What is the ultimate outdoor job?

[BrokenArrow]

My buddy got a gig north of Durango at around 8700’.
He is the year round salaried manager of a private lake community that is loaded with fish, gives him a house on the water, a boat, requires prescribed burns, and he has to “grow” lake trout that he feeds by hand off his porch. Oh, and there’s a 4 star restaurant on the water next door to the house.
Did I mention he took a 6x elk off the forest service property that borders it.
Lucky SOB. I will say he put in his time and earned the position, but dang cool place to be.

 

[come2elmo]

Investment banker, personal injury lawyer, mob boss. Retire at 48 assuming you survive and let your wife shop in the mountain towns and check on your various houses while you hunt. Oh and hire that guy in Durango to grow your fish. Just keep him away from your wife. Hmm. Unless the fish are really big.

 

[JDH]

Farming. I can't say that I loved it when I was growing up but over the last few years I've realized how much I miss it. There isn't anywhere that I would rather raise my kids than on a farm.

I worked for a farmer during the recession and loved it. I think sitting in a tractor is the only thing I could stand to do all day without getting bored.

 

[Big Slick]

Swedish bikini team sun tan lotion guy.

 

[WalkingBird]

I'd say wildlife/fisheries tech if it paid halfway decent, now that I'm a bio I wish I was back teching, it's a lot more fun and less stressful!

I think being an outdoor writer would be a helluva gig, not much $$ in that either from what I can tell, but I think it would be pretty cool

 

[Phaseolus]

Being a member of The Corps of Discovery.

My Father was the District snow ranger in charge of snow safety and avalanche control in the Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forests early in his career. It was fun tagging along with him carry the seismograph powder and him the caps.

 

[noharleyyet]

Swedish bikini team sun tan lotion guy.

 

[LCH]

I started out in the private sector in environmental protection, got to be outside everyday. I only got 10 days of vacation per year though.

Now I'm a Fed working in industrial hygiene, and although I don't get much time outdoors, I do get several weeks of vacation per year. I've already hunted AK and TX this year, and this fall will hit AZ, KS, MT, and possibly WY, along with hunting here at home, all on PTO and accrued Comp time.

The goal is to transition back to environmental protection as a Fed eventually, keep the PTO and also spend a good portion of the workday outside.

 

[Rook93]

Get in the oil fields ol son. Work year long, drag up for hunting season then get your a$$ back in gear for next year.

 

[Greyman]

https://www.wideopenspaces.com/want-one-of-these-summer-jobs-at-yellowstone-national-park/

 

[hossblur]

Ask Fin. No one knows better which jobs are the best than a CPA. I've heard Fin talk about being a marriage counselor, life coach, etc.

For all the belly aching I see few Fed employees quitting to enter the private sector. Craps loads of time off, pensions, etc. Seems like a good gig for hunter/fisherman.

Or, you could hang sheetrock

 

[oleefish2]

I have always loved to cook indoors, outdoors and I have enjoyed several times cooking for hunting, fishing and some outdoor events. The quite that comes when a meal comes out right.

 

[tzone]

I'd have to say mine is pretty bad ass. I'm a project manager on highway construction. I get more vacation than I can take, have almost no competition for fall time off and they let me take nearly the entire month of November off.

 

[glass eye]

An Ornithologist in the Hawaii.

 

[Scott85]

An Ornithologist in the Hawaii.

I don’t think there is enough money to keep me in Hawaii.

 

[Jape]

One job no one has mentioned is Cult Leader. You get a bunch of people to give you all their money and worldly possessions so you can buy a big old ranch up against some inaccessible public land in Montana or somewhere. Then you can just hunt and fish all you want while your minions… I mean loyal followers, do all the work on the ranch. And all you have to pay them is three meals a day of rice and beans. On top of that you get first crack at all the pretty young women.

 

[glass eye]

I don’t think there is enough money to keep me in Hawaii.

There's some awesome hunting in Hawaii. If you've only seen Hawaii from the tourist circuit you've really missed out.

 

[Scott85]

There's some awesome hunting in Hawaii. If you've only seen Hawaii from the tourist circuit you've really missed out.

I gave up on even trying to hunt. I wanted to head over and hunt axis deer and then hunt mouflon sheep. I leave in 8 months and will be happy to start to hunt again on the mainland.

 

[PrairieHunter]

Regarding the underlined phrase in your quote above, I wonder if you actually know everything a Wyoming GW has to do and gets involved in.

ClearCreek

This ^^

The little bit I know about what game wardens do is enough to tell me it would not be a fun job much of the time. Watching the game warden programs in other states confirms this, the Montana program was particularly had to watch as some of those poachers can really make things difficult for a GW. Essentially dealing with the worst 5% of hunters on a regular basis, playing games trying to get enough evidence to convict these losers would require an enormous amount of patience.

 

[MThuntr]

Ecologist for the Soil survey has treated me pretty well. Lots of field time in the summer but we spend most of the winter penned up in the office doing analysis.