The campground opened March 15-the day we got there-and only 10 of the 30+ sites were actually open, the rest, including the entire A loop closest to the lake, were blocked off. There were signs stating there temporarily was no water in the campground, but the bathhouse toilets and sinks were operational. They each had one shower.
We drove through the B loop and looked at sites. There were 2 bathhouses that we could see and the campsites ranged from small and close to decent sized and spread more apart. Several backed up to the road, which I did not like. Around the curve in the loop, the road drops down toward the lake and the campsites are stacked along the grade, giving some level of privacy with the hill being at the back of the site. At the bottom of the hill, the lake could be spotted in the distance.
There is a trail running all the way around the lake that goes directly behind some of the campsites, this could be great-easy access to the swim area-or annoying, as everyone camped further away than you passes your site and people walk the loop trail for exercise. Camping rates appear to be $12 a night, I did not find any information that they had gone up this year.
There are power and water at all the sites, a dump station is located near the entrance, about 1/10 mile away.
I finally remembered that I should take pictures once we got to the lake.
There is a bathroom there, no showers. The 'playground' is a set with 2 swings and a large fake rock. There is no beach, it's a grassy hillside right to the water. The water was clear and the swim area is roped off. There is a boat launch around the cove from the beach, only trolling motors allowed on the lake.
The entire campground plus beach is wheelchair/stroller friendly. There are ramps and bridges on the walkways and the bathhouses had accessible bathrooms in between the mens and womens bathrooms and the shower in the womens bathroom was huge with skid-resistant flooring and rails. The trail around the lake probably isn't without knobby wheels, it's gravel.
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| Parking area at the beach. There is a $3 a day fee for non-campers. |
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| Swim area all roped off. |
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| The maples were beautiful, surrounding the lake. I imagine it's lovely in the fall. |
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| One of the geese |
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| The lake was brimming with tadpoles |
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| Chan was letting them nibble her fingers. |
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| The boys came to join her, they decided to feed them their feet! I am not exaggerating when I say that all the dark in the water is tadpoles, there were zillions of them. We had to wonder how loud the frogs get, later in the season! |
It is a lovely campground, though the swim beach was voted down by some of our kid campers, so any returns will be sans the rest of the group. I think the lake would be perfect for paddling around in our blow-up boats and the water is clean, just the beach is grassy and not sandy, therefore becoming an ick factor. I liked the natural feel, plus-dumping sand would kill the tadders! Not cool!
The final pluses I have to add are: location-it's way out from town and very quiet. They have can and bottle recycle stations, which I like. It's on the Pinhoti (pin-hoe-tee) Trail, meaning you can hike for days in 2 directions if you want, but also just a few hours to other lakes, to camp in a shelter or just to check out the trail for a while.
It's pretty cool to know you could take off north from the lake and hike all the way to Maine. The Pinhoti joins the Benton Mackaye (mack-eye) Trail, which joins the Appalachian Trail! There are plans to extend south to meet up with the Florida Trail, creating a backpacking trail from the Keys in Florida to Katahdin (ka-ta-din) in Maine. There is an east-west that meets the AT and goes to Michigan. The possibilities abound!
