- This topic has 7 replies, 4 voices, and was last updated 6 years, 10 months ago by
.
-
Posts
-
I’m having trouble booking a campsite for Rock Hall. Does anyone have space for an additional tent and car on their campsite for Friday, June 2nd? I’m doing the Olympic on Saturday morning. Yuchen and I are hoping to share a campsite – will split campsite costs. We’re planning to arrive around 3pm on Friday. My email is theresaferry1@gmail.com.
I am also still looking for a camping location. Does anyone have any information on whether there is going to be field camping available or not?
I have not seen any information regarding camping this year. They may not be offering it up this year.
And sorry to highjack the thread, but if you are racing Rock Hall this weekend please confirm during packet pickup that you are signed up with DC Triathlon Club as your club! This is regional club championships and every person counts toward points that we need to win our division. Winning the division means that we get money from USA Triathlon to put back into club operations! So please make sure you are listed with the club when you pick up your race packet!
Additional info; saw this in a program forum:
“Some of you may have received an e-mail from the Rock Hall Lodging Assoc. that your campsite was cancelled as the town has now decided not to support a campground next to the race site. Just so you know, there is a campground 3 miles away that is renting for $57/night (2 night min). I called yesterday and got switched over since there is nothing available at any inns/airbnb/etc. Hope this helps!
Thanks Bryan. I got a campsite at Bayshore Campground 3 miles away. If anyone wants to share the site (room for one more tent and one more car), let me know! I had to pay $40 per night for the 2 night minimum. Happy to split costs! theresaferry1@gmail.com. Also, already registered as a D.C. Tri participatant for the race. Go D.C. Tri!
I have more information on what happened at Rock Hall this year for camping and I hope that as a club, we can respond in some way. Bay Shore Camping is not accepting additional reservations. I called them today looking for camping and they turned me away. They did not provide me with any help in finding alternatives. Athletes are simply out of luck as there are no hotel reservations available in town and the only ones remotely close cost several hundred dollars. This is messed up in so many ways because Bay Shore Camping is apparently the reason why the Rock Hall Lodging Association was not allowed to provide campsites to athletes this year.
What happened is that Bay Shore Campgrounds went to the town and complained that the Lodging Association was taking away their business by offering camping adjacent to the race. They assured the town that they never turned away people (I know that not to be true because they just turned me away). This is a terrible deal for the triathletes. Not only did we have access to a single night of camping (Bay Shore requires two nights), Bay Shore is several miles away whereas the Lodging Association provided camping adjacent to the race site, but they do not have enough space to accommodate the crowds. As a club, we should be complaining about this and I hope that we can send some type of communication to the Rock Hall town and to USA Triathlon that Rock Hall cannot support the race if camping is limited to Bay Shores and that the Lodging Association should be allowed to provide camping again. From my understanding, the Lodging Association had plans for portable showers and all kinds of other services for the triathletes to make our race experience even better this year, but that all those plans were cancelled when Bay Shores complained.
Update: I wrote an email to VTMTS to inform them of the camping issues above and asked them to advocate for the triathletes with the town. Their response seems to indicate to me they don’t really care much. It was kind of a flippant response in my honest opinion. I really hope that others that find out what happened might want to advocate. While I like to support the club, I’m probably not going to do this race next year if this is the situation. Maybe we will get another race designated for the club championships. Response is below:
Hi Lorraine – My apologies for not taking the town campsite link down earlier. It completely slipped my mind. The only thing that would make the Rock Hall races better would be several hundred hotel rooms just down the street.
Greg [Hawkins of VTMTS]
I would put the blame on the Lodging Association. VTS-MTS might have a say, but they don’t control when the Lodging Association changes its mind. Greg could have been a little nicer in his response though.
I would look into the feasibility of filing a class action against the Association and the Bay Shore Campground from a lawyer in your resident state, alleging fraud, collusion, and coercion, among other things.
