GordonThree wrote:
http://upnorthlive.com/news/local/1-million-in-upgrades-headed-to-northern-michigan-parks
Kind of bummed to see Wilderness wasting money on water and sewer hook-ups, rather than fixing their severely degraded roads and disgusting bathrooms.
Not sure how to interpret that Hoeft Park getting new cable hookups. Do they mean catv or electrical cable infrastructure? If it's catv, why oh why does a state park need to offer cable TV?
MI is not the only state doing stupid things. I frequent a PA state park that converted 12 sites to full hookups. It took 3 seasons to complete them. The campground has 267 sites, 140 or so which had 30 amp electric put in during the late 70's / early 80's. The old electric fails often but they put their limited upgrade money budgeted into the 12 sites. The 5 restroom / shower houses date back to the 60's, they all need upgraded. They have no heat, mostly the original 1960 fixtures, some have roof leaks and the doors are rotted off at the bottoms a good 4". The 75 acre lake built in the 1930's by the CCC has a major silt issue and needs dredged. The roads have not seen new pavement since the 80's and have many places where the asphalt has disintegrated into gravel.
The 12 full hook up sites were put in out of level and about half are pull throughs shaped like a D. The utilities were put in the middle of the D with the curved portion so tight of a radius that with anything longer than a 10' box popup, you'll not pull through without taking out the power and water or driving off into the site. I have pulled quite a few vehicles out of the mud when people get off into the site. The road is one way, but the D shaped pull throughs are on both sides of it, resulting in the hookups being curbside of your trailer if you have a site on the left side of the road. You had also better be carrying lots of boards and blocks as the sewer connections are located in such a manner your slinky will be running uphill, way more than one of those expandable sewer doohickies will account for. It's incompetent bureaucratic waste at its finest.
I watched them upgrade those sites for 3 years and know the guys in the park maintenance dept who were doing the work. I had pointed out some of those issues. The foreman laughed and said they were aware of all of it but their supervisor, who works out of another park 75 miles away designed them and does not want to hear any of their suggestions. About half those sites are pull throughs and the other half are back ins. None were paved. They were surfaced with what we call crush and run which is a limestone dust material. Every hard rain results in gullys and washouts as They are basically on a mountainside. It's a royal mess.
Another thing I noticed is those full hook up sites seem to attract mostly users that have no campground etiquette whatsoever.
Too many geezers, self appointed moderators, experts, and disappearing posts for me. Enjoy. How many times can the same thing be rehashed over and over?
