By Chuck Shepard                                       May 11, 2009

Campground season has begun. Make sure that your favorite campground is open before going up to camp by looking at the Camp Rates/Dates page of your favorite Forest.

    Almost all of the sites are open now. Most of our manpower has been concentrated on cleaning the campgrounds from the winter debris in the late April to early June period. This year some very torrential storms in June made us start over in a few campgrounds. There is still some clean up effort going on there. Our June and July times are often spent doing projects to make the campgrounds better. One of the most important projects that we have almost finished was at Cougar Hot Springs. A lot of effort and money was put into this area. The irony there though is that there are some younger users who don't like the fact that we have made changes. Our frustration is that for the most part they are unhappy about  something this comes down to their misunderstanding of what is really going on. But that is part of life and if you don't get used to people being mad at you for something that is only a misunderstanding, than you really haven't experienced an important part of life.

    I think that life is meant to be a series of learning activities, and I learn a lot at the hot springs. Speaking of learning things, in the Deschutes Forest many long time campers are finding out that there have been some changes. We have added reservations to many of the campgrounds which has not pleased some of the campers who were not aware that they could have reserved a site. The campers are arriving early in the week to make sure that they get their favorite campsite only to discover that someone else has already reserved it for the upcoming weekend. "Why didn't someone tell us" is the often asked question. My response to that is that I don't know how we could have gotten the word out better. We have had it on our website for about a half year and it has been in the papers. We have been told that it could have been posted on the boards at the campgrounds. The problem is though that we did not manage the campgrounds then and did not have the right to do that. We have tried to make this work the best we are able. For some that is not good enough and I am indeed sorry about that. The other complaint that I have been receiving is from campers where we did not put in any reservations. I have been told by several campers that they would like to see reservations at their favorite campgrounds as well. All I can say to you, is that if you really do want reservations in a certain campground, please email me at the email address below and I will keep your information to show the Forest Service. If you feel strongly that you do not want reservations somewhere, email me about that too. I am not a big fan of the reservation process since Hoodoo has no control over how it goes, but I do understand why you might want the reservations. So let me know. Right now because of some interest from a large group of campers, I am considering requesting reservations at Princess Creek Campground on Odell Lake. This would be for the 2010 season. So this is your first warning. If this becomes serious, I will post it on the entry board.

 See you around the campfire,

      
Charles Shepard (Click on my name to contact me)
Hoodoo Parking Lot Advisor and part time campground host