of trail clearing, mainly because a lot of trails get snow-clear at about the same date and with due dates for trail clearing, it was just too much overall in July/August. However, we started mid-May. This next summer we're going to try to start in mid-April. tbh we're greedy fucks and we're trying to keep as much money as possible but it's a legit possibility. I have plat if you want to pm me about it, or list some way I can get a hold of you.

You only make about 8k in a summer?

thatguy
Feb 5, 2003
no, that's how much we had to subcontract out to an outfitter who works out there already.

got any sevens
Feb 9, 2013

by Cyrano4747
So what are you paid per year and how do you get that job

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thatguy
Feb 5, 2003
did you even read what I posted, I own the business. And I get paid go gently caress yourself

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