Baxter State Park - No more opening day reservations.

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peakbagger

In Rembrance , July 2024
Joined
Sep 3, 2003
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Location
Gorham NH
One of the more reliable reporter of things BSP posted today on Whiteblaze that the new park director has stopped the opening day tradition at BSP. It was pretty obvious last year that the ranger running it and a couple of the other staff were ready for it to be done. It was not something that Percival Baxter started. I have heard speculation that it was revenue thing to get the park some cash during the slow part of the year. Realistically the rolling reservation system seems to have considerably opened up options in the park. I expect those who want a specific cabin on a specific date locked in way in advance are out of luck. I have run into several folks over the years that have to book their annual vacation early in the year and wanted a specific site on a specific week so they had to go in January or take their chances. They are now out of luck. For most out of state folks it was considered unfair if they weren't willing to drive up on January. I think the opening day folks tended to book longer term stays so I wonder if the usage will change. I keep an eye out on the reservations on occasion and outside of the week or more long blocks of cabin reservations that were made in January, the subsequent reservations when the rolling system start up are one of two day weekend and much shorter stays at any one site. This is bit more work for the ranger as they need to move more people more often in and out of sites.

I am not sure if the 20% of the sites in a specific campsite retained for last minute Maine resident registrations is still in place but asked the OP. If he answers I will update.

It probably screws up some groups that book the group sites on popular weekends. Realistically of late I have tended to shift out of the busy season into mid September and have gotten over the hassle of booking group events and I am visiting somewhat less used areas so expect I will be fine with the rolling system.

I think the parks number of campers actually peaked a few years ago. They boosted prices a bit and given the amount of capital upgrades I have seen in the last few years, they must finally have the revenue in line with expenses. I am not aware of any additional properties they would want to buy except maybe the Nesourdnehunk Lake inholding but given its Camp Phoenix I don't see that happening so maybe they just don't need to raid the endowment for acquisitions. They do have significant backlog for trail reconstruction that sure could use funding.

I guess I will have to find a different method for catching up with Stan and Eric in January;)
 
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We'll miss that tradition but never did subscribe to camping out to hold a high place in line. Still, we got everything we wanted and it made it easy to plan longer trips, especially to the interior where a night or two here and there fulfilled a nice route. What I'll miss most is meeting up with others, like peakbagger, as well as friendly and knowledgeable staff. Another interpersonal opportunity lost to technology ... wonder if Percival Baxter ever envisioned policymakers being replaced by robots?
 
... and not only that, they don't seem to have a 2019 calendar out.
 
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