A Working Vacation

Staining and painting, sanding and sweating, a dozen dusty retirees did their best to ignore the early autumn heat.

They barely noticed the picturesque Topatopa Mountains framing the vivid white Piedra Blanca sandstone formation that loomed overhead. And they appeared unfazed by the menacing yellow jackets and ever-present flies.

Instead, they focused on the mundane task of fixing picnic tables scarred by vandalism and repairing trails. After all, this wasn’t work. This was a vacation.

“They’re paying for the privilege of coming here and giving back to the community,” said coordinator Rose Wisuri of Camarillo, a retired assistant superintendent with the Moorpark Unified School District. “They’re workaholics, these people. I have to force them to take a break.”

For their $410 apiece, 18 folks from around the nation got five days in Los Padres National Forest’s spectacular Rose Valley Recreation Area north of Ojai, rehabilitating the 30 campsites at Lion Campground and a nearby trail long-overdue for maintenance.

They listened to discussions on such topics as “Trends in Fire Management on the Los Padres National Forest.” And they got one afternoon off.

This may not be the ideal vacation portrait promoted by Ventura County tourism officials. But when your days consist of tennis, bridge and baby-sitting grandchildren, it is, the retirees said, a pleasant break.

“It really is a good vacation,” insisted Bob Martin of La Canada, a retired Jet Propulsion Laboratory manager. “You are away from your cares. You are involved in a project. And we’re seeing progress. It’s everything you want to do on a vacation.”

The working vacation is a cooperative endeavor between the Ventura Elderhostel program and national forest officials.

Elderhostel, which aims to provide short-term learning and service opportunities for people 55 and older, supplied the people power.

The Ojai Ranger District supplied $18,000 worth of raw materials--using money generated from its share of the hotly debated Adventure Pass program that levied a $5 daily or $30 annual fee beginning in June on recreational forest users.

The result by midday today will be 10 refurbished campsites, including two for disabled campers, two miles of revamped trail and several newly designed informational brochures.

“These are all things we’ve been wanting to do but haven’t had the staffing to accomplish,” district Ranger Larry Mastic said.

It also keeps a promise that forestry officials made when they said the popular but woefully dilapidated, 5,000-acre Rose Valley area would be a prime beneficiary of the money from the Adventure Pass program.

The program participants are a disparate bunch.

Dan Stevens, a cheap cigar clenched between his teeth, was fleeing the coming Pennsylvania winter by squeezing in a week of crawling beneath picnic tables. Then the 65-year-old farm owner and his wife were off to help their son and daughter-in-law prepare their sailboat for a journey from Port Hueneme through the Panama Canal and looking forward to spending the Christmas holidays in La Paz, Mexico.

Dalia Stern, a retired personnel manager for an Ohio community college, was doing something she considered worthwhile in a beautiful setting before setting off on another Elderhostel adventure--this time an Australian vacation.

The suburban Boston resident hoped that she would have better luck finding avid bridge players down under than she did among her fellow vacationers here.

And avid hiker Diane Clayton was taking what some might see as a questionable break from the woodwork shop in her San Leandro home by painting wooden campground signs to replace others long since vandalized. A woodpecker perched in a nearby tree surveyed the retired Macy’s department store clerk.

“If it looks nice, maybe people will want to keep it nice,” she said with a wistful look around the campground. “I sure hope so. . . . I just love being out of doors and in the wilderness, I really do.”