First time for us. Initially reserved cabin but upgraded to cottage 46 after further consideration of public restrooms/pandemic situation. I'm a disabled veteran Persian gulf era and brought a friend and my service dog. We stayed two nights 9/14-16.
First impression driving in - nice place, well kept up. I selected 46 bc map showed it to be bigger site. Was hoping for grass around camp but was mostly dirt/sand. 2 piles of dog business were in the small grassy area right side of camp near fire pit. Cottage was quite clean, nicely equipped, all wood. Very comfortable for our needs but 6 would be too much for me.
We unpacked and focused on getting fire & supper rolling. We meal planned for smoked bbq night1 and to use leftovers for a chili day2. It's a small, portable hybrid smoker the size of a crockpot that converts into a slow cooker. Was excited to see an external outlet near the picnic table & fire pit. We freighted all 3 racks of the smoker with ribs, chicken and hot sausage and started it @4. We brought a considerable amount of wood bc we knew it was pricy on site. Got a rockin fire going, tunes, corn hole set up. Got our drink on, our 420 on & started throwing bags.
Started losing light around 7, smoker was throwing delicious smells and we retreated to our chairs by the fire. My dog was on a 25' tether on front of cottage. He is a pit/blue tick mix @75lbs, very fit & muscular.
@745ish my dog emitted a low growl I had never heard in his 4yrs. It kept going and then a huge bear casually strolled right into our site, up to the front of the table, nose to nose with my dog, dog still growling, bear snarls & shows massive teeth then pulls back and comes towards me & the smoker despite the fire & dog. I started yelling & banging the fire poke on table, bear proceeded to my Escalade- hatch was open for wood. He stood up behind it and towered above it then put 2 feet inside as if to crawl in. I grabbed a metal camp chair and the poke stick, ran at bear beating on chair & yelling go bear. He got out of my truck and I chased him off. Probably aged me 5yrs. Our lives, my truck, our food was all threatened.
We brought everything inside and numbed the adrenaline out of us. A completely unforgettable experience. The bears are in charge. He kept going around the other camps then back to us.
My background post military was as a forester in Maine where I was quite accustomed to interacting with wildlife. Bears had always been terrified of dogs in my experience. Not this guy.
We were lucky.
Hopefully this helps people with the 411 here. My opinion is that they should send staff through on golf carts every few hours to monitor, put up some motion lights and step up the warnings in general. Obviously the food was the catalyst but never did I consider that we would be approached directly with us present, my dog right there and a big fire going. I handled the situation on pure instinct but I could see someone with heart/health issues having a major problem here. It took a long time to calm down. We didn't realize we were at a petting zoo with no trainers. I was mostly terrified for my dog - he was no match for a 400lb bear but would have given his life for me.
Overall we liked it there but the first night was a lifetime experience. read more