Prosaic words and photos about our bathhouse

Casey wrote the other day and asked about the cleanliness of the bathhouse…a subject that’s near and dear to all of our hearts…and certainly worthy of a blog posting! Here at “The Shores” we have one person on staff full time who’s primary job description is bathrooms. This year, it’s Julie from Ticonderoga New York. She knows that if the world comes to a screeching halt and everything starts to fall apart, she is fully licensed to ignore all the chaos and simply make certain that the bathrooms sparkle…and she’s the woman for the job…but she wouldn’t let me take her picture.

The bathhouse is fully accessible to wheel chairs and motorized scooters.

There’s a sink with running hot water for doing your camp dishes and washing out the lobster pots.

Our showers are accessible from the outside of the bathhouse with locked doors and individual changing spaces so you don’t have to share your nakedness. If you need to wait a few minutes, you can soak up the sun and read a newspaper on the park bench. Because they are not designated male or female, the wait is always shorter and you can keep track of your children with ease.

Look closely at these pictures, there’s no soap scum or mineral buildup anywhere on these showers…you can leave your flip flops at home with no fears of grossness. Every day Julie takes the shower curtains out of the stalls and scrubs them in the sunshine so the mildew never has a chance to build up. All of the curtains are white or opaque so that there’s no confusing cute designs with biology experiments. You’ll also notice that there are no coin collectors. We provide the hot water and ask only that you respect this expensive resource.

As a matter of practice, we ask everyone to leave their shoes outside the shower stall, clean up their scraps of paper and gunk before they go and use the mop we provide to give the floor a quick wipe with chlorinated water.

Tip from someone who’s lived at the campground for 15 years (me): Plan your shower at 1 PM…they’ve just been cleaned and there’s an abundance of hot water because everyone else fought for a space at 8 AM.

In this shot you’re stepping into the bathrooms. Notice the very nice washers and driers on the left and the table for gathering brochures on the right. You can’t see them in this picture but

there’s a bulletin board for posting the events in the area and a chalk board to allow guests to share their favorite discoveries…without a doubt, some of your best day tripping can be enhanced by the experience of others who were just “there”.

This is the companion/handicapped bathroom for those with small children or others who need help to get a good shower. The shower does have a 3 inch lip but is equipped with a seat and hand held shower head. The sink is wheel chair accessible and there is a raised toilet seat for your comfort.

We clean our bathrooms with as few toxic chemicals as possible. For general and everyday cleaning Julie uses OdoBan a product derived from flower essences and 99.99% effective as a germ killer and odor eliminator, Simple Green and a vinegar solution for the mirrors and stainless steel.