Camp Locations

[Calduke]

Is there a published exhibit that shows locations of various camp sites along the Upper Kern?

[Gary C.]

This is a pretty good map but there is also one attached to the Connection site.
Gary C.

http://www.dbw.ca.gov/Pubs/KernRiver/KernMap.pdf

[admin]

Here is link to Canyon Connection's version. Of course Roads End is no longer there.

http://www.kernvalley.com/news/kerncmp.htm

My favorite is Limestone and it's not on the reservation system last I heard. Headquarters was great when Willie was the host but all good things come to an end. I'm working on plan B to put the campgrounds in the hands of a non-profit group that puts all the money back into the camps. There are alternatives and options to lousy campground conditions IF the Forest Circus starts acting legally and above board.

[Calduke]

Gary & Admin - thank you for the replies. The info is a great help to me and my plans for a summer in the Kernville area.

Good luck to you guys

[willy]

Mike.. What's your plan B. Sounds like it might be a winner.

[admin]

Hi Willy, Plan B is first to get the non-profit Kern Valley Recreation Commonwealth back in control of Camp 9. Then get them a "fair" shake at bidding on the other campgrounds. They are just a small group of community benefactors & volunteers that donated some money and a lot of time to start up and prove they could run all the campgrounds, when the next bid came around. The money staid here and was put back into improvements. George Randall, Chuck Richards, Rick Dancing, Tony Click, Albert Beautich, Thompsons, Prestons, Sonia Penny and even had Kenny Guinn, the former governor of Nevada involved. He had a get-a-way house here for awhile.

They ran the "unwanted" Camp 9 for 10 years. They put in a nice mobile home so they could shop for a good host, planted over 400 trees, repaired the boat dock, set up camper education programs and made campers sign a contract on how to act. If they didn't honor the contract they were asked to leave and not allowed back again.

They handed out trash bags to kids and for each bag turned in full the kids got a ticket for a drawing on a mountain bike. All in all they were highly successful and taught a lot of city folks how to act responsible in nature. But. they were denied the opportunity to bid when the Forest Circus just rubber stamped CLM for another 5 years. Now, 10 years of volunteer work and still twice eliminated from the bidding. The FS tossed them out and told them everything they improved had to be taken out. Including the trees and mobile home. Now the FS is looking for someone to run it again "Partners in Recreation," yeah right.
FS had it for July 4th and the complaints are still coming in.

Of course my Plan B includes you coming back and educating people on how to be "proper hosts". Maybe you'd be willing to do it on a seasonal basis. Anyway, we're making the waves and I want to suggest to the Commonwealth they bring you in temporarily or maybe you could put an operations manual together. I know you prefer where you are now, so would I, but just think of the opportunity to train some qualified hosts...to do it your way, not CLM's.

The war has already started with highly irate citizens vs. the FS's massively flawed kingdom of management system. "We run it, we'll make the decisions on your lands." "Close it so we don't have to deal with it." "Make everyone pay $10 to stop their car and they won't come back & bother us." You know the routine. It's not the individuals it's the idiotic system they operate under. Guess the problems have gone nationwide now and fired up Oregon, Utah and a few other states.

Here's a link to one of our last articles in the Courier. http://kernrivercourier.com/joomla/inde ... d=44&ed=39

In the same issue there is a good letter from another disgusted local. You would be proud of the hundreds that have shown up for the public meetings to get answers and the FS had to finally admit in public they don't have any. Lots of things are firing up.

Sorry for the rant. We've really been ticked about the campgrounds lately. What's you preference in travel to get back here?

[willy]

Wow! This is something I would have to talk about with my wife. Problem is now her health is so bad it is extremely hard to get away from the doctors that are keeping her alive.

I agree with you that hosts need proper training. The host training CLM has every season opening is a joke. Most of the training is different FS individuals telling everyone how their particular job affects CLM. There is no training on campground maintenance, public relations or any requirements on overall campground cleanliness. If you want to see a zoo go observe them trying to train people on how to fill out the campground financial reports with receipts collected. I even made some training videos (edited) on the proper way to clean bathrooms and campsites that CLM rejected because they were to time consuming to show at the seasonal training. Then they give all the hosts this BIG operations manual and when you try and follow it management tells you not to do it by the book. I've had some real hot run-ins with CLM management (another sore spot) on this subject. I think over the years CLM has forgotten they are providing a service to the people but are more interested on making the big bucks. In the ten years I worked for them I saw very little money going back into the campgrounds as far as maintenance. To get any supplies to do it yourself was like pulling teeth. I also believe from what I observed that any maintenance in the upper canyon campgrounds was not done because all the maintenance funds were used on the high profile campgrounds around the lake. Enough of my ranting but I saw the erosion of the campgrounds starting before I left.
As fare as individuals that you might want to look into, I don't know if anyone has thought about Tom Mitchell but he would also be beneficial in training good hosts. I believe he is still working in Death Valley but it might be difficult to pull him away from the plush job he fell into. You might also look at John Howells in Kernville. I don't know what he is doing now that he no longer manages Riverview Trailer Park but he has many years of campground operations under his belt. A little bull headed but gets the job done.

Anyway, good article but as for me I couldn’t even say I could be available because of the reason stated. Good luck on plan B……………….something really needs to be done for the better.

[admin]

Thanks, Willy,
We'll come up with some way to keep you in the loop. Maybe from where you're at. Praying your wife gets back 100% soon. Been there and done that with my lady also. Our best to you and yours. Take care.
Mike