An Assignment from the Moon Himself
Posted By Heather on May 18, 2010
It’s official, I’ve relocated to Southern Oregon and haven’t completely adjusted. In other words, I’m not out being me, wandering around the woods and rivers and friends have noticed. So the other day I received a phone call from Moon. Yes, Moon, my fishing buddy. He gave me a talking-to about disappearing and how I just need to fish and…… he gave me an assignment to find a spot for his June camp.
So on Sunday I headed east back up Hwy 62, looking for a Camp Moon location. Finding ideal camp isn’t always so easy, I have requirements, and I’ve known Moon and Keeper of Moon (his lovely wife Monica) long enough to know that we’re pretty sympatico on camp.
1. Must have fishable camp water that you can walk too for the evening hatch.
2. Minimal mosquito issues. We like to sit outside and BS for the evening.
3. A campfire (see BS’n above)
4. bonus room/overflow for when friends show up.
5. Clothes line stringing opportunities
6. Shade
7. Some privacy or a respectable amound of space to the next camper, like say 20 yards minimum
8. Morning sunshine to get warmed up
9. A favorable view point if we just want to sit in camp and stare at the world instead of fishing.
10. a diversity of other nearby fishing spots (within 30 miles of camp)
11) Not on a major highway with jake brakin trucks going by all night.
So I stopped at Joseph A Stewart State recreation area which is a gigantic state park at Lost Lake Reservoir. It’s all mowed lawn with 15 feet to the next site, play structures painted lines and bike lanes for kids and no access to the water. It’s like a freakin suburb. It would be as much fun as sitting in my own yard at home. Bad, bad bad. It’s off the list. It has no charm.
And Willow Lake is run by private concessionaires working for the USFS. I pulled up to the check in hut and was looking at the bulletin board and prices and the camp enforcer runs down to tell me I have to pay. The place is empty. I tell him I’d like to drive through the campground just to see what it looks like to see if it’s where we want to stay and he tells me it would cost me $5 just to drive through. I dropped my chin, looked at him across the top of my glasses and blinked a couple of times.
“Are you serious? Isn’t this federal land, and you won’t let me look to see if I want to bring friends here next month?”
” It will be $5 ma’am”
So as I turned around his little gaurd house to leave, he notices my dog in the back seat and trots back over to tell me it will cost an extra $1 for each pet. $17 per tent.
I left. I will NEVER camp at Willow Lake, and am likely to never camp in campground run by that private concessionaire. So much for friendly camp hosts and building a loyal batch of campers. Needless to say if I didn’t like the Man, he’s lucky he was pre-screened by me, Moon would have been the end of him.
In the end i did spot a few nice pieces of water that I’ve filed away for future reference.
I feel sorry for people that feel they have to go through life with an attitude like that. They could be so much happier if they would just let themselves.
Good grief, what a tool…………… keep up the good work girl.
moon
What a lovely site! I love all the pictures and the writing is a great companion to them. Thanks for sharing.
Hey Kido, Of Course I’ll be your linked in buddy.
I’m going to call I wan to hear your voice.