Sean C. Morgan
Of The New Era
Memorial Day weekend, the traditional beginning of the camping season, was damp, but it didn’t slow things down too much in Linn County.
“We did quite well,” said Brian Carroll, Linn County Parks and Recreation director. “We were full pretty much everywhere.”
Waterloo Park, between Sweet Home and Lebanon on the South Santiam River, had a few open sites during the weekend, Carroll said. The river was up, and he has heard that salmon and steelhead runs aren’t the greatest right now.
Those runs are “one of the things that drive early-season camping at Waterloo,” he said.
River Bend had a few sites open three weekends ago, but it was full on Memorial Day weekend, he said.
The weather dampened things a bit, he said, and led to cancellations; but those empty spaces filled up quickly.
The parks system has approximately 400 campsites, Carroll said. Figuring four to five persons per camp, the campgrounds can hold 1,600 to 2,000 persons each weekend, not to mention day use.
With day use and other activities around the lakes and forests east of Sweet Home, the recreation population can rival that of Sweet Home, he said.
“It wasn’t really a rowdy weekend,” he said. “I would say we’re trending toward having our problems go down.”
The department tweaks how the staff does things, and the Linn County Sheriff’s Office dedicates a deputy to parks, Carroll said. They work as a team with the parks rangers and marine deputies to deal with problems.
At Sunnyside Park, on the east end of Foster Lake, someone is on duty 24 hours per day, he said. “If we’re going to run into an issue, it’s usually someone having too much fun, too much to drink.”
The department’s goal is to make the campgrounds enjoyable for everyone, he said.
Spaces are still available for reservation this season, Carroll said. Reservations need to be made no less than 10 days in advance of camping. Spaces remain open on a first-come, first-served basis within 10 days of a given date.
Clear Lake is doing well so far this season, Carroll said. Reservations to use Clear Lake’s cabins require no fee, and it has first-come, first-served cabins. Those fill up quickly on weekends.
Things will get even busier in a couple of weeks as schools let out, he said. Once schools let out, everything is full all weekend, making it much harder to get camping spots.
“A lot of local folks are using our facilities,” he said. “What we find, as gas prices go up, we’re busier.”
Someone at Waterloo made that comment over Memorial Day weekend, Carroll said. “I think that’s going to be a trend for us.”
Green Peter is full right now, he said. That may draw some interest to the area.
“Green Peter is looking to be full quite a ways into the summer,” he said. It was down at the end of last week, he thought, to make room for snow melt.
“It’s melting probably the way you want it to melt,” Carroll said.
Through June, the parks are somewhat dependent on weather, he said on a sunny, warm Friday afternoon, but days like this, they fill up.
“We’re feeling optimistic about things,” he said.
Anyone interested in camping can contact the Parks and Recreation Department to find out how many sites are available. They also can make reservations.
A new system allows reservations to be made a year in advance, and the department already is taking reservations for Memorial Day next year, Carroll said.
For information, call (541)967-3917 or visit http://www.co.linn.or.us/parks.