Bad Camping Experiences

[TheViking]

We've all wrote to this board about how much fun we had, or the nice people we met while camping...but I'm sure some of you had some not so good experiences too.  Like, rowdy neighbors, bad CG's, etc. Let's hear some of those stories.

[hoppy]

I can honestly say that over my 35 years plus camping, and the last 15 years in a PU, I can not recall a bad trip. We had our share of heavy rains, people getting hurt, and other assorted calamities.

 We almost had one a couple of trips a go, but the CG attendents nipped it right in the bud.
  We had set up our PU on one of my favorite sites at the CG on Friday morning. We had a great evening sitting around the campfire that night, and the sites along side us were empty.
   Saturday afternoon rolls around, and all of a sudden 6 cars show up at the site along side us, and out pours a group of teenagers with no camping equipment, car radios blasting, and a ton of beer. Obviously, they had no intention of enjoying the scenery and the camping expierence. Well, I figured that we would allow them the benefit of the doubt, and see what happens.
   Well, we never got the chance. The attendants and the ranger came to the sight as soon as they discovered just how many "guests" were using that site number, and they all were tossed for underaged drinking.
   So Saturday evening was as good as Friday night.... no neighbors on either side of us the entire weekend.

   Does this count?

[TheViking]

I can honestly say that over my 35 years plus camping, and the last 15 years in a PU, I can not recall a bad trip. We had our share of heavy rains, people getting hurt, and other assorted calamities.
 
We almost had one a couple of trips a go, but the CG attendents nipped it right in the bud.
We had set up our PU on one of my favorite sites at the CG on Friday morning. We had a great evening sitting around the campfire that night, and the sites along side us were empty.
Saturday afternoon rolls around, and all of a sudden 6 cars show up at the site along side us, and out pours a group of teenagers with no camping equipment, car radios blasting, and a ton of beer. Obviously, they had no intention of enjoying the scenery and the camping expierence. Well, I figured that we would allow them the benefit of the doubt, and see what happens.
Well, we never go the chance. The attendants and the ranger came to the sight as soon as they discovered just how many "guests" were using that site number, and they all were tossed for underaged drinking.
So Saturday evening was as good as Friday night.... no neighbors on either side of us the entire weekend.
 
Does this count?

Of course it qualifies !!  That's what I'm talking about !  Everyone has to have some kind of story.  Let's hear em !

[veryolddog]

I still think that a bad day of camping is better than staying home and cleaning house or making the dinner.

I think that the only issues that come to mind that would be "bad" would be the weather. Just last March, while visiting Charleston, SC, we had such incredible rain on Saturday evening and Sunday morning. Getting the pop up down for travel was a challenge and we were ankle deep in water. Although that was the bad news, the good news was that while it rained in torrents, we remained quite dry in the pop up and sipped a hot cup of coffee in the pop up while mustering the courage to go outside and hitch up.

In all of our travels across the United States, we really have not met people who have presented an "offensive" situation while camping. I do worry about theft and strangers since, I have a very suspicious nature after being in the Corps for 23 years, but we really have not encountered this situation. We try to be prepared for that as much as anyone can in today's world. But, I believe that all things are replaceable except for the human life. And, together, the wife and I, do not choose to be victims. Because we camp alone, and in areas where there is not usually, any other campers, we are more alert when we see other campers coming and make sure that there is no visible threat.

Later. The Very Old Dog

[garym053]

Other than Rain, Thunderstorms, SNOW, etc which I don't count as bad experiences as much as blaming the Weatherperson, we have not had what I would call a BAD experience.
The worst experience we've had was a couple talking in their campsite next to us at Horseneck Beach Reservation in MA. The sites are close, we were in a tent, and could hear them. They were just talking around their campfire. Not loud or obnoxious at all. It was after quiet time, but in a normal campground with trees, we wouldn't have heard a peep!
Probably now with my CPAP running I wouldn't even hear them there!!!

[hoppy]

Of course it qualifies !!  That's what I'm talking about !  Everyone has to have some kind of story.  Let's hear em !

 Back when I first started camping and in my roudy youthful days, we probably were the reason for many a bad camping experience for our neighbors. It was definetly a different time camping back 35-40 years ago. Camping was just not as popular as it is today, and the woods were typically empty. The site rentals were $0.50 a night, and the CG owner would supply us a couple of axe's to help clear the woods, so he could open up additional sites. The party never stopped all weekend. The campfire never went out.

 But for all those that had the unfortunate expierence of camping along side our camping "boggie in the woods" events, I truly apologize.

[cyclone]

I live in TN where most of the state parks do not accept reservations. We planned to camp Memorial Day week-end in a park near my sister's home. It is permissable to "save" a site using any type of sleeping structure (in this case, tent). She went out Thursday a.m. to grab a site and talked to the camp host then as we weren't sure at that point whether we would be able to camp, due to some medical tests a family member was undergoing. The host said, "no problem. Set up your tent and it's not even necessary to pay for the site until Friday." Joan proceeded to pick a great (HUGE) site and pitched her tent on the grass not far from the table. She also paid for the site for Thursday night at that time. Fast forward to 5:00 pm on Friday. She arrived at the cg only to find a BIG A@% motorhome (from now I will call it BAM) parked on our site. We were still about 2 hours from the cg at that time. She politely told BAM that they were on her site and they said "Oh, you can still sleep in the tent ~ it won't bother us at all". They had also removed the date marker/receipt eith Joan's info from the site sign. Joan went immediately to the camp host who assured her it was indeed her site and called the rangers to help. The host said the BAM people were very vocal in voicing the opinion that a "tenter" did not need that big of site. The host told them that she didn't care if someone camped in a huge RV or a cardboard box; if they paid for the site it was theirs AND so far BAM had not paid one cent. BAM also came in on Thursday night and used the site for free. (the host thought that they were the people joining my sister, so didn't question them or make them move). Of course the only available site by that time was in the Wrangler area; not a good option with dogs who are not used to horses. BAM suggested trading sites with friends of theirs who had a nearby site. Also not a good option, as this site was basically awful. The host kept telling Joan "it's your site; you don't have to compromise on this." It took two rangers to "convince" BAM that he had to vacate the site; and apparently a very carefully worded warning was also made to the effect that if they caused any trouble at all they were out of there. I believe they also charged him for Thursday night. BAM ended up moving to his friends site; it was kind of funny to see it crammed into a site along with a pop-up knowing that if the idiot had been smart enough to pick a vacant site on Thursday at least he would have had a decent site. I assume he thought we would gracefully give up our site. Definite kudos to the terrific camp hosts and rangers for this one. By the time we arrived with the pop-up, the site was vacated. I was almost sorry I missed all this; I would have loved to actually talk to the jerk! A great week-end followed this not so great beginning.

[diane]

just 3 weeks ago I had an experience like hoppy's. Our first trip of the year is always local so we went to a CG We've been to many times without any problems. The second day I'm sitting around another campers fire when we see at least 20 cars pull up. Must have been about half of an entire high schools graduating class. We watched in amusement while they tried to put up tents, already half drunk, then gave a hand. As the night went on they got louder, were cutting through our site every 5 min or so to find a bathroom, and of course every other word began with F. Management assured us the were given a warning. This went on all night until at 4am they set one of the tents on fire. Thank goodness it was out in about 5 min. I had 4 kids with me and always thought of this CG as family oriented. I was quite disappointed that management never said a word to any of the campers around this site, like an apology. :yikes:

[jpreiser]

While camping In Cherrystone Va a few couple of years ago. We had such a bad storm, the power was out, trees down, flooding, and even had some PU's blown over  and smashed. I have us on video in the PU kids crying, me saying we have to get to the car, lighting in the background, the whole works. Never again will we "ride" out the storm in the PU!!!

[Starryart]

Back in our younger camping days (15 years ago), we camped in my fathers old heavy canvas tent. They don't make 'em like that any more.
    Anyway, a bad storm was coming with lightning and thunder and very heavy rain, and the rangers came by to warn us that we were under a tornado warning and to head for the restrooms.
   Well we said forget it!, threw our 5 yr old daughter into the car and headed for home (30 minutes away). We left everything there as it was pouring rain at the time as well.
    20 minutes from the park we drove out from under the storms edge and were under totally clear skies with stars and the moon shining. We debated what to do...turn around and go back or drive 10 minutes to the house and sleep it out. We were soaked and decided to go home.
    Next day, we returned to the CG and found our poor old tent lopsided and bent and standing a foot of water inside it. Our air matresses and bedding floating around in the tent. What a mess!
I was glad we had not stayed or it would have been a bad night indeed.

[Calstate361]

Many of our NNC friends know that we are members of NACO/Thousand Trails (N/TT), well, several years ago before we purchased the Hybred, we were camping with our PU in the N/TT campground called Snowflower.  It was the beginning of my Vacation and we had just gotten there at about 6:00 p.m.  Since we had a PU with a slide out most of our stuff was packed in the back of the truck.  We were just about finished unpacking and I and just made the bed when the Ranger comes around and tells us we need to bug out because a fire was headed that way.   You never saw to fat people move so fast.  We just tossed everything in the back of the truck and got out of there.  On the way out we talked to another Ranger and he said that we could probably come back the next day.  Since this campground is not to far from Boomtown and Reno, NV we decided to go to Boomtown and rent a cheap room.  HA!  The only thing available was a room for $90!   Well, we didn't have much choice so we took it.  It was about 11:00 p.m. at that time and we had not eaten so we went looking for a place to eat in the casino area.  There was only one place open.  We ordered breakfast and it took forever to come.  When it came it was cold.  We had seen out waiter out in the hallway chatting with some other people so he didn't pick up our order when it was  hot.  We complained to the Manager, but he didn't do anything about it.  By that time we were not very happy and very tired.  So we gave up and went to the room and went to bed.  The next day we tried to go back to the campgound but as we came off the freeway (Yuba Gap exit off Highway 80) there were firetrucks blocking the entrance.  We were directed back onto the freeway and while leaving we could see the flames up on the ridge.  This ended up being a very bad fire and Caltrans closed the freeway almost right after us.  The fire and CHP people ended up using Snowflower as a base camp.  Fortunatly, there was no damage to the campground.  Ok, I'm disappointed about the lousy start to my vacation so we go home and sleep on it.  The next day I call N/TT to see if there are any spaces available at Lake Minden, which is not one of the nicer N/TT campgrounds, but it is only about a half hour from our house.  They had room so I make reservations for a couple of days later.  Next we go out and pull the mess out of the truck and get reorganized.  The next day we go to Lake Minden and get all set up and things seem to be OK.  THEN, we get hit with a really bad heat wave and temperatures got over 100 degrees.  There are not very many trees at this place so the one tree near us was the only place to cool off (we had no AC in the PU).  We (and the dogs) followed the shade all around that tree.  It was miserable.  I kept asking Sal, do you want to go home?  He said NO! so we stuck it out for a few days because "it was my vacation"!!!  It was miserable!!!  We finally went home to a nice air conditioned house.   That was the best part of my vacation that year.

Like everyone else, most of our trips are pleasant and we meet a lot of nice people.   I guess everyone needs to go through something like that to appreciate when it doesn't happen.

Happy Camping.

Joan

[TheViking]

Ok, I guess since I started this I should contribute....Years ago we used to tent camp at a lake near us in Arizona called Saguaro Lake.  We would take either a boat back to a secluded cove, or you could drive to it but it was a pretty trecherous, 4-wheel drive only type road.  Not many people knew how to get back there by 4x4, and when asked, it was in your best interest to sidestep the question so you didn't have a million people showing up.  All good things come to an end though, eventually they semi-graded the road back there and every lowlife in Arizona showed up to this area.  Leaving their trash behind, unleashed dogs, etc.   I have so many stories from our time camping there that were not "Fun" times, it would take forever, so I will condense it. In the time we camped there we had some kids start a good sized hill on fire, we had a group of punks pissed off at us because we got "Their Spot" before they did so they camped down the wash about 200 yards from us and shot off guns, yelled and screamed all night, we had some guys show up in a broken down station wagon and let their 2 Pitbulls run and fight with other dogs(My Lab kicked their butts, it was funny), we had a rainstorm that flooded our campsite and stuff floated out into the Lake(we were in a wash remember....my fault.)  But, all in all the good times we had there outweighed the bad.

[maromeo]

TheViking - We just  had our worst experience of our life on June 4th at Lake Elsinore Resort (that was a joke) and Marina, CA. We have camped in 36 states and this campground had to be the worst. Do not waste your money going there.

We had reservation at San Clemente CA campground from June 5-11. I thought instead of driving all day from Phoenix to get there we would stop just and hour or 2 away, stay one night and get in around noon the next day so we wouldn't be too tired to set up. So I made reservations and told them what kind of unit we had and about when we will arrive. Great thought.  

We arrived at the Lake Elsinore around 4:00pm, pulled up to the entrance gate, the first question out of the mature lady's mouth was, "Is there a toilet in that thang?" then she proceeded to call the office and check to see if they could accept that thang in their CG. We told her we had a toilet and shower and we were there for one night. No reservation could be found for our thang. We then had to go to the office and they had about 8 spots open for us to choose from, so we selected a shady spot and DH set up and I checked in. I took my DD to the bathroom only to find out how digustingly filthy they were, because all the people from the marina were using the CG bathrooms instead of the ones by the lake. I also noticed a sign stating the bathrooms and showers are closed from 11:00pm  to 6:00am. (Now I know why they asked it we had a toilet in that thang.) I set up the picnic table with dinner and we ate. It looked like it was going to rain so I repacked the tablecloth and cleaned up everything outside and had DH put the chairs back in the truck. It was about 7:30pm so we went inside to watch a movie and go to bed.

Our neighbors were a PU next to us and an older early 80's model class A that had been refurbished and painted 3 different shades of army green. It actually looked decent for it's age. They arrived back to their campsite. They had  started a fire in their firepit and proceed to drink and have their dinner. More and more people starting arriving, in fact they came over and starting using our picnic table outside our PU to continue their party and drinking. Finally my DH went outside and said, "Hey guys, we have been driving all day and we would like to get some  rest, if you want to take the picnic table to your site, go ahead, but just tone it down." We thought that would be it, but no, it kept getting louder and louder even the young kids were rude and loud. My DD finally fell asleep. It was around 11:00pm by then. At 12:00am 2 young guys arrived announcing they just came from Bible Study and they started drinking and telling everyone they are under age. They started doing shots and more beer. It was about 1:30am to 2:00am and the guys start urinating by the trees. Their buddies were announcing it. The guy even urinated on our site. We again asked them to keep it down and DH went to find a CG host. No where to  be found. So after the 2 young guys starting puking, over and over again. About 3:00am things finally quieted down, they all passed out. So we caught a few hours of sleep. Then the motorcycle/police chases started down highway 74. DD woke up at 6:30am and started talking in her normal 6 yr old voice, and out of habit I shushed her. DH laughed and said "all bets are off honey." There are no quiet hours here. We got up at a quick untoasted pop tart breakfast and packed up. As we removed the tent support poles, it was amazing how slippery those buggers are when you are  packing them up. I proceeded to drop them a few times on the asphalt. DH also gave them a few additional shakes in the storage bin to make sure they are seated right. It is funny how they just don't fit right sometimes. By 8:00am we were checked out, but not before giving out our honest opinion of the CG and lack of hosts. We were told there was one on site. Now how could they have not heard all the commotion going on. The office staff did apologize, and sent out a guy to survey the situation but nothing was done. I have since written a letter to AAA and Good Sam about our experience and how we were treated upon arrival and the condition and craziness of the CG. Granted I realize it is the camper at the CG who set the tone but there should have had some kind of staff on site.

That is my horror story, I hope I never have to deal with that again. Sorry for being so long.
Mary Romeo

[flamedpop]

We pulled into our favorite CG on Thursday evening, and the best campsite has a little a** tent setup in it. So we proceed to setup our Motorhome on the site....





Just kidding.

Our camping experiences have almost all been good, but our first one out this year a cold front blew in on us and we almost froze. I turned the heat all the way up in the pu, but then that blew my edison fuse (yes edison fuse, it is an old pu). I wasn't even sure at that time where the fuse was and luckily I had seen one in the drawer left by the previous owner. So, I proceed to look around the pu with the flashlight trying not to wake up the kids, finally found it and got the heater back on --just not on high this time. The next day the Sun was out and it warmed up nicely, so everything turned out OK in the end.

[Stoll]

A couple of years ago, we were meeting friends of ours at Assateage.  It is about a 10 hour drive from our house, so we left at 10:00pm so we could drive through the night. This was NOT a good idea, we got to camp tired & hungary with 2 little boys rearing to go!! After about 1hour we had so many mosquito bites it wasn't funny.  My 10 month old son had 36 bites on his face (he was even wearing spray). Did I mention that my boys bites swell to the size of golf balls. He looked like he had something countagious.  We  left 18 hours after we arrived. We never saw our friends, and took off to find any campground that wasn't 10 hours away.  When we arrived at Cherrystone campground, it rained. Not just a little storm, a BIG one. At one point we got into the truck and just drove, it was the middle of the night, but we were scared to stay in the tent. When we got back to camp, everything was down-trees, tents, campers.  We have since upgraded into a PU. I don't think I could ever tent it again!!
P.S. Assateauge was a beautiful place to visit, but not to camp!!!