The RV park boys

Lifties get creative after getting booted from MMSA employee housing. 

During the past month, some of you may have noticed the “tent city” located in the woods next to the R.V. Park.

What you may not have known, however, is that during the day, the seven young men who lived in that tent city were loading lifts at Mammoth Mountain.

As liftie Geoffry Box (Chantilly, Virginia) explained, “We were kicked out of employee housing for being too rambunctious.” Parker Richardson (San Diego) was more direct: “We threw a party.”

The group agreed it was Seth Owen’s (Charleston, South Carolina) idea to camp. But, as Owen said, “It wasn’t a serious idea ‘til we had to do it.”

And once they had to do it, they embraced it. As Box explained, employee housing costs $19/day. Camping costs just $7.50/day ($52 a night divided by 7).

He said they’d had no bear issues. “A squirrel took a marshmallow. That’s about it.”

They also have showers, a laundry room, and even use of a hot tub (until 9 p.m.).

Because the Forest Service has a 30-day rule on continuous stays, the Boys were forced to pack up and move outside Town limits as of Thursday. Which is fine, they say. Most have about two weeks left of work, and at that point, they will go their separate ways.

Owen and Richardson have immediate plans to travel to Nicaragua while Box has a Peace Corps stint (Paraguay) lined up starting in September. Another plans to hike the Pacific Crest Trail.

As Box said, his favorite memory of this winter in Mammoth will be of moving to the campsite. “We stuck together,” he says.

Richardson said a gray-haired cop (fitting the description of Hornbeck) came by not too long ago. “He said he was told this is where the bums in the slums live,” recalled Richardson. “He was absolutely surprised [to learn] we had jobs.”

At that moment, Box’s younger brother Daniel placed his Chef Boyardee Ravioli can over the fire. In the clearing next to the main camp tent, which served as the living room, empty bottles from the last night’s cocktails were grouped in a pile—tequila, triple sec, margarita mix …

The moral of the story: Never underestimate the ingenuity of a Mammoth Mountain Lift Operator.

After all, someday he/she might become CEO of the company.