We stayed here two years ago and it was OK. We definitely felt the owners were a little weird (see all the golf cart creeping described below), but they mainly left us alone until we didn’t show up at exactly the right time to get picked up by their canoe shuttle. Then they were straight up rude to us the few interactions we had after that.
Time passed and we got over it.
This year we decided to try a similar trip, but we would start upriver and canoe down to the campsite to avoid issues with the owners. We got there Friday and we felt like were under constant suspicion. We always got the golf cart stare down, but everything seemed fine otherwise.
We went to the beach for the dog time Saturday morning and talked to another camper who told us about getting yelled at for having her dog, on a leash, on the completely deserted beach the evening before. We all laughed at how strict the owners were.
Saturday morning at 10:30, when we were just about to leave for a well-planned day of fun, the golf cart man showed up and came stomping right into our site and told us there was a problem with our reservation that had to be resolved at the front office, then he jumped on his cart and was gone.
So we stopped up there on the way out to hit the river to see what kind of fabulous prize we won. They told us our friends’ dog was too loud and that they needed to guarantee that the dog would be quiet or else we should find another place to stay. This dog is a golden retriever who did some barking, but certainly not enough to cause serious problems, and was mainly doing it because she isn’t used to being required to be on a leash for hours at a time. The camp owner suggested they go to Walmart in Black River Falls to buy a shock collar or find a to kennel to board her for the night. She also said “We’ve just have never had problem like this before.” That seemed unlikely considering they are a campground that allows dogs and this dog was being completely normal.
We got our money back (at least they did that for us) and went to take down our camp. While we were doing it, the people from the site across the road from us came over and asked what was wrong. They said they never even heard our dog. Then they told us how five of them were sitting around their fire the night before, talking in normal voices, when the owners came and told them to be quiet. We hadn’t hear them at all either.
We ended up camping for free on a sandbar and it was amazing.
Bottom line: The people are control freaks, and if you want to tiptoe around them and pay $30/tent/night to sleep on the ground and use pit toilets, then go for it.
