Camping at Sherwood Forest

[mpullen]

I spent Saturday afternoon touring the faire site and was very impressed with the layout and their plans. Slow and easy seems the way to go.

Several vendors were onsite for this second walk-thru. I love the pond that will be the future location (not first year) of the pirate ship.

My main reason for visiting was looking over the campgrounds, so that's what I'll now discuss.

The participant and playtron campgrounds are on the highest part of the grounds. They are separated at the faire boundary by restrooms (real flushies!!) and the Return to Jerusalem Pub. The pub will close when the faire closes, but the entrance from the campgrounds will open an hour later.

The soil is extremely sandy, so normal tent stakes won't work. I'm not sure if alpine staking (two stakes set apart with a line between them and the tent lines tied to the middle of that line) will work. I suggest long (at least 12 inches) screw type pegs or concrete blocks. The wind Saturday brought to mind the windy days we have had at TRF and that had solid soil.

There is presently not a campgrounds manager assigned, but I had RenGypsy vet this information to make sure that was his plan.

Clearing of the campgrounds is presently low on the priority list, which is understandable. The campground area has plenty of solid trees and alot of undergrowth. Think Excal at the new/old location. RenGypsy is open to allowing clans/groups to come up for a weekend and clearing an area for their groups usage during the faire season. The area is on a shallow slope (like Excal), so drainage is good. Folks will need to bring chainsaws and shovels. When cleared, I doubt vehicles can get into the area due to the sandy soil. That means a parking area needs to get cleared and gravel laid in.

I should be going back up in a couple of months to see how things are going. It's a long haul for me (130 miles from Pearland). When I read the directions, I remember that if one reached Giddings, one went too far. Unfortunately those were the directions from Austin. When I hit Giddings I was ready to head back home. Fortunately I kept on going and another 10 miles finally saw Highway 21. The SWFF sign is against the site fence. I thought it would be 90 degrees to highway 290 and visible when coming up on highway 290. Fortunately I slowed when I got the stated 1.7 miles from highway 21.

Oh yes. Since the participant and playtron campgrounds are adjacent, we probably should try to setup our campgrounds as far as possible away from the adjacent area, since I believe the participants would prefer we playtrons camp as far as possible from them so that they can get some sleep. Hmmm, we don't make noise do we?

[Autouloucous]

Thanks for the bulleiten on campgrounds, pmullen,

And thanks for coming out to the land though the road was long and tricky. 
We are in need of those groups wishing to camp to help us coordinate some clearing parties.  Our budgets of both time and money will necessarily have to be focused on the on-site portion of the faire.  So nothing will magically happen on the campgrounds without the support of some volunteers.  Clearing is certainly in order, as is fence building.  I will be availbale to supervise a campground clearing campout sometime after March.  For a large party I can probably secure a bit of food for the day, and perhaps some liquid refreshments that can be opened after the sun goes down, and the chainsaws have been put in thier cases.

We want to make this your favorite Renaissance Festival, so let us know how we can work together to provide the elements you desire.   You can contact me at entertainment@swf-faire.com.    Thanks a million-----------Autouloucous, ED

[mpullen]

Today's walk-thru was very informative. Met old friends and new ones. The Playtron campground location was not the one I thought it was. A new access road winds through the Playtron campgrounds. I'll post a bunch of information once the access road once it has been built up to allow traffic other than bulldozers, probably June time-frame.