Swift Forest Camp is located near Cougar Washington on the Lewis River. It's pretty isolated in that there is no power or cell service. Houses seem to run off of solar power or generators. Thankfully, for tent campers, there are restrooms with actual flushing toilets! We camped in a trailer, but the other folks that we were camping with were in tents. Leanne Rund and her two daughters, Teyal (I think that's how you spell it) and Tess headed out about the same time we did and picked some campsites near the restrooms. And, although there were roadways and far off pathways, we were constantly having people-traffic running right through our campsite. We found it quite odd, and definately quite rude, so we put up some clotheslines (WITH towels on them) to redirect folks to walk elsewhere. We did get a little crazy with the rope...but whatever. When it started to rain, we took the towels down and went to bed, so the ropes weren't as visible. Apparently, some people complained and at 8:30 the next morning both Leanne and us were rudely awakened by the camp host demanding we take our ropes down... "right now." This 80 year old guy (Ernie) was a real jerk from the moment we arrived and it seemed that nobody in the campground had anything good to say about him.
We took the ropes down...all but two (seemed pretty reasonable). A few hours later Ernie comes back demanding us to take down the ropes. I can't emphasize enough how much of a jerk this guy was...to the point of unbelievable. There was just Leanne, her girls, and I at the camp at this particular time. We went ahead and took down one of the ropes and then retied the long one to make it shorter. We also put the tarp over it (over the tents) and began staking it down to make it more visible and more purposeful. Not even 10 minutes later Ernie comes back. This time, I make a run for it and let Leanne deal with him (she was really good at it!). By this time Ernie is more than ticked and thus begins the real drama. Leanne, although flabbergasted and ticked herself, tries to speak without yelling and tries to reason with the guy. He is not reasonable. Leanne even asks "please tell me where I can put a rope for our 8 towels.." he says "it's not my job to tell you where to put your rope, it's my job to tell you where NOT to put your rope!" Uhh...OK??? Many loud and swift words transpire throughout the conversation. It escalates so much that his false teeth fall out!! THEN, as if that wasn't enough, he claps his hands together right in front of Leanne's nose as if he wanted to slap her!! I'm thinking..."are you KIDDING ME!!??" Leanne swiftly tells him what she thought of that and does it back to him when he doesn't even apologize. She then asks to speak to someone else in charge (even the sheriff) because he is "the grouchiest camp host" she has ever encountered in her 20 years camping there. I thought she was being rather polite when she said that!
30ish minutes later a lady in a Pacific Corps truck arrives (the company that owns the camp). Poor gal had just been wrangled in as a neutral party and really had no authority whatsoever. Ernie hung back and smoked a couple of cigarettes while the lady spoke with Leanne. Of course, the lady wasn't too impressed with Ernie's behavior and thought that the position of our rope was quite reasonable.
More time passed and a police officer arrives! All over a stupid clothes rope!! He was quite nice and he spoke with Leanne and Don for quite some time. Don had even gone around the whole campground and wrote down every site that had a clothes rope. The officer was nice and had told them that the camp had been having trouble keeping hosts and that this was Ernie's first week at this particular camp (Ernie had claimed he had been a host for 20 years). Long story short, we moved our rope AGAIN and Ernie kept his distance. The cop even gave them some names of people to make complaints to and went on a bit about the various problems that they have been having. Some time after the cop left, the area manager of the company contracted by Pacific Corps to run the camp came by and apologized for Ernie's behavior.
When we weren't fighting off angry camp hosts we were enjoying a relaxing time by the fire. We chatted, played games, read books, and cooked meals over the fire. We also found time to ride bikes, take a couple of quick and chilly jaunts out into the water, and visit the Ape Caves!
A campfire shot (Fi Fi and Synnove on the left, Leanne in the hat, Leanne's friend Lisa is reading, Teyal in the white sweatshirt, Tess at the table.)
Riding bikes to the water. The kids did a LOT of bike riding.
The "kids" at the playground
Fighting the horrendous wind!
At least we didn't have to worry about Soren drifting off...the wind kept him on shore.
Heidi, Adam, and I actually braved the water and "swam" with our floaties all the way to the logs at the far end of the swimming area.
Cold little boy
1 comment:
hahaha ok ernie needs a swift kick in the pants. But I would have loved to see Leanne chew this guy! I'm glad you guys had fun...and it was an eventfull adventure!
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