Things look almost normal at Pine Glen campground these days.Shoal Creek still burbles behind it, its gentle run weighing heavily on the eyes at night. Vast tree cover still makes shade the rule and not the exception.
Just as one looks around and catalogues the many draws for primitive campers, a new draw catches the eye. No need for dread when that sensation sets in. No need to hold one’s nose.
The new bathroom facility — construction of which kept Pine Glen closed for nearly a year — is done. Having to, er, go at Pine Glen never looked so inviting.
“I’ve gotten two or three comments,” said Tim Slone, who handles recreation management and special-use areas for the U.S. Forest Service in Talladega National Forest. “People seem to appreciate the new building. I know they appreciate the water, too.”
Renovations include the new restroom facility, a split-faced rock structure complete with three separate rooms, each with its own lockable door. The facility comes complete with ventilation technology designed to keep odors out.
The new, modern look stands in refreshing contrast to the stark, old facilities, which still stand and will be torn down.
Still no running water within the restroom building, but the new facility means that campers can rough it without ... well ... really, really roughing it.
“For a primitive site, it’s pretty up-scale,” Slone said.
Renovations also included making water available. Solar power — panels sit inconspicuously atop the hill above the campground — feeds faucets, which campers can operate by hand pumps.
All of this, and Pine Glen still costs just $3 a night.
The campground maintains the primitive look and feel that so attracts hearty campers. There’s still no electricity, no concrete driveways at campsites or specified tent pits.
The campground won approval Friday from Chuck Fanson, a 69-year-old Michigan man who has spent the last six months using his special Golden Age Passport at Forest Service sites in Florida and Georgia.
Fanson, a retired roofing and siding contractor, stopped for a night or two en route back to Port Heron, Mich. He and his female beagle pup, Snoopy, camped along the creek side of the campground.
A first-time Pine Glen camper, Fanson described the new restroom as “nice and clean.” The campground fits his style.
“I really like primitive campgrounds,” said Fanson, who had a weather cover extended from the passenger side of his van. “I don’t like being jammed in like in a city.”
He rated Pine Glen among the “upper third” of Forest Service campgrounds he has seen. “It’s better than a lot of them,” he said. “... If I’m in this area, I’d stop here again.”
