Bald Ridge Campground

6.8.17-6.11.17

Bald Ridge is a Core of Engineers campground location on Lake Lanier in Cumming, GA. Another man-made lake in GA, it is known for its swimming, boating, and water park/resort. We have never been to the water park or resort, but have heard good things. Bald Ridge has turned into our go-to campground for the summer months. The reason for that being they allow more than two dogs! That’s not the only reason though, most of the campsites have an easy walk to the water. The water level on Lake Lanier is usually low, but the swimming is still great. Many options for sites are wooded and private. On our daily walks we like to figure out which sites would fit our camper, have the qualities we like, etc. We would be happy with the majority of the sites at Bald Ridge Campground!

This particular trip we stayed at site 51 and had two friends join us for one of the nights. The site had plenty of room for their tent, and also path down to the water. 51 was set up like our site at McKinney Campground (camper separates the site from the road) however the sites on either side were closer. Indy wasn’t a fan of the cat on a leash at the next site over.

This trip included lots of lessons and trials for us newbies. Trip number two we weren’t comfortable backing into every spot, let’s be real – we still aren’t comfortable ten trips later! Not to mention it feels like EVERYONE in the campground is watching you. This particular part of Bald Ridge is one lane that many people use to exit, therefore we were in the way the longer we took. Once we finally got the camper into the spot, I realized I did not take into account the slide being in the way of the water hookup (newbie mistake). But wait! The trim around the wheel went right over the water hookup! Thank goodness because we were so frustrated and ready to be done. I wish I had a picture of this set up.

At this point we are getting better at unhooking the truck from the camper and setting up the site. Friday night stresses weren’t over for us though. The 30-amp breaker kept tripping, meaning the air conditioner would not stay on. We were slowly melting and our dogs wouldn’t relax in the heat of the camper. It took us till 2 a.m. and many phone calls to Mom and Dad Seal to realize that we could use our 50-amp converter.

By the time our friends arrived Saturday everything was working well and the stresses were behind us (or so we thought.) We brought our kayaks with us this time. Received many compliments on that set up, [see link to truck rack on Recommendations page.] We actually bought our Kayaks on Amazon! One dad at the campground a couple sites down from us let us borrow his paddle board! Summit enjoyed swimming for the first time and was a trooper riding around in the kayaks with us. Should be interesting getting her on a kayak when she is 100+ pounds.

Our friends rolled out early Sunday morning, as most are ready to do after sleeping in a tent in the hot summer months in GA. We took our time packing up and enjoyed another walk around the campground. I mentioned the stresses weren’t over – here is the icing on the cake!

I was actually on top of the camper just finishing up sweeping off the slide and Heather goes to bring in the slide. All of the sudden I hear a cracking noise and I yell for her to stop. Climbing down the ladder real fast I realize what happened. Things were all good with the slide on top of the water hook-up and there was even room for the water handle to lift up to turn on, however we never pulled the handle down before bringing in the slide. Can you imagine the anger towards ourselves for breaking a piece of our brand new camper on the second trip. It was terrible. A gentlemen a couple sites down in a Grand Design Reflection even saw it happen. How embarrassing!

Good news behind the catastrophe, when contacting Grand Design to inquire about purchasing that new piece of plastic, they sent us one for free! Talk about great customer service! It was pretty easy to install ourselves and now it looks like nothing happened.

Lessons Learned:

1. Always have someone watching when the slide goes in. Seems silly sometimes, but we won’t ever make that mistake again.
2. If the 30 amp isn’t working, check to see if the 50 amp is – right away, not hours later. We still called the campground the next day to let them know.
3. Things will get easier! Everyone struggles at backing up (especially newbies.) Hooking up and un-hooking will get faster/easier.