Former Sisters resident is camp host

What does a person do when he retires from a career as a host and hotel/motel manager? For a former Sisters resident, the answer to that question was an easy one: become a campground host for the summer.

Lonnie Gates and his wife Vangie are enjoying the summer as campground hosts at South Shore Campground at Suttle Lake. Since early June they have been working as volunteers for Hoodoo Recreation Services, the company that has the maintenance contract for this campground and 69 others in the Deschutes and Willamette National Forests.

“After I retired in May, I was looking on the Internet and saw this opportunity to serve as a camp host for the company,” Lonnie said. “When I visited with the company, we were pleased to find that South Shore was open and we accepted.”

During the 13 years the Gates lived in Central Oregon, they always spent a week at Suttle Lake in the late fall, either at South Shore or Link campgrounds.

“Being able to stay here and enjoy our time is like a gift,” Lonnie said.

From 1987 to 1992, Lonnie served as manager of the Best Western Ponderosa Lodge in Sisters. During that time, he was on the board of directors for the Sisters Area Chamber of Commerce, serving as vice president his last year here before he accepted a similar position at a Best Western motel in Prineville.

During the next eight years, he managed that facility and helped establish a Best Western at Burns and the Newberry Station Best Western in La Pine for the same owner, hiring and training employees and getting both facilities up and operating.

In 2000, he moved on to another manager position at the Best Western Pendleton Inn in northeast Oregon, where he remained until his retirement this spring.

“My responsibilities here are pretty basic,” Lonnie said. “I collect the camping fees from the self-registration box, check the campsites that are occupied, and visit with the campers about fire prevention. If I see that someone is cleaning fish at the campground fish cleaning station, I talk to them on their success so I can pass the information along to other campers.”

Lonnie enjoys the camp hosting very much, especially visiting with the people who stay in the campground. Some are local residents and many are from out of the area. The Gates have their boat at the campground so they can enjoy the great fishing there too.

Hoodoo Recreation Services crews clean the campsites and restrooms and do any other maintenance work.

“I will replace toilet paper in our three new restrooms if it is needed in-between the crews being here,” he said.

He also checks campfire sites after campers leave to make sure that the fires are out.

There are no electrical or sewer hook-ups at the campground so a small generator is used to charge the batteries on the Gates’ travel trailer. The company drains their trailer’s holding tanks.

“We have no television service, but we don’t really miss it like we thought we might,” Lonnie said.

Lonnie’s son, Ray, who lives in Sisters, has worked for Hoodoo Recreation Services for 13 years, grooming ski trails in the winter and doing campground maintenance in the summer.

“He stops by most mornings on his way to work with the morning paper and again in the evening when we serve him a meal,” Lonnie said.

Grandchildren from Bend and Portland visit the Gates at the campground, staying overnight in a wall tent “guest bedroom” located behind the Gates’ travel trailer that is their summer home.

Lonnie and Vangie will remain as hosts at least through Labor Day Weekend and may stay longer if the weather holds. When they leave Suttle Lake, they plan to make their home in Redmond.

“We have already been asked if we can return as hosts next summer,” Lonnie said.