I recently camped here again, so, it's time for an update…read more
I'm not changing my rating, since the campground details are essentially the same. Everything I said in my first review is still true. That's where all the useful campground details can be found, so scroll down if you're looking for those.
Otherwise, I have a camping PSA for everyone: Did you know that your headlamp is literally a flashlight that points at whatever you're looking at?
So, if you're looking at another person or their tent while wearing a headlamp, you are flashing a flashlight at them.
If you want to look around the campground, politely do it during the day, not in the middle of the night with a flashlight on your temple.
So, this was my issue here. I had set up early on site 16, which is the last site at the very top of the hill.
The only thing I set up on my site was my one person backpacking tent, no rainfly. This is a Backpacker's camp behind a Ranger station, so, it's theoretically supposed to be a safe enough place to do this.
My first night was great. Very peaceful and quiet. My second night was not.
When I came back to my tent around 11pm, the men partying on sites 14 and 15 were too drunk to notice me. About half an hour later, I sneezed. This is when a bright light pointed directly at my tent.
The man continued to stare at my tent, with his headlamp on, illuminating my tent, for what felt like forever. I sat up and stared back. He looked away for a second, then looked back.
I finally yelled, "Hey, could you not point your light at my tent?!"
He called back, "I wasn't trying to," in an offended little boy voice, as if I had deeply hurt his feelings by accurately describing his actual behavior.
He then continued to point the light at my tent almost continuously until 3am. Several times, he started to stagger towards my site, then staggered back.
In order for his light to point at my tent, he had to face my site from one specific area on his site. His excuse was ostensibly needing water. 60 times per hour. In a Backpacker's Camp. Between midnight and 3am. Wtaf.
I was laying there awake, ready to defend myself.
In the morning, I complained to the ranger, who said he would talk to them. They should have left by noon. But when I came back around 6, they were still there.
I packed up and went back to Bootjack.
Here's what I wish would change-- I wish that the camping kiosk posted an after hours number to call a ranger for situations like this, where maybe you don't want to call 911 and have the cops drive out from the city when a crime hasn't been committed, but it feels like maybe a crime would be prevented by a ranger doing an extra rove.
If there had been an after hours number posted other than 911, I would have called for a ranger to come educate this man on how flashlights work, and how to stop pointing his directly at me while I'm trying to sleep.
My other complaint is that, around 930pm that same night, a couple of rangers had knocked on my car window to ask me if I was sleeping in my car.
There is no reason for them to have done this, because my camping pass was prominently displayed in my window the entire time, and my tent was set up on my site the entire time. It was only 930pm. It was not yet quiet hours.
It felt clear that other campers had called the police because it bothered them that I was sitting in my car using my phone rather than sitting in my campsite.
Which I was doing because I have PTSD and I needed to be alone, and the people camping next to me were very noisy and annoying, and had even disturbed me when I had tried to go sit by myself at the PTSD bench on Cardiac.
So, now, on top of that, I've got two rangers knocking on my window making sure I'm not being a bad girl. Like.... my car was so full of stuff, where would I have even slept?
If they had checked then they might have noticed the volunteer campground ranger stickers on my windshield. It just felt like a micro aggression. Like, they could have just left me alone.
But I still love this campground and will probably continue to try to camp here again sometime in the future.