/out/ - Outdoors » Thread #94166

[13 / 3 / ?]

Big Thicket National Preserve

Anonymous Mon 22 Apr 2013 22:46:45 No.94166 View View Reply Original Report

Quoted By:

Well, /out/, I just spent a few days in the woods to celebrate quitting my local workaday job in anticipation of the upcoming federal trails/maintenance season. I had over 30 resumes out, and I've gotten two offers, a couple general inquiry calls, and a lot of silence.

Just got offered a position at Big Thicket National Preserve. Aside from what I've read via google and wikipedia, I don't know a lot about it. What does /out/ know about Big Thicket? Any Texans here, or folks who've traveled through?

Honestly, it's not my first pick, but I've already turned down one position and I'm not sure that one I want will be forthcoming. Never been to Texas, and the work will mostly be demoing and rebuilding boardwalks.

I'm a very avid backpacker and hiker, also a bit of a climber. I love paddling but have not done much of it yet. Activities to do in Big Thicket? Will I get bored in 5 months there?

tl;dr Got offered a job. I have a day or two to think about it. General Big Thicket info thread--everything from activity to sites to summer weather (and cheap apartment availability, if you know anything about it).

Gotta get off /out/ and go eat dinner with my gal. Be back later. Thanks!

Anonymous

Anonymous Mon 22 Apr 2013 22:51:19 No.94169 Report

Quoted By: >>94177 >>94556 >>94827

OP here. I just realized I don't sound very enthusiastic about it. I'm actually pretty excited about the offer; was just hoping for mountains or a park I know something about.

The place looks pretty cool, especially if you can do a lot of paddling around. I'm guessing it's gonna be muggy as fuck down there. Also, a bit paranoid, but is there much to worry about with this being a large wilderness area not far from Mexico?

Anonymous

Anonymous Mon 22 Apr 2013 22:56:57 No.94177 Report

Quoted By: >>94827

>>94169
>I'm guessing it's gonna be muggy as fuck down there.
It will be among the muggiest experiences of your life. Bring bug repellant.
>Also, a bit paranoid, but is there much to worry about with this being a large wilderness area not far from Mexico?
No, the Big Thicket is more Redneck / Walmart area.

Lots of cool critters in the Thicket but it's flat and hot and super humid. Great place if you're into birds or reptiles. Decent fishing, etc. You'll have fun.

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 23 Apr 2013 05:33:17 No.94556 Report

Quoted By: >>94785 >>94795 >>95084

>>94169
>Also, a bit paranoid, but is there much to worry about with this being a large wilderness area not far from Mexico?

What does that even mean? Worried about getting kidnapped or something?

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 23 Apr 2013 14:00:34 No.94785 Report

Quoted By:

>>94556
when i was in Texas along the boarder there where signs everywhere telling you not to buy shit or the big bad border control will fuq you. Also there where lots of signs telling you that people steal cars and other stuff but I think it was mostly BS.

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 23 Apr 2013 14:21:51 No.94795 Report

Quoted By: >>94827 >>95084

>>94556
I don't think op has anything to worry about, an employee at a nature preserve isn't exactly a primary target for mexican drug cartels.

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 23 Apr 2013 15:04:58 No.94827 Report

Quoted By:

>>94795
>>94169

OP Here. I worked on a trail crew in SoCal for a few months, and we were uniformed. We were briefed on safety because there were marijuana grows in the area (my friends stumbled across one off-trail one weekend), and to someone not too keen to have a close look at us, our work uniforms looked enough like Ranger uniforms to cause alarm.

I didn't mean that as racist, xenophobic, or overly paranoid. I've done a lot of travel in plenty of sketch places and come out all right. But I don't know much at all about Texas geography so I thought I'd ask about the situation.

>>94177
Thanks for the general feedback. I'm from the South near a major inland watershed, so I'm pretty accustomed to muggy conditions, though I'm sure this will be a major step up. I also am used to rednecks and Wal-Marts.

Still making up my mind, though I gotta have an answer soon. You send out a million resumes and hear nothing and then all of a sudden you get several calls from parks needing to fill their spots quickly ...

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 23 Apr 2013 20:04:17 No.95079 Report

Quoted By: >>95084

OP again. I declined the position. I was really tempted by it, especially looking at the places to explore on a kayak, but I decided to go elsewhere.

No definite offers from parks yet. I have the option of going back to construction work with a friend who will let me take lots of time off for adventures. Also Lassen Volcanic and KY's Red River Gorge might materialize.

Anybody else do any seasonal outdoorsy work?

Weird Texan !!vZHDi0mGEw+

Weird Texan !!vZHDi0mGEw+ Tue 23 Apr 2013 20:12:22 No.95084 Report

Quoted By: >>95109

>>95079
I'm still thinking whether to stay at my new job or take up some of the volunteer/work offers I got back, one of them at Somerville lake.

I'm mad jelly you got the offer at Big Thicket.

>>94795
>>94556
>what are geurilla grow operations

Anonymous

View Same Google ImgOps iqdb SauceNAO LNT.jpg, 14KiB, 354x351

Leave No Trace Discussion Thread

Anonymous Tue 23 Apr 2013 20:23:30 No.95096 Report

Quoted By: >>95097

Specifically:
>variations
>exceptions
>things you ignore and why
>things you find very important and why
>stuff that's situation dependent

I've read up on a lot of LNT, plus had a good bit of direct experience in the woods, but like anything in life (and especially in the Wilderness), it's more a set of general guidelines than hard-and-fast rules.

Things I think are important:
>Always pack out trash.
Everything. I bring a bag for stuff I find along the way, and pick up as much of it as is reasonable. Exception: anything somebody might have wiped their ass with. A wise man once told me to never touch clothing on the side of the trail. It's there for a reason.
>Dismantle and rehab fire rings and campsites that are right next to high-use trails or water sources.
Fucking hooligans.

Things I ignore:
>Go 100+ ft from trail to piss.
Fuck that. I'm lazy. Sometimes it's really hard or dangerous. Sometimes leaving trail would do more damage to sensitive ecosystems. And the trail is already a heavily impacted area. But mostly I'm lazy. I'll go off trail if it's easy, or if there's a lot of traffic.
>Bury poop 6-8 inches into mineral soil.
I have almost never been able to dig 6-8 deep into mineral soil without striking lots of roots or rocks, and a trowel is one of the few luxury items I usually carry. It's especially hard to do this under the time constraint I'm usually under when I finally decide I have to poop bad enough to quit hiking or get out of my sleeping bag.
>Bear canister or hang.
Sometimes I don't. Fuck bears.
>Sleep 200+ feet from trail.
Usually I do, but I worry more about how impacted the site looks and how visible it is from the trail. If I find a good flat spot out of view, but kind of close to the trail, I'll crash there if it doesn't look like a lot of folks would use it. This mostly if solo and cowboy camping Never in groups>2. Quick rehab in the morning.

Things that are situation dependent:
>Dismantle and rehab existing impacted campsites or use them?

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 23 Apr 2013 20:24:26 No.95097 Report

Quoted By:

>>95096
Goddamn. Wrong tab. I thought I was back on homepage. Ignore. (OP again)

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 23 Apr 2013 20:34:50 No.95109 Report

Quoted By:

>>95084

You know what's up. Not that it's just Mexican cartels to worry about (there are some dangerous woods here in Kentucky), but I don't know how far the cartels have influence in Texas.

Wish I could transfer the offer to you, but the submission deadline's already well past. I had a hard time deciding, but the hardest was they offered it to me without much of an interview, and I was kind of expecting an interview first plus another week to think on it.

I sent out over 35 applications. Have gotten offers from two places, and calls from maybe 6 total. Serious looks from maybe one or two that haven't offered jobs yet but might be forthcoming.

If you or anybody else is interested in getting federal work (seasonal or otherwise), the trick is to send out a million apps to any job you might at all want.

The bitch of this is, Congress won't pass a budget and will go into sequestration, and a lot of places will just sit there waiting for approval. The other thing is it's really hard to turn down any reasonable offer just 'cause you're waiting to hear from another position you want more. Both offers I've gotten have asked for a decision in under two days. Last time I did that I ended up with a job I didn't like (the one I just quit).

I've had the best success with calling places regularly enough to make yourself memorable, but not enough to be annoying. And today I followed through at places and told them I had an offer on the table, what was their timeline for hiring decisions/how were my prospects? Got a lot of friendly voices and finally got some concrete information.

It's a damned waiting game, and you gotta play the averages. Hope you find something cool to do this summer.

Anonymous

View Same Google ImgOps iqdb SauceNAO 16.jpg, 77KiB, 640x480

Anonymous Wed 24 Apr 2013 19:57:14 No.96033 Report

Quoted By:

The border is 200+ miles away, you'll be okay.

Anyway, if you like plants there are apparently a bunch of carnivorous ones out there.

Capcode	All Only User Posts Only Verified Posts Only Moderator Posts Only Manager Posts Only Admin Posts Only Developer Posts Only Founder Posts
Show Posts	All Only With Images Only Without Images Only Spoiler Images Only Non-Spoiler Images
Deleted Posts	All Only Deleted Posts Only Non-Deleted Posts
Ghost Posts	All Only Ghost Posts Only Non-Ghost Posts
Post Type	All Only Sticky Threads Only Opening Posts Only Reply Posts
Results	All Grouped By Threads
Order	Latest Posts First Oldest Posts First

On these archives

Your latest searches

Big Thicket National Preserve