5 stars if not for circumstantial experience alone.
Hurricane Irene was heading up the East Coast for my boyfriends birthday. We decided to get out of Dodge and head to Western New York from Boston. We had plans for the day, and at night planned to camp and packed accordingly. As we neared our destination (5 hours away from home), we called ahead for a reservation to a nearby campground. They were evacuating all NY state campgrounds. We weren't sure if that meant all campgrounds in NY or all state campgrounds. With a bizarre determination to camp, we called around and found Pop's and they were staying open.
Relieved, we spent the calm and beautiful day as planned and then took the 2 hour trip from Cooperstown NY to Pop's. When we had arrived, they were now unsure if they would in fact stay open and the woman determining was not at the office. They sent someone out to go find her and she decided it was fine to stay open (which was a good decision because it was fine). They were even nice enough to give us a 2 night minimum cabin for one night.
That was all extraneous back story. Here's the important part:
We must have an air of non camper about us. They warned us that the cabin would have no water or electricity (which we were expecting) and that it would be very rustic, and then kind of paused as if to give us a moment to back out. They then gave us a map and directed us to our cabin.
We pulled up to a great little spot right on the water. We went into the cabin and it was so much better than I was expecting. I was expecting cobwebs, bugs, animal poop, dirt, who knows... It was very clean, not a bug in sight (which is a pretty impressive feat).
We watched the sun go down over the lake we were on. The neighbors came over and we ended up going over there and they fed us and made us cocktails and we shot the shit for a good couple hours.
It is a small, tight knit camp ground that I immediately felt comfortable in, even though us city folk aren't so good at camping. It if wasn't a 5 hour drive, I'd definitely go back. Hell, I may go back anyways.
Thanks Pops for making Irene fun!! read more