Hourly Jobs For Guides

Hourly Jobs For Guides

If you are a full-time guide and would like to earn extra money this summer - in addition to the money you make from guiding - we have several hourly positions available.

Hourly work does not reduce the amount that you guide since you still maintain your position in the guide rotation. Guides who do hourly work guide as much as guides who don’t do hourly work. However, guides who do hourly work make substantially more money than guides who do not do hourly work.

Do not commit to hourly work unless you are serious about doing the work. If you commit to an hourly job, we will expect you to do it and do it well. If you commit to an hourly job and do not do it well, you will be fired from both your hourly job and from your guiding job.

Hourly work pays $7.50 per hour. The hourly jobs include office intern, camp manager, bus driver, equipment/put-in manager, vehicle manager, kitchen manager, and housekeeper.

Office Intern

This is a great job for someone who wants to get hands-on experience working in a small business. We want someone who will get involved in the work and accept responsibility. You will be dealing with customers over the phone, answering their questions, and making reservations. You will be checking in customers at our Johnson Village office, collecting final payments from customers, and helping them rent wetsuits and booties. You will need strong organizational skills because you will help us keep track of reservations, credit card payments, photo orders, sales, and guide records. The things you will learn in this job might very well help you succeed in your own business someday.

Camp Manager

Camp managers are responsible for running the camping part of the deluxe overnight trips. Camp managers are responsible for checking the reservation book for deluxe overnight trips, checking camp food and supplies, and shopping for and ordering food and supplies as needed. Camp managers set up the customer tents, shuttle customer gear down to the campsite while the customers are on the river, take care of the overnight customers when they come off the river, including cooking dinner, tending the campfire, washing dishes, and cleaning up after dinner. Camp managers stay in camp with the customers at night, cook breakfast, clean up after breakfast, and break down and pack away the tents and camping gear. Camp managers are paid for actual work time, not for sleep time and not for hanging out time. This job requires someone who is hard working and self-disciplined. Outdoor cooking experience is helpful. We prefer to have three to four guides sharing the responsibility for this position or one person being a full-time camp manager with one or two guides helping the full-time camp manager on the bigger deluxe overnight trips.

Bus Driver

Since our bus drivers are also guides, we frequently shuttle our busses and vans to our Brown’s Canyon takeout the morning of the trip or the evening before the trip so they are at the takeout when the trip comes off the water. On larger trips, one of the guides with a commercial drivers license (CDL) drives the bus and customers back to the office. On smaller trips, any of the guides with a good driving record may drive the van and customers back to the office. Bus and van drivers are paid $7.00 per hour for driving Royal Gorge, Bighorn Sheep Canyon, and Numbers/Narrows trips. On these trips, the bus driver drives the guides and customers to the put-in, helps get the trip on the water, meets the trip for lunch, helps with lunch, packs away lunch, meets the trip coming off the water, helps load equipment, and drives the guides and customers back to their vehicles or to the office. First year bus drivers who guided Brown’s Canyon are not paid extra for driving their trip from our Brown’s Canyon takeout back to the office since we paid for the costs of getting their CDL’s. Guides who get a CDL are not paid for their study time and testing time since having a CDL increases a guide’s future employment opportunities and earning ability. Our insurance requires CDL drivers to be at least 21 years old and to have a good driving record. Only bus drivers are required to have CDL’s. Guides without CDL’s can drive our vans if they have a good driving record.

Equipment and Put-In Manager

The equipment/put-in manager is responsible for making sure the rafting equipment and the put in are kept in good condition. The equipment/put-in manager should go through the equipment on a regular basis to see what equipment needs to be cleaned, what needs to be repaired, and what needs to be replaced. Although the guides wash the wetsuits, booties, and rain gear at the end of each trip, the equipment/put-in manager is responsible for more thorough cleaning and periodically washing the life jackets, wetsuits, booties, and rain gear and deodorizing them with a product called “Sink the Stink”. The equipment/put-in manager is responsible for doing simple repairs on the equipment, remarking the company name and information on boats, life jackets, helmets, etc., as needed, repairing the clotheslines, and for taking the equipment to a local shop for more complex repairs. The equipment/put-in manager is responsible for getting the put-in ready for the season. This will involve extensive digging and moving rocks at the beginning of the season since winter rains damage the old roadbed that is our access down to the water. Once the put-in area is fixed, the equipment/put-in manager is responsible for maintaining the put-in and keeping the trash picked up in the put-in area.

Vehicle Manager

The vehicle manger is responsible for ensuring that the vehicles and trailers are kept clean and in good repair. The vehicle manager inspects the vehicles and trailers at least once a week to make sure the vehicles are running well, the lights, wipers, etc. are working, the fluid levels are good and the tire pressures are correct. The vehicle manager is responsible for keeping the vehicles clean and for minor repairs and is responsible for scheduling major repairs at a local shop.

Kitchen Manager

The kitchen manager is responsible for doing an ongoing inventory of the groceries and supplies we have in stock, shopping for groceries and supplies as needed at the local grocery store, and ordering meat and cheese for delivery each week.

House Keeper

The housekeeper is responsible for cleaning and organizing the kitchen, food storage areas, and living room as needed. This will include mopping the kitchen and dining room floors, vacuuming the living room, cleaning the bathroom, and doing the recycling at least once a week. There will be two large plastic containers with lids – one will be labeled “Chuck’s Dishes” and the other “Guides’ Dishes”. If Chuck or the guides do not have time to do their dishes right after they use them, they will be required to put their dishes in the appropriate container and wash them later. The housekeeper is not required to wash Chuck’s or other guides’ dishes but, if Chuck or the guides fail to wash their dishes or put them in the appropriate containers, then the housekeeper should put the dishes in the containers. The guides are supposed to pick up after themselves. If they fail to do this, there will be a larger container with a lid outside the back door. The housekeeper should pick up guides’ stuff left in the house and put guides’ stuff in the container. If the housekeeper knows which guides are leaving dirty dishes in the kitchen or other areas of the house or which guides are leaving their personal gear in the house, then the housekeeper should talk to the guides responsible and ask them to clean up after themselves. If guides continue leaving dirty dishes in the kitchen or other areas of the house or guides continue leaving their personal gear in the house, then the housekeeper should tell Chuck which guides are creating the problems and he will deal with them.