Drunks mar weekend fun

To the editor:

This past Memorial Day weekend my 8-year-old daughter and I were looking forward to doing some camping and biking, quality father-daughter time.

So we loaded up the truck and headed out on Thursday night. Thinking by leaving early enough and that Eklutna would be best, we got there about 5:30 p.m. and found the campground (including the overflow) full. So we did a quick drive-through hoping to find an empty spot. I saw numerous camping spaces with just a tent or a tarp tied to the trees or a cover over the picnic table held down with two rocks. It was obvious no one was there and the spots were being “saved.” I spoke briefly to the camp host and he acknowledged numerous spots in the campground that were in fact being “held” that way. He said it was against the campground rules but a ranger had not been through.

Frustrating? Absolutely, and If I had known that I would have driven up last Monday and dropped my blue tarp and $10 Wal-Mart tent down to get a spot. We then decided to head north to South Rolly Lake Campground. With a little luck we found a nice spot and set up.

The first night (Thursday) was quiet and enjoyable family camping. Friday and Saturday night were an entirely different story. On Friday night from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. it sounded like a drunken fest in the campground. Some drunken idiot fired up a chainsaw at midnight to cut more wood. Then the chorus of drunken cursing and loud music continued with the splashing of people jumping into the lake until the wee hours of the morning. The next night was the same thing, drunks hollering, “Hey what campsite you in? I’m lost coming back from the bathrooms,” and the howling and hooting continued until 4 a.m.

The camp hosts are really helpless to take any action and I don’t expect them to. Most of them are older and retired folks. The last thing they need to be doing is confronting a group of 20-something-year-old drunken idiots.

Yeah, I could have called the Troopers, but a noise disturbance at a campground is a low priority call with all the increased traffic and calls over a very sunny and beautiful Memorial Day weekend.

All in all we had a great camping trip. We also had a good talk about how to be respectful of others while camping and how not to act in public.

Kelly Turney

Palmer