Worst campsites experiences

[oldmanAZ]

Originally Posted by North of 49°

Around here, no such stipulations exist; leashed is leashed. We always make sure that the other end is tied to something secure, and far enough away that the dog can't reach the road. But still long enough that the dog can get wrapped around every twig, rock, branch and picnic table on the site.

What to double your fun? Just let two dogs cross their leashes AND get wrapped around every twig, rock, branch and picnic table and each other!

[Rmgrose]

Originally Posted by oldmanAZ

What to double your fun? Just let two dogs cross their leashes AND get wrapped around every twig, rock, branch and picnic table and each other!

I used to wrap the lead around the bumper of the trailer, till I came out to find the dog wrapped around the sewer hose. Luckily not a mess, but won't take that chance again

[2nOZ]

Ours had to be this past October. We had just taken delivery of our new TT. We decided to make our maiden voyage to a State Park located close to home. We were able to get the last site available. Got things set up, weather was beautiful and life was great. Across the creek there was a very large family gathering of 15-20 TT’s and RV’s, some double parked, complete with the adults, kids, pets and an assortment of personal motorized toys. Around 8pm it was time for kid’s karaoke complete with amplified speakers. Around 11pm the adults decided it was their turn after a large amount of liquid inhibition. We decided to hit the pillows as an RV pulled in to the site next to ours. At 2am we were rudely awakened by blaring head-banger music like it was right at our door. We tried to brush it off but at 3am, had, had enough! Went over to the RV to find there was no adult supervision to be found and a young kid passed out by a roaring campfire surrounded by beer cans. The wife was able to handily smite the electronic beast that was spewing forth the obnoxious noise. Ah yes, a few hours of serenity. A call to the ranger station told us there were no rangers on duty that weekend and the camp host had moved out earlier that day. Good luck. This is not the camping I remember as a kid. There was respect and courtesy for others. What happened to the posted quiet hours? I’m hoping this year is better.

[Swardy]

Originally Posted by North of 49°

No real "bad" experiences; we camp exclusively in provincial park campgrounds which have pretty strict rules which we abide by, so we've never had any major problems. But there were a few that made me shake my head, like the guy who started up his diesel and let it run, and the exhaust drifted into my site while I was enjoying my morning coffee. Or the guy who was running his jet-ski up and down the lake repeatedly at 9 a.m. Or the kids who decide that cutting through our campsite is the most direct route to where they want to go.

But there's one that still makes me chuckle to this day. DW had a wedding to go to on the first major long weekend of the year, and I had already made reservations. The heck with that, says I, I'll go solo, just me and our dearly departed husky. So that's what we did, the dog and I. On the same campground loop that we were camping in, someone else had some dogs, but weren't leashed. These dogs were running all over the place and even started sniffing around our site. I didn't want any fights between them and my dog, so I scared them off.

A little while later the park attendant came around. The conversation went something like this:

PA: Did you see any dogs running around here?
Me: Yeah, I think they belong over there.
PA: They're not your dogs?
Me: No, I think they belong to that site over there.
PA: Dogs must be leased at all times.
Me: (looking to where my dog was securely and obviously tied to a tree) Okay.

My husky was at the limit of his 30' of rope, patiently watching us. He just wanted to see what was going on. It must have been one of the strangest conversations I've ever had. Plus, it already said on my camping permit one person and one dog. Not three. I still shake my head when I think about it.

We also camp in Provincial Parks most of the time - usually they are pretty good - with the exception of Bird's Hill Park more recently.
There is a place just out side the park that does weddings on the weekends in a big wedding tent. Blaring music and such - I may as well camp in the parking lot of a bar. A real let down camping there now.

I always have the dog tied in the site - I have a 100' rope that I tie out so he can reach the edge of the site without leaving it. We go for walks with the 100'. I just wrap it up so he has 10' or so of lead when walking and when we come to a field without any other explorers, I give him the whole 100' and let him check stuff out. Never had a problem with doing that.

[Camper_bob]

Geesh, reading some of these stories makes me feel pretty lucky!

One time I was camping in a state park in my RV. Most of the other campers were in tents. My truck was backed up to the front of my RV as it usually is. It was after dark, and I had to get into my truck to get the dog's bed out. My truck has automatic headlights that come on when I unlock the doors, and I realized it was pointed directly at another camp site where the occupants were cooking around a campfire with little to no light in their site, not even a lantern, they were using small flashlights to go about their chores. When I hit that button, I lit up their world pretty well. Nothing to be done about it, and I turned my lights off as fast as humanly possible. I felt terrible for having done that.

[TxTwoSome]

Originally Posted by Camper_bob

Geesh, reading some of these stories makes me feel pretty lucky!

One time I was camping in a state park in my RV. Most of the other campers were in tents. My truck was backed up to the front of my RV as it usually is. It was after dark, and I had to get into my truck to get the dog's bed out. My truck has automatic headlights that come on when I unlock the doors, and I realized it was pointed directly at another camp site where the occupants were cooking around a campfire with little to no light in their site, not even a lantern, they were using small flashlights to go about their chores. When I hit that button, I lit up their world pretty well. Nothing to be done about it, and I turned my lights off as fast as humanly possible. I felt terrible for having done that.

I changed the settings on my truck so the lights do not come on when I unlock it.

I felt bad one time when I did the same thing to someone.

[North of 49°]

Originally Posted by Swardy

We also camp in Provincial Parks most of the time - usually they are pretty good - with the exception of Bird's Hill Park more recently.
There is a place just out side the park that does weddings on the weekends in a big wedding tent. Blaring music and such - I may as well camp in the parking lot of a bar. A real let down camping there now.

I'm familiar with that place. Whenever we're at Birds Hill, we always go there for breakfast on Saturdays, since it's so close to the campground. We've never experienced a wedding there, though, since we're always at the northern end of the campground, and far enough away from the place so we don't hear anything. Nice farmer's market during the summer too.

The place where I had the experience with the unleashed dogs and the strange park attendant was Black Lake Campground in Nopiming PP. Dealing with the park attendants and taking a look at the seasonal campsites there was almost like a scene out of Deliverance. Just needed a banjo. Beautiful campground at the end of 30 miles of bad road, otherwise.

What to double your fun? Just let two dogs cross their leashes AND get wrapped around every twig, rock, branch and picnic table and each other!

We've actually done that. A few times we camped with some friends who had the next site over, and they had two dogs of their own. So we strung a line between two trees, tied the handle part of the leashes to the collars and clipped the other end on the line, so they could slide back and forth. Well, all three dogs liked to wrestle with each other, so you can imagine how long it took for the leashes to get tangled.

[North of 49°]

Another incident comes to mind. Many years ago my ex-wife and I were tenting at another nearby campground. I was sitting in the lawn chair reading a book, and had the window in the truck rolled down to listen to the stereo. It wasn't loud; anyone walking by on the road might have been able to hear it but wouldn't be able to make out the song.

In the site beside us, a family was camping in a pop-up. The mother comes over and not too politely "asks" me to turn it down. Not wanting a confrontation, and not really caring one way or the other, I apologize and comply. Then, for the rest of the day, I listen to her, her husband, and their darling child have knock-down, drag-out arguments about pretty much everything. After listening to that for an hour or two, I turned my stereo back up to where it was.

They were gone the next day.

[suzieshome]

Our kids were taught from a young age that nobody else wants to hear them when we are camping. If talking, music, whatever is audible or bothersome to neighbours it's too loud.
We don't camp to listen to loud music, drunk neighbours or out of control kids and dogs

[TaftCoach]

If there isn't a maximum length why have a leash rule?

[RPreeb]

Originally Posted by TaftCoach

If there isn't a maximum length why have a leash rule?

To keep the animal under some sort of control? It's not like somebody is going to put a dog on a 100 foot rope and think that it's properly leashed - dog owners know what "leash" means, even without a specified length.

National Parks generally have a 6 foot rule when they allow dogs at all (most of the trails prohibit them). I think that is more to discourage people from bringing dogs to NP's. No dog is going to be happy being on a 6 foot leash for an extended period.

I personally have no problem with a dog on a 20 foot tether in a campsite, but it should be under closer control when away from the site. Even when on the site it should not be able to get to the road or any path near the site. I don't have an issue with the retractable leashes as long as the owner knows how to use them properly.

I'm a bit worried about taking our best friend camping because he barks too much here at home. Like many dogs, he feels that he has to talk to anyone passing by the yard (he's friendly and loves people), and if he does that out camping, it would be unacceptable (not that it's acceptable here at home either - we do "counsel" him regularly, and bring him back inside when he gets too carried away).

[mike837go]

As previously mentioned it the people you are crammed next to that make the CG experience less-than-perfect.


The group in the next aisle singing until well past the 10:00 cutoff for such activities. Early the next morning (before 7:00), being woken up by the pre-teens getting out of their unit next door whining about having to use the CG showers....

[Swardy]

Originally Posted by North of 49°

I'm familiar with that place. Whenever we're at Birds Hill, we always go there for breakfast on Saturdays, since it's so close to the campground. We've never experienced a wedding there, though, since we're always at the northern end of the campground, and far enough away from the place so we don't hear anything. Nice farmer's market during the summer too.

The place where I had the experience with the unleashed dogs and the strange park attendant was Black Lake Campground in Nopiming PP. Dealing with the park attendants and taking a look at the seasonal campsites there was almost like a scene out of Deliverance. Just needed a banjo. Beautiful campground at the end of 30 miles of bad road, otherwise.

We've actually done that. A few times we camped with some friends who had the next site over, and they had two dogs of their own. So we strung a line between two trees, tied the handle part of the leashes to the collars and clipped the other end on the line, so they could slide back and forth. Well, all three dogs liked to wrestle with each other, so you can imagine how long it took for the leashes to get tangled.

We had a situation at Opapiskaw this year where a family pulled in to a site in the bay behind us - after dark and they used their truck headlights to light up the site to set up tents. The bush is not very thick so it lit up my entire site as well.

They were very loud and very disorganized and very long in set up time but I realized that it was a mom and a dad with about 6 teenage kids and it appeared to be a "first" camping trip, so excitement and inexperiance on all fronts.
However the next night, it was radio blasting at full where we couldn't even talk at our fire pit without raised voices. Eventually the parkies sorted it out and all was well after....

[FishAr]

Pulled into the Valdosta GA Camping World campground to spend the night on our way to Florida Jan. 3. Pulled into spot, perfectly level, great!
I threw some stuff out of the compartment to put under the jacks and went to test the power.
About that time I hear my wife yell STOP!!!
Then I start hearing the sound of wires stretching, poles breaking, and her still screaming at this guy to stop.
Guy with a big fifth wheel had hooked an electric wire, broke a pole and it fell on another fifth wheel.

He had to work real hard it looked like to me to drive around a barricade and against some arrows on the pavement to get where he was.

I then went ahead and tested the power, there was none, I figured he knocked it all out.

Started talking to a few people and they had power, I just had a bad pedestal.

Some real nice people in a big Montana told me to park next to them, there was power there. So I took a walk to see how to get there. The guy who started all the trouble, well by the time I was ready to move someone had cleared the live wire, yes that's what I said, from his air conditioner and he'd moved to a parking spot and was completely blocking the road I needed to use.

So I backed out and ran through a campsite and took another road the wrong way to get where I needed to go while my wife carried all the stuff I'd unloaded to the new campsite, while holding our 95 pound labrador on a leash.

New site wasn't level, so had to drag out the anderson levelers. But real nice people next door. The neighbors at the other site I was going to use, it looked like they lived there year round in an old dilapidated trailer and were throwing back the natty lites at a pretty good clip, while the guy was trying to tell me he thought he could get the dead pedestal working for me if I'd just wait.

Then my new neighbor says "It's been a hell of a day here. First that guy (he points to an empty spot where a toyota truck was parked) apparently beat his wife, she called the cops, he left, and an ambulance came and carried her out in a blanket. then somehow while no one was looking the trailer disappeared but his truck is still there. Then you saw that guy break the power pole over the top of that abandoned trailer".

I said "Abandoned trailer?"

He says "Yeah, I've been coming here for 3 years and it was here the first time I came, it's got 2013 plates on it and no one's ever seen anyone in it."

Wow.

And of course we had the fire dept out there with lights flashing and then repair crews out the next morning with lights flashing. I just wanted a night's rest and I got it.
I must say that the Camping World of Valdosta has some real nice people there though, this is the second year they've let me stay there for free just for letting them renew my Good Sam membership with them. I'd stay there again but it won't be necessary since I'm leaving this trailer in Florida.

[North of 49°]

Originally Posted by Swardy

We had a situation at Opapiskaw this year where a family pulled in to a site in the bay behind us - after dark and they used their truck headlights to light up the site to set up tents. The bush is not very thick so it lit up my entire site as well.

We camped at Opapiskaw once, and didn't like it. Not a bad experience, but I didn't like the way the sites were laid out. When we're in that region, we usually stay at Nutimik Lake.

Another place I have to shake my head at: A private campground on the shores of a large lake about 3 hours north of the city. We were camping with a group of people and someone suggested this place. There's nicer PP campgrounds around there that I'd rather go to and were closer, but what the heck.

Not a bad campground, nice amenities, large treed sites. But whoo boy, do they make you pay for it. Entry fee for the vehicle, fairly expensive site fees, pay for the firewood, pay to launch your boat. When we were leaving, there was a fee to dump your tanks. "Pay at the office," the sign said. I was already annoyed and I wasn't going to walk all that distance to pay even more money, so I just dumped and left. I understand this is a private park and a commercial business, but enough was enough. I can have a nicer experience at a government-run campground and get all of that stuff for free.

[robert9999]

A couple of late night shotgun blasts were in order

[schrederman]

I play guitar and sing... usually to myself and never loud or amplified. But sometimes I have other campers come and listen, and some bring instruments and voices and join in. At one CG in Central Texas we were kind of isolated. Closest was a motor home 3 sites down. I sat out at dusk and started playing and in 30 minutes had about 25 guests... and a couple of other musicians in the bunch. Many brought chairs and several kept the campfire going. We had one of those wonderful times that don't come around all that often. We were never loud in any way... and broke up about 11:00 PM. The motor-home occupants left the next morning and never said anything to us, but the management came by a few minutes later. They said they enjoyed our music, and were in the group...... but please don't do it again or we'll have to ask you to pack up and leave immediately.

[3'senough]

Originally Posted by RPreeb

I'm a bit worried about taking our best friend camping because he barks too much here at home. Like many dogs, he feels that he has to talk to anyone passing by the yard (he's friendly and loves people), and if he does that out camping, it would be unacceptable (not that it's acceptable here at home either - we do "counsel" him regularly, and bring him back inside when he gets too carried away).

Mine barks at the door bell and strange people coming up to the door she does not know. Once she smells them she turns into a mush and usually wants to play with them. That said she goes to every campground I can legally take her. When the kids and adults start to cut through the site she goes on the 15 ft leash tied to the dog stake or table and I let her bark at them as they try to cut through. Other than the cut through people she does not bark.

That is the biggest issue I have with CG's and some people is the lack of courtesy or respect to the "site parameters". My wife will just say "hi what's your name?" and catch them off guard the first time. 50% of the time that works, but if not the dog goes in the middle to send the message the first day.

[SouthCo]

Originally Posted by schrederman

I play guitar and sing... usually to myself and never loud or amplified. But sometimes I have other campers come and listen, and some bring instruments and voices and join in. At one CG in Central Texas we were kind of isolated. Closest was a motor home 3 sites down. I sat out at dusk and started playing and in 30 minutes had about 25 guests... and a couple of other musicians in the bunch. Many brought chairs and several kept the campfire going. We had one of those wonderful times that don't come around all that often. We were never loud in any way... and broke up about 11:00 PM. The motor-home occupants left the next morning and never said anything to us, but the management came by a few minutes later. They said they enjoyed our music, and were in the group...... but please don't do it again or we'll have to ask you to pack up and leave immediately.

So you were an example of the worst campsite experience for the motor home people perhaps lol. 25 people just having normal conversation at one or two sites together is not quiet let alone instruments and singing...

[troutslayer]

The guy next to me who after cleaning out his tanks put the stinky slinky on the picnic table before storing it.