Tioga Lake is associated in the book with a small campground that Linda May helped manage during her first summer as a workamper. Her brief assignment there extends the account of her seasonal work near Yosemite and shows how campground duties could pass between itinerant workers.

Setting and Workamping Context

In June 2013, at sixty-three, Linda began work as a camp host at Junction Campground, two miles from the eastern entrance to Yosemite National Park. The job paid $8.50 an hour for thirty hours a week. Junction’s thirteen first-come, first-served sites and two outhouse toilets made its routine relatively undemanding; for part of her stay, Linda agreed to take responsibility for another small campground nearby, at Tioga Lake.

Linda’s Additional Assignment

The Tioga Lake work was an extension of Linda’s camp-hosting role rather than her primary post. Taking on the nearby campground added duties to a job she had found manageable at Junction, where the lack of reservations also meant less paperwork. The account gives no further description of Tioga Lake’s facilities or daily operation, but establishes it as part of the local network of campgrounds Linda served during the season.

Transfer of Duties

Linda’s connection to Tioga Lake also brought other RVers into the work. When Billy and Helene Outlaw, a couple in their seventies, mentioned that they were looking for camp-hosting jobs, Linda introduced them to her supervisors. They soon took over her duties at Tioga Lake. The handoff presents the campground not only as a workplace but as a point of contact through which seasonal workers could help one another find employment.