Traders Hill on the weekend . F#*k that...(*&@$^^%$

[oldsparkey]

This was an education, The Trip from or to HELL. :twisted:

I have meet a lot of great folks in Georgia, now I have meet the ones no one tells you about, the imbecilic, morons, idiots, Sob's and interbreeds from 20 generations of brothers marrying sisters or cousins. :x

Those who have no consideration or courtesy for anyone and I sincerely believe they do not even respect themselves, Just like a bunch of monkeys but the monkeys are a lot smarter and do show respect for other monkeys , so the monkeys are better then the white camping trash I had next to me on this trip.

Left the house looking forward to two nights of good camping. Traders Hill has always been a great camping spot, pull in and pay your $5.00 when Ranger Leroy comes around, if he does. A lot of us have enjoyed the quiet and wilds while there over the last 10 or more years. Heck I have camped there when I was the only person in the whole place for the night.

Then enjoy the campsite and RELAX. While you are there a pick up truck or a couple of them might come threw the campground but the driver always stops and asks if you are camping there.
The answer is yes, Why ....... O some of us are having a get together down at the landing and if you want to later on bring a cup down and join in the fun.

Heck one guy even brought us a whole truck load of firewood one time. He said he had more for the party and would not take a red cent for what he gave us.
The parties were at the boat landing, about 1/4 mile from the campground , they had a blast and the campers had quiet.... NOT ANYMORE.

Now the fees have tripled, there is a campground host, :roll: a person has a concession and the area is filled with RV's. The tenting area is still separated from the RV's .... Well, most of them but not all.

I picked out a tent site for my little camper and set up, eventually the host showed up at the office so I moseyed up there to pay my rent. Told them where I was and what I had. He said is it a tent, Yes I responded but on wheels (he watched me set it up :? ) "O" I have to charge you a RV fee for that because it has wheels.
Do you need power or water he asks, :? NO ... I responded neither just a place to spend two nights in it.

Still an RV Fee. I should have known things were going down hill. :?

What the heck I'm there ... Big Deal ... camp and enjoy the quiet and the scenery of the area. RIGHT.

Not long after that in pulls a Toyota Truck pulling a small pop up, along with it is a van.

HO HUM..... He set up the pop up after a lot of this and that, the other guy sets up his tent... Big Deal. Before I knew what hit me .. There conversation gets louder and louder. OK... The sign says ABSOLUTELY NO ALCOHOL OR FIREARMS.

Well, twiddle Dee and twiddle dumb are joined buy two females that might of had a 2nd grade education between them ( If that much ) and I think the guys could have passed the 3rd grade after about 10 years in it.

One sounded like Gomer Pile and the other like Donn Knots and there wives ... chalk on a blackboard voice.
OK.. How I have the mental rejects from Everglades City camping 60 feet from me. It will be OK, they will get polluted and pass out really soon.... WRONG. I guess they have been in training from birth on hard liquor and soft beer with loud obnoxious sayings. Mostly 4 letter words which I'm sure they have no understanding of the origin or meaning.

Dark arrives, it is a nice ..HOT.. But a somewhat decent evening and the darkness feels good as I sit by the camper , it is cooling down a bit ... HOLY CHIT what is this........ I am bathed in light. Dumb nuts has hung a light over at his camper and aimed it my way, for what reason I do not know.

OK.. I'm getting free light from that angle, I, moved to the other side of the camper and got into almost darkness.

Let me say... When it gets dark, it does not get pitch black on a clear night, there is all sorts of light for you after your eyes adjust to it. I'm starting to wish my ears could adjust and drowned out a lot of the racket from there ungodly voices and lack of a proper entry level education ... what jibber and trash.
I have not been privy to in my 65 years.... Tonight I'm getting educated, might be a masters degree in this for me.

What ...... NOW.... :?: All there vehicles are aimed at my camper and no matter what they do they have to turn on the headlights..
Lets see did I bring my air rifle and a plastic bottle for a silencer so I can kill those lights ... I know I will start with that one the SOB hung facing this way..... No Dam it, the rifle is at home.

Holy Chit .. The have a radio....... "O" Great. With any luck the camp host will tell them to can it.
Let me say that never happen all night long, nor did the guy with the concession stand do anything and he was about the same distance from them as I was.

OK.. Time for the sack.. Dang that light he has is nice .. I don't have to use any light in here to see anything...... Now if they would just shut up ... Yep Right ... they are getting louder.

On come the headlights and out goes one of the cars, pretty soon here it comes back in a not to careful diving situation... They get louder.

Around 10:30 one of the idiots decides to take one of there yapping dogs for a walk..... He is shinning a light up in the trees telling the dog to get the squirrels, this goes on for quite a while and he passed close to my camp.

I told him to find the nuts and he can locate the squirrels... Where are the nuts, he asked ... I respond .... in one group, all together.
All together he asked, Yes I said like in a group ... like in a sack all together, one area.

From that time on all I could hear was the nuts are in a sack, from there laughter.

I was ready to pull out around 9:00pm but I had paid for two nights.
At 11:00 I was saying to hell with it and lets leave....... No, they will calm down, give them the benefit of the dought.
2:30 my wishes started coming true , The main idiot decided to go to bed but he could not find the way into the tent he put up, then he tried to find his van and could not do that.
That's when I put my stainless steel buddy and his 7 little but powerful friends on the mattress next to me because if that SOB was going to try to get in with me he was going to have a really long nap, like forever and forever.

Eventually someone showed him the way to his tent and things go quiet ... I would guess around 3 A.M. Hot Dog, time to relax. Dream on Fool ... 5:30 that SOB was up and back at it again.

There was no way I was going to endure a second night of this pleasure, I would have hurt someone if not myself if I did.
I could tell you lots more but I think you get the idea.

What I have learned.......

1....Traders Hill on the weekend nights of Friday and Saturday .. Suck. Sunday night might be a lot better when the idiots are gone from there.
2.....The campground Hosts do nothing to enforce anything, if anything turn a deaf ear to it.
3.....Do not try to use the hot water, it is sulfur water and the hot water really kicks the rotten egg smell into high gear. theirs will gag a maggot and I was raised on sulfur water.
4.....For the whole campground there is one toilet for the guy's and one for the ladies so bring your own TP unless you do not want to clean yourself.. Thank God, I had one in the jeep and one in the camper with a Porta potty.
5....The county has improved a camping idea where it really stinks, in more then one way.
6....Get ready to triple your pay for a lot less pleasure.
7....Will I be back there, could be but not on a Friday or Saturday night.
8....Did I enjoy the camping ........... Do I really have to answer that one.
9....Is it a nice campground ... Yes,
10..Is the camping pleasure abused .. Yes, by everyone from the host to the folks camping there.

Chuck.
PS. I would of given anything to have been a sworn Deputy in that county for my one night there... That would of been some fun for me but not for those SOB's.

 

[oldyaker]

They must have put up a Wal-Mart nearby Chuckles. That always make the gene pool in any area real, real, real shallow! :roll:

Sorry you had a bad time.

 

[dangermouse01]

At least it didn't rain on ya.
I've been at some campgrounds like that.

DM
mike

 

[a Bald Cypress]

T

You have said that you can set up your camper in a couple of minuets. If things were that bad, I would have had to move as far away as possible [if there were another site available]

Sorry for your bad luck.

 

[hairymick]

Chuck,

We got cretins like that here too.

Usually, city people who go to the bush for the week-end and thank they can do anything there with impunity.

They give me the chits too and this is why I love my shift work. - lots of time off during the week.

You showed far greater restraint than I could have in the same circumstances. Bloody well done!

Had some maggots like that set up camp next to me one time. About 0230, I had had enough and quietly waited in the dark for one of them to come my way to relieve himself. :evil:

Things got pretty quiet then.

sorry these wankers stuffed up your trip mate.

 

[islandpiper]

Glad you wrote that all out Chuck, then i didn't have to. I have camped BETWEEN the members of that group when they visited wisconsin.....and drank and laughed like hyennas all night.....some campgrounds attract them.

piper

 

[Lee Schneidermann]

There's something to be said about island camping.........
It's GREAT!!

I've endured many a night like you just experienced. It SUCKS!!!

Being able to slip up to an island on a river and not have any neighbors is just one reason most of us like the paddlin' life. It's good to get reminded of that once in a while, just sorry it had to be on your first outing of the season.

Keep a stiff upper lip. Things can only get better!! :wink: :wink: :wink:

Lee

 

[jimsong]

We were camped in a primative camp site on Lake Dahlgrin once. A very small lake with about four camp sites. And to get to it, you had to transverse two or three miles of at least pickup quality , if not Jeep quality roads.
We had set up the tent, built a fire, had lunch, and were paddling up one of the little creeks, fishing for bream.
I saw a flash of white through the blackjacks. It looked like a moving van creeping though the woods.
When we got back to camp, there was an about 25 foot motor home stretched across two or three tent camp sites, and two men building a huge camp fire.
After building a fire big enough to roast a whole ox, they dragged a Coleman generator out of the motor home, and set it up about 40 feet away from our tent.
The were decidedly cool when we tried to talk to them. They fired up the generator, went back into the motor home, turned on the air conditioner, and the only time we saw them after that, was when they refueled the generator, or when they threw more wood on the fire.
We left two days before we planned to, and I was SO tempted to leave them with six flat tires!
Let them explain THAT to AAA! (But, alas, once again I didn't do what was right, and left them unmolested)

 

[oldsparkey]

At least it didn't rain on ya.
I've been at some campgrounds like that.

DM
mike

:lol: :lol: :lol: Mke....

When I got up in the morning and started packing the stuff while enjoying a hot tea it started sprinkling. The tea was set aside and the camper got packed in a rush when I felt those water droplets and I was out of there in about 5 minutes. Then it really started raining and continued up to around noon. It was the cold front moving into the area because the temperature sure slid down hill fast.

I loved that , they had to get soaked , I was moist from just getting the GPS readings I wanted of the river and I drove to the spots that morning before aiming home.

Unfortunately Traders Hill does not have any raccoons or bears in the area , if they did I would of put them to good use. I seam to remember a person having the same problems I had but he was in the smokies. The person put some bacon grease on the offending campers tent pegs. Around the early AM hours those campers left in a rush , they even left there tent there ....the bears were digging around the tent pegs for snacks.

I checked with Steve at the Outpost about what the river would be like and there isn't any problems about the trip and I will call him later when things are set up. Right now the St.Marys ahs a good flow to it.

I did goof up to one degree , should of camped at Steve's that Friday night.
He told me that they had a feast there for the campers ( Tent and RV ). It was A Venison ham (baked) , Fried Catfish ( Fresh , right out of the river an cooked ) , Frog legs and all sorts of side dishes.
One of his , help yourself and eat all you want camp cook ins which he normally does on Friday nights for who ever is there.

Chuck.

 

[Gator]

Chuck,
I think you can avoid the issues if you camp in campgrounds without consession stands. No cotton candy, no foam fingers, no a#% holes.

 

[bearridge]

O Master of Flow Bizness,

Rude, noisey folks scare me in a campground. I worry it mite come ta a killin'. Sorry bout yer weekend. Ya recall me tellin' ya'll bout the folks that played "Sweet Home Alabama"? All nite long? That wuz at Traders Hill that time I got there a day before ya'll. However, they camped downriver by that boat dock.

I am packin' up fer a campground where those kinda folks git run off fast. Many of the young paddlers I have met up there wont stay there cuz of her "no loud music" rule 'n no barkin' dogs. Harley Boys kin come, but they have ta shut 'em down 'n push 'em inta the campground.

regards
bearridge

Aint much of a crime, whackin a surly bartender. Gus McCrae

 

[Paddlin'Gator]

Chuck, IIRC the last time we were on the St. Marys Steve asked why we didn't camp at his place. As I recall, he was talking about an area on the left on the way into his place, not where the RVs are. Is that a viable option? My guess is that the fees would be more reasonable, too.

 

[Kayak Jack]

My trip to the North and South branches of the Au Sable in July was impaired similarly. Fortunately, when I wen tot ask them to be quieter, they were.

Unfortunately, attitude is the big problem here. Some folks are woodsmen who enjoy Nature, others are witless and need entertainment. No consideration for others is a hallmark of walking sphincters.

 

[oldsparkey]

Chuck, IIRC the last time we were on the St. Marys Steve asked why we didn't camp at his place. As I recall, he was talking about an area on the left on the way into his place, not where the RVs are. Is that a viable option? My guess is that the fees would be more reasonable, too.

Steve has the campground down by the river , away from all the RV's and is only for tents and I guess in our case .... hammocks included.

For the Dec trip ... I'm thinking it might be a better deal to meet at Steve's and camp there by the river. It would be a lot quieter and nicer plus we would be right at the outfitters ( Like we do with the Ocklawaha and Joe's place before a trip ).

Now there is one benefit by doing that , actually a couple , especially after the trip.

1....The vehicles would be there after he picks us up and we return to his place.
2....We get off the river sometime on that following Friday and he brings us back to his place.
3....A camping area we know , showers and all the rest.
4....It's a Friday night ..... That is when he does the catfish cook out with anything else they have gotten from the river...... A supper of fresh , cooked , fish and the rest.
5.... It sounds like a better deal all the way around for the gang to do it that way.

Now there is one other option.... I will have to ask Steve about it but just a stones throw up the road from his area there is a camping area in the Ralph Simmons State Park we could use. It is walking distance from Steve's and is a wild camp ground. Steve has the key to the gate and has offered it's use to me in the past. Something to consider for the beginning of the trip or even after it.

I will post some thoughts about that a little later on the forum when things are almost set for the trip. Just have to make a few phone calls and work the bugs out but when they are it will be posted so everyone knows and the old post I put in the planning section will vanish. Especially since everyone knows the date of the trip , the rest , for our enjoyment , will be worked out and NOT at Traders Hill..... I hope.

I used this trip to scout things out and try to decide which is the best way to do it.
By the way the Family Restaurant by the one motel we stayed at is GONE... along with all the good chow they had. It is being turned into a chicken , steak and seafood joint. Not open ... YET... in the process of getting things together.

Chuck.

 

[bearridge]

How bout a letter ta the state 'er county....whoever runs Traders Hill? Mebbe tell 'em the Paddlin' Geezer Canoe Clud will meet in December 'n we may ban Traders Hill cuz of the barbarians?

 

[Lee Schneidermann]

Jealous

Sparks,
I'm actually wishin' I was a few years older, so I could join you on the upcoming trip.
Sounds like a real hooten-annie. :cry: :cry: :cry:

Lee

 

[oldsparkey]

Lee...

We always have a good time and the time sure fly's by when we are there. There is an advantage to being a geezer or an escapee from the funny farm. Cheer up , one of these days you will ge there , we did.

Bear...

Sending them a letter so they could correct things would be paramount to swimming up Angle Falls.

Chuck.

 

[smackover]

Steve's Camp Ground

For us newcomers......

Where is Steve's campground ?

sounds like a nice place to visit on a Friday night

Regards

Smackover

 

[oldsparkey]

Here is part of the letter I sent to the guys for the up coming trip (Trips or social events in the planning on the forum) and it explains on how to get to Steve's Place ... The St.Mary's River Outpost.

Things are being worked out.

We will meet at Steve's Place and camp there Sunday night. This does several things, we are there and in the morning it will be easy to load everything up without any delays.

Just check into the office when you get there to find out what area we will be camping in for the night unless I post different directions on the forum , or send you a e-mail. It's one of the things that still has to be worked out for certain.

Sunday ......... Dec 07-08.. there.
Monday ........ Dec 08-08.. gear, boats loaded and on the way to the river.
Tuesday ........Dec 09........ River time.
Wednesday.. Dec 10 ....... River time.
Thursday.......Dec 11 ....... River time.
Friday ........... Dec 12....... Sometime off the river and back to Steve's and the vehicles.

All boats and paddlers have to be self contained, food, water, camping gear .. Everything you want to have or use. Think of it as SOLO paddling but in this case with a group.
This does not say we will not share when in camp, like we always do.

Now ... If you do not know how to get to Steve's place it is easy ........

1. From the interstate ( I-95) take US 1 north to Hilllard , Fla. and go north till you see the bridge over the St. Mary's River ... The outpost will be on your right side just before the bridge.

2. There is a hard paved road at the outpost going off to your right..... Take it. Keep going to the bend in the road around the little pond. Now you will be going up hill (sort of) and watch for the Boat Ramp sign across from a dirt road.

3. That dirt road is the road to Steve's so take a left on it ( Only direction you can go ) and bounce your way down to the end of it and his office.

4. Anyone coming south from the Folkston area (Southbound on US 1) ... Just reverse those directions in # 1 .... Cross the bridge and take your 1'st Left ( It is at the Outpost). Then follow the rest like they are.

Chuck.

 

[Lazyriverguy]

Chuckels
Thanks fer the directions. I gots me a question. In the morning of the leavin to the river where we puttin in the water from Steve's. Miss Valerie is gettin pretty demainding that I be a goin with you fellers. She thinks it would be good fer her/me to have me get awway.
Joe