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Lived out in a 1970s tent along the Appalachian Trail for 9 or 10 weeks, from early June til mid August. I worked at a BSA camp as a forester, would clear paths, remove hornet nests, poison ivy, etc. and generally upkeep the surrounding nature (it was something like 150 acres I did with 3 other guys). I was 20 during and this was the summer of 2014. I ran electricity from a pavillion (I think that's what it's called, just a roof and supporting beams, no walls) to my tent with a buried outdoor extension cord. Camp director said electricity was a hazard so me and the 4 other tents in my area went out in the middle of the night to run it like 2 inches underground, about 150 feet which we ran a power strip off of, everyone got 1 outlet. I'd just use that to charge my phone during the night since I used that as an alarm. We also had this sweet "deck" area behind our 5 tents made up of pallets that overlooked a decent sized pond (maybe 200 feet across) that we ran tarps over. We worked 6 days a week, 8 AM to 9:30 PM but I remember a few times on my days off I would sit out on the porch just watching the water and reading the book. A billion times better on the three days it happened to rain while I had off. We even had a little fireplace right outside of the tarps we'd make fires in maybe once or twice a week after we got off or on our days off. I only went inside once that summer, on my one day off I went home to my parents to visit, I lived like 3 hours away so it wasn't worth it to drive out after camp closed for the week just to drive back the next night. Despite the horseshit pay (came out to like $2.23 an hour), annoying coworkers (90% were under 18), dictator-esque ruling of the camp and long ass days it was one of my best summers. The great outdoors makes me happier than all that shit could bother me. Making what I made in 10 weeks in 3 weeks now, only working 40 hours a week instead of 81, so at least I got that...
