Camp Host Stories from New Hampshire

[Gerry]

Here I am again. Didn't want you all to think I have been eaten by the bear or bashed over the head by a wild (drunk) Camper and left in the woods.
With the big holiday over, actually things are quieting down a bit.
Any of you who think, and there are alot of people who I talk to who say...
"Hmmm, you must love your job being up here all the time in the woods, I could do it".
Read this......
Last week-end we filled all 49 sites but with all nice quiet respectful campers and other then a few extra car violations or parking on side of road violations things went great.
The big exodus on Sunday makes for a long day cleaning sites but starting early, like around 9:30, rideing around with the lawn tractor and wagon, cleaning sites of the ones who left early, it tends to get others moveing alittle faster.
I had done the upper loop, 20 sites, by about 1:00.
This entails cleaning fire pits and if the people didn't have a fire that morning it's not bad because you can do about 3 sites before you have to dump ashes into a dumpster, but alot of campers have the mindset that if they paid for the wood they are going to burn it all and they will leave a burning fire in the pit.
This means that I have to get logs out of fire, and put them out as best I can then scoop the hot embers into my galvanized bucket then go to a pump, douse the hot embersm , makeing sure they are 100% out and then dump them.
We already have had 2 dumpster fires and trying to put one out is a pain.
I have had fire pits that took 5 trips with hot embers to a pump, douse. and dump and that slows down the cleaning process.
After the fire pit is cleaned you go around and pick up all and every little piece of paper or anything that does not belong in the woods.
Why people will dump food on the edge of thier site is beyond me but some will.
Maybe they think the animals will eat it. But it is my job to clean this all up.
Then rake any marks left by tent and car tires in gravel, rake where they been trying to break thier kindling or chopping wood, under table and around fire pit is usually the places needing a good rakeing and last but not least, look for any nails and ropes left in trees and with the rain we have been haveing alot of clothes lines have been set up.
The worst thing is when people trench a site. They don't know or maybe they do that I will have to fill these.
Now a weekend campers ditch is not too bad as the gravel is still there but week long campers that ditch all the freshly dug gravel is washed down and I have to scrape with a shovel to get enough dirt to fill these trenches, what a pain.
I then went down to the lower loop where the other hosts clean after they get done the SST's (Sweet smelling toilets)
I saw all the fire grates in place, a sign that they have been cleaned so I went back to my site and hopped in the car and into town for a quick, late lunch at 2:00.
When I returned the other host told me that they didn't have a chance to clean 2 sites as somebody came into the campground to inform them that there was an accident down at the covered bridge and they needed to call for help on the CB radio.
What had happend was, there is these 4 massive pine logs, about 18 inches in diameter, stuck in the ground, on each side of the road with a notch in the top so a log about 12 inches in diameter could sit into and span the road.
This gives a height limit as to what will fit through the covered bridge.
A Chanook camper was a bit too high and from the damage they must have been going fast too.
One side, all 4 posts were broken off at ground level, they were a bit rotten where the ground-water had soaked them for years (good thing) and the other side, when the cross beam came down slit the notch out.
Nobody was hurt and there was a chunk taken out of the camper and needless to say they did not come into the Covered Bridge Campground.
Trouble was they were useing a GPS devise and it told them to come in this way which is off a main highway but the only way to get a camper into out campground is the back road which is more remote even on maps.
They may have saw this and didn't want to back track and go another 15 miles but I doubt this because they were just goin too fast to even think "hmmm I wonder if I can make it under".
They were just going through....NOT.
Well the camp bear seems to have taken off and last sighting was last Tuesday and he was walking up into the hills and the blue berries are out now so he may be gone after not getting too many goodies here in camp.
Thats all for now
Gerry

[Gina D.]

I am fortunate that I don't have to clean the sites... and only douse out fires if needed.

Th site cleaning gets done during the week by the full time hosts and the fire pit cleaning gets done by a crew with a truck during the week as well.

[Frederick L. Simson]

Trouble was they were useing a GPS devise and [b]it told them to come in this way which is off a main highway but the only way to get a camper into out campground is the back road which is more remote even on maps.

This is why I will never own a GPS, and only use Mapquest as a last resort and with great suspicion. There are fundamental assumptions made with these tools that are flawed.

[Adrian W]

A GPS, like any human devise, has be supervised by a thinking human mind for it to be a help. Ours had us mapped for gravel roads up in the Black Hills and a jeep trail in NM. I did not consider taking either. Mine is on the lap top, I like it mainly because of the MPH readings, elevations, and somewhat the headings (North, South, etc.). And of couse, the time and miles to the next place.

Gerry, I sure hope they are paying you something more than a parking place. It all sounds too much like work. I do enjoy your Camp Host Stories.

Thanks,

AW