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Bear’s Pine Woods Camping Resort
Posted on Tuesday, September 06, 2005 -- Related Regions: Lakes-Region • Lake-Winnipesaukee
Please note, this review is older than 3 years
Moultonboro, NH - 603-253-6251
cheryl ann gave us this review on 09/05/05. Approx Dates of Stay: 09/02 - 09/05.
Overall Campground Rating: fair-average.
What stood out? Good: Location, fairly well-spaced, wooded (lots of young hardwoods) sites. Large, bright, clean bathrooms. (No handicapped access.) Bad: pool, lack of control over rowdy campers (see below)
Owners and Staff: Owners are very friendly and accommodating.This is their first year at owning this campground. Employees need some "people" skills.
Camp landscaping and surroundings: Wooded area. They are expanding the campground so there was a lot of downed trees and rough/rocky terrain.
Overall Site Quality: fair-average
Good/Bad sites: There were sites that have new sewer connections. Site #56 is very small. They have two tenting areas. One with loads of grass and the other sandy and rocky. There had been a group in the grassy area for one night then moved to the sandy, rocky area. We think the grassy area might be where the leach field is. Campsite hookups: primitive tent, electric, water, sewer, Campsite Descriptions: sunny and open, wooded, semi-private, large and spacious, somewhat small, sandy bottom, picnic table, fire ring, highway noise, group camping area. Our site #55 was long and spacious, but very sloped. It took us a long time to level our tent trailer. The land behind it was cleared and we found out that they are putting additional sites there so I don't know how private it might be next time. We could often smell the septic system from the 3-way sites across from us during our whole stay. We ate in our camper most of the time due to the unpleasant smells. The picnic tables were smaller than usual. Two sites share water and electric outlets so bring the extension cords and extra long water hose. Sites were not raked out after each visitor as there was a small amount of trash on the site.
Seasonal Campers and Campsites: neat and orderly, friendly campers, The seasonals have sites #1 thru 52 (left side of the campground). A few were mixed in on the other side.
Clean restrooms and showers? yes. Restrooms and showers need updating? no. Coin-metered showers. Are restrooms accessible from all sites? yes. Additional comments on restrooms and showers: The restrooms and showers are in the middle of the campground. They need more ventilation in the showers as they had a musty smell. They were quite large and had a seat. The time is short so the women need to bring two quarters.
Activities and Amenities
pool, recreation hall, video games, pool table, live entertainment, playground, camp store, AM coffee, pets allowed, laundry room, dumping station, security gate. Pool - we were told that the green "stuff" on the bottom of the pool was that they needed to paint the concrete. It was more down at the deeper end. They told us that they get it tested and that the water was safe to swim. Our daughter used it for only an hour on Saturday and didn't want to go in it the rest of the weekend. It was too cold in addtion to looking awful. Well stocked store for food and RV supplies.They had a great selection of repair parts. There was a nice couch with a gas fireplace. Playground had a lot of climbing things. Kids were climbing on the roofs of the jungle gym (at least 10' off the ground, and no one ever reprimanded them. Only one working swing.
What is nearby? restaurants, grocery stores, retail stores, ocean or lake, amusements, nature trails. They do have a nature trail that leads down to Braun Bay on Lake Winnispesaukee. We attempted to walk it but halfway through we had to return because the trail was unpassable due to muddy conditions.
Last comments: We had a very bad experience our 3rd nite of Labor Day weekend. Let me start by saying that when the owners found out about it Mon. a.m. they were very apologetic and although they couldn't undo what had happened, they tried to make amends by refunding our money and hoped that we would consider staying there again.
To summarize, some young people (20s/teens?) moved into site 67 across from us on Sunday and proceeded to drink all day and play their stereo at a volume way too loud for the comfort of anyone else around them. I mean I walked into the woods behind us and could still hear it. I went to the office to complain and was told by the employee that there wasn't anything he could really do until after quiet hour (10 pm). This was about 4:30 -5:00.
At 9:00 we overheard the rowdies calling friends on their cell phones to join them at the campground. After 10 they were only getting louder and the language was getting fouler. My 8 yr. old daughter was asking us what some of the swear words meant! I complained to the employee on call that night. Kind of indignantly, he came down to talk to them. They were all apologetic but when he left the volume and the swearing went back up. The camper next to them asked them to keep it down and they blew him off too.
At 12:10 a.m. after one particularly loud swearing tirade, I had enough and went back to the employee on call and said if he couldn't kick them out right then, I would call the police. He insisted he would take care of it and went down to talk to them again. Shortly after they did quiet down. We think they left, only to come back again around 4:30 a.m. to go to bed finally.
Needless to say, we and the campers around the problem site didn't get much sleep that night and when I complained to the owners Mon. morning found out that others had logged similar reports. We have been to other NH campgrounds where the behavior we experienced is not tolerated at all. (Danforth Bay, Franstead, Keyser Pond to name a few.) The owners will either kick them out after they've ignored warnings or call the local police to do it. Most people who camp don't want to put up with that and I think the owners of Bear's Pine Woods got the message.
Related Regions: Lakes-Region • Lake-Winnipesaukee
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Comments
The comment area is open for approximately one year after the review date.
The situation you experienced is totally unacceptable! First off, when you complained about the loud radio, that should have been taken care of immediately. There is no excuse for excess noise whether it was “quiet hour” or not! I have complained about loud music at many campgrounds, and it was always taken care of! That is one of my pet peeves!
Second, why were guests allowed to enter the campground after a certain hour!? That should have been a warning to the staff that this group was trouble!
Perhaps the campground owners are just new and a bit shy about “throwing people out” but they better get over that very soon, or they will be stuck with a party-type of crowd and will not have a good reputation with families. Families are what keeps a campground in business all summer long, not just on the holiday weekends.
I am sorry you had such a bad experience there!
Posted by That's Camping on 09/07/05
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