the woods buggies

I got the same response in my e-mail, even addressed to Dirk instead of me! lol!!!

Wasn't expecting a response that quickly. And he does make a good point at the end. There were a few rail buggy people that came up Sunday not related to the main group that were just fine to hang out with. Heck, one husband and wife team even jumped in behind our group with Ed on Sunday for a bit of wheelin.

Hey guys,

This is Stephen Foster, the owner of the Campground. As I stated in the letter above I've never had complaints of this magnitude on any group thats ever stayed here and yes I've had complaints in the past that I've had to address, but they were addressed.

Had I been given this information in detail this would of been fixed during the weekend - at least the campground portion of it as I have no control over the trails but can only forward that information to those in charge of the off-road park. And oh yes the trashing of the bathrooms pisses me off too - I cleaned them myself and they were spotless before being trashed again.

You can be assured this group will not be back here at my campground. I'm not going to let one group jeopardize the whole campgrounds vacation being worthwhile.

As I said I have a regular railbuggy group, but they respect my rules and they already have been notified about this group from me.

Anytime you guys have problems, let me know in detail while your still here so they can be fixed.

thanks,

Stephen Foster, Owner

Harlan County Campground - Putney Trailhead


P.S. You don't have to all send emails, the first email was enough for that group to be banned from coming back.

Stephen, thank you for the quick response and decision in this matter. It is very comforting to know that you are supportive of positive action groups that do care about maintaining the trails and campgrounds that keep our hobby going.

As we all strive to be friendly neighbors to the entire offroad community, I do want to extend an apology to any of your regular woodsbuggy visitors that may have been lumped into the large group. I think they will find that we as the family want everyone to enjoy your campground and the Harlan trails, and we do everything possible to promote the hobby/sport/ activity in a positive, friendly, and conservative manner.

Steven, Thanks for responding so quickly. Your campground a very essential part of the Crawl. I have always felt welcome there and with the addition of the awesome new bathhouse it is a great place to camp. I for one will continue to use your campground in the years to come. You treat us well and in return I plan on doing the same!

Thanks,
Aaron T.

Thought you all might like to see the e-mail that Doug, Tim, and I just received from the Harlan County Outdoor Recreation Board.

members,

Stephen sent along some of your complaints about the woods buggy group to me at the Black Mountain Off-Road Adventure Area office and I’d like to apologize for your experience and assure you we will work to make sure it isn’t repeated. Your complaints have been heard. We had no idea what to expect this weekend as there has been absolutely no communication with woodsbuggy about the event for several months and we did not even know for sure if or when the event was going to take place. Our last communication with the group was that the event was going to take place at White Tail Campground, which is out of the way of most traffic, and not at Middle Fork. I personally expressed to the event coordinator several months back that we may have to look at different places and we should meet to find an area. From that point on woodsbuggy never communicated with us again.

In short, If we had had a role in planning the event, we would have made sure none of these problems you experienced would have occurred. Furthermore we’ll take a much more aggressive approach to making sure we DO have a role in planning future events here.

We hope you don’t hold your experience against us here at Harlan and we hope you will return. You guys have been coming here for many years and you are a priority to us.

Thanks,
Brandon Goins
Harlan County Outdoor Recreation Board Authority
606-837-3205

It's good to know that the people in charge take things like this seriously and are willing to make some tough choices to ensure a good time for everyone.

Maybe loosing ECORS to Winrock taught them something.

I place no blame to the Harlan board or the Campground for those idiots. I just wanted to be assured that I would not have to deal with them next year.


I found it amusing that they talked about the Recreation Authority in a bad light, yet they obviously did not do what needs to be done to hold a proper event there.

I am sad to realize that after surfing the forum over there a lot of the members are from my neck of the woods, and a lot of them frequent wellsville. It explains a lot to me, as wellsville is of a very questionable legality, and drinking and trail riding is very common. That and your rig gets striped and burned if you leave it for any amount of time.

I've been to Wellsville once, many years ago, and I swore I'd never go back. Shortly after I was there a woman was killed doing a big hillclimb on a 4 wheeler. She was drunk.

Anyway I'm over it, kudos to the campground and the Harlan Recreation Authority for stepping up. I know that they turned down revenue, but sometimes money isn't everything.

87manche said:

wellsville is of a very questionable legality, and drinking and trail riding is very common. That and your rig gets striped and burned if you leave it for any amount of time.

I've been to Wellsville once, many years ago, and I swore I'd never go back. Shortly after I was there a woman was killed doing a big hillclimb on a 4 wheeler. She was drunk.

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Sounds just like Haspin Acres.

IllianaXJ said:

Sounds just like Haspin Acres.

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Yup, they were a bunch of idiots, they'd fit in well at Haspin!

they were not all guilty. we met two older couples that were super nice and exchanged emails with us. unfortunately, like in many areas of life, the good ones are lost in the wake of the loud and obnoxious ones.

chattacuda said:

they were not all guilty. we met two older couples that were super nice and exchanged emails with us. unfortunately, like in many areas of life, the good ones are lost in the wake of the loud and obnoxious ones.

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I have no doubt there were some good folks there but the idiots outweighed them severly.

chattacuda said:

they were not all guilty. we met two older couples that were super nice and exchanged emails with us. unfortunately, like in many areas of life, the good ones are lost in the wake of the loud and obnoxious ones.

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Agreed completely. I was talking with an older couple Saturday night that was up there for their first time from Ohio if i'm not mistaken. They wound up tagging along with us for a bit on Sunday just to get out and see some of the sights.