Funny, I turned 41 over the weekend and I learned two life lessons during it. The first was about my age and excepting where I am in life. I have always wanted more out of my life and this birthday, I am learning to accept where I am and be happy with it. The second came in a very strange way. So we camp every year, we love to be in the mountains, and on a lake with the Jet skis. The water is not warm at Rockport a mountain lake here in Utah. So we came into our campground on Friday afternoon and stayed til Sunday. Now I think it is important to note that I have been camping by these spots since I was six. So yes I feel some ownership, or maybe just respect for them. There are not many places in Utah where you can camp right on the water. Much less with a amazing beach to hang out on. So I guess you can say I am bit protective. So here is where the second lesson starts. So Saturday afternoon a few ladies roll into spot #6 (two down from me) Now throughout the day, more and more showed up. I would say close to ten ladies and their dogs. If you know me you know I am a total dog person, and so I don’t mind dogs off the leash. However, there 8 plus dogs were everywhere and never restrained. They came into our camp multiple times, thus my dog, Lowie, had to be on a lease the rest of the time. Now I will admit this made me somewhat angry, but I let it go. It seemed they were having a big party and I didnt want to cramp anyones style. But then they did something that stomped on beliefs. You the campgrounds we stay at are “Walk in” They have old roads from back in the 70’s, but they stopped that when the camp got trashed. Well, one of these ladies decided she did not want to haul her gear in a wheelbarrow and drove her car down to her site. Ten minutes later another did it, and ten minutes after that a third went by. Now this drove me through the roof, I had a good mind to call the ranger on them right then. However, in the end I let the offense go. Once again not wanting to harp on anyone else. Now after a night of restless sleep because their dogs off the leash we by our tents, and setting my dog off when they came by. I was up in the bathrooms and when I came there was a bunch of em with intent to drive their cars down the path again. This time I could not hold my tongue. I tried to word as nicely as possible. “Listen guys I am really sorry, but if you drive your cars down the path again I will call the ranger.” I tried to put across as nicely as I could. “Why?” one of them asked. So I walked over to tell them my case, and how I have been coming camping here for 20 years and really important to me that my kids have this as a place for them to come one day. But before three words were out of my mouth the young lady who had asked me why, started defending that they hadn’t done anything. At this point I conceded and raise my hands to them “Do whatever you like.” I said and turned and walked away. They took me at my word because they hauled all their stuff in wheel barrows. Everytime they walked by our camp they were extremely loud calling me a douche bags amongst other things. To the point where my kids asked what I had done a couple times. So I wrote this today just to say my piece, which I never got to do. I have camped at Rockport in the walk-ins since I was 5. When we first came you could drive cars into those spots and people treated them like shit. When they changed them to walk-ins the people that still camped were different and those campsites are clean and well kept. Because the campers on them respect the rules. So yes ladies I am truly sorry, but no you’re not special, and I will not tolerate anyone saying they are better than anyone else. And yes that is exactly what you were saying. “Everyone else needs to carry their gear, but not us.” What message does that send out? To my kids who I work so hard to teach respect for the land, and you come in and say “but we are special.” Normally I would never draw that type of attention to myself. You have no idea what it does to me when someone bad talks me. But even I can’t hold my tongue when you work toward destroying something I have fought to protect all my life. I hope you all had a good weekend, the sun, sand, and water couldnt have got much better. But please when you come there, know that we all own it and its all our jobs to protect it.
Posted on: Mon, 02 Jun 2014 19:24:50 +0000
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