Monday, October 1, 2012 - Travel Day to Frog Hollow Horse Camp-WORST PLACE EVER!!

Still cloudy when we headed out, a little later than usual to miss the rain, and, thankfully, the rain held off, and it became progressively more clear as we headed south. Found a hay stop on craigslist, FABULOUS smelling hay the horses are going to LOVE! The bales were kind of light for $6, but they were worth it. Grateful for the clearing skies, kept the hay dry! Made several stops along the way, which delayed us longer than we hoped, but after several stops to confirm with maps and GPS that we were on the right track, (there were no signs on the road to the horse camp at all!), we finally arrived at Frog Hollow Horse Camp in the Pauchaug State Forest. There are two choices of horse camps in Connecticut, this one and the Lost Silvermine Camp in Nautchaug State Forest about 20 miles away. We chose Frog Hollow because we thought they would have more amenities, as they charge $24/night for out-of-staters ($14 for residents), while Silvermine was free. Normally, I like free better, but we were pretty tired from all the rain and chores we had done over the weekend, and thought the amenities would make it nicer. So, after having spoken with them on the phone about water, checked their website, and listened to their answering machine state over and over again that each campsite had a fire ring, a picnic table, and access to spigot water, we arrived at the horse camp (having had to get directions from a neighbor again) which had quite a narrow gate, which opened up into a fairly open loop. The inside of the circle was meticulous lawn, and the outside were the campsites. We spent 15 minutes walking around the camping area looking for "spigot" water, and finally, at the edge of Site 1 we found an old handpump! Apparently that was their idea of a spigot!! Well, we were pissed. For $24 a night we figured on a bit more than that! No corrals, no highline posts, no amenities for the horses whatsover. The pump wasn’t even centrally located, which meant if anyone parked in Site 1, it blocked the pump from everyone else in the campground! (not that there was anyone, but if there were). Anyway, since we had been told there was a spigot, we hadn’t filled up the RV either, so we had no water at all. After some discussion, we finally decided I should run back out with the trailer and try to find a spigot and fill up the RV and the 55 gallon drum we have for the horses, which usually gets us through 3 days. Because the gate was so narrow and the angle was so bad, I scraped the side of my truck on the metal post, the first boo-boo I’ve caused in the two years I’ve had my truck : -( , which did NOT improve my already pissed off mood. I headed down to where the map said there was a ranger station, and when I turned in to a poorly marked driveway, it seemed it was only a tiny parking area with a kiosk. I didn’t the nearly invisible sign that apparently indicated the ranger station was further down the road, but I don’t like going down roads I’m not sure I can turn around on, so I VERY slowly and carefully maneuvered around the tiny parking area and turned around, heading back up the road again, thinking I’d missed it, or maybe I would find someplace else I could fill up. No luck. I finally reached the road back to the horse camp, and had to turn around and try again. This time, I finally saw the tiny sign for the ranger station on the same road I had turned into before, so I bravely headed forth hoping I’d find it. Eventually I did, but naturally, by the time I got there, it was closed. I started looking around for an outdoor spigot I could use, but no luck there either. Just before I was really ready to go ballistic, a young man arrived, and after a few questions, learned he worked there, but had already quit for the day, and was about to go running. I pleaded with him to let me fill my tanks, and after a bit of reluctance, he finally opened up the garage and ran a hose out. Naturally, the water was a trickle, and took an eternity to fill up, so much so that when it came to the horse barrel, I only filled it about 2/3, because at the rate I was going it was going to be dark by the time I got back to the campground. All during that time I was trying to explain to the young man why I was so upset, that I had been lied to repeatedly about the water, that all of the information said it was a spigot, and that there were amenities. He tried to tell me that a pump was a spigot. He also tried to tell me the reason the signs for the ranger station were so hard to see is because they wanted to keep it looking "natural." He also tried to tell me a bunch of other crap, until I finally had to just put up my hand and explain that CT was our 39th state of horse camping, and that this was the worse case of misinformation that I could remember, and he might as well just give up trying to convince me that they were right and I was wrong. Finally I headed back out to the campground, where Hubby had put up the highline and set things up as best he could. I quickly put the trailer back in place, and he managed to get a satellite signal just before dark. Bad news, there was no cell phone signal here at all, not enough to make a call or get online. Not happy campers here at all today! Why do they lie? If they had just told us the truth, we could have done all of this before we got here and things would have been fine! Grrrrr!