I camp to get away from the sounds of civilization, cars, mowers, blowers, weedwackers, phones....you get the picture. I also try and camp at campgrounds with few amenities, which also means electric. In recent years, the use of generators has increased dramatically. This year, I camped at North South Lake in the Catskills and Winhall Brook in the Green Mountains (VT) and at each campground there was a choir of generators.
At North South Lake, generators are limited to morning and afternoon hours. They are supposed to be off by 6pm. We spent one day at our site and there were about 3 popups that had them running a good portion of the day. It turned an otherwise lovely woodsy lakeside site into what sounded like a construction site. I wrote a letter to the NYSDEC the next week requesting that put all the generator people on a remote area, away from the lake. They said they had been getting a lot of complaints in recent years. At least they limit the hours.
I just got back from Winhall Brook Campground, a FEMA run facility. The only limit on generators was that you couldn't run them during quiet hours -- from 10pm to 6am. That is just CRAZY!! Who wants to hear a generator run all that time. Well... there was a whole group of people at the center of the campground. Seemed like they were having a family reunion -- we called the group Generatorville. They had big rigs and big generators. The first night they ran on all night long. If I was closer... I would have left. Luckily I was by a river rapid and it covered some of the noise. I told the park ranger the next day and he said they would keep an eye on the group. Well they did turn them off at 10 pm. Nothing like sitting by the fire and hearing a bunch of generators so they can run their AC, TVs, ... and whatever. One night the group turned off their generators all at the same time -- 10 PM. There was quite the applause from other campers. Their were response was "it just turned 10 o'clock" of which a reply was yelled out "Go back to the city!" I know many people have generators... but really. Get a freaking Honda and don't run it all day. If you don't want to really camp go to a hotel or a place with electric hookups.
On a bright note, the largest 5th-wheel rig there that had satellite TV, lights, etc, etc, never turned on a generator all week. They never use them. They had a solar panel on the top of the trailer that kept their batteries charged. And, this family lives in the trailer traveling all over the country. I myself use a solar panel to recharge my one battery to run my 12v light system. That is my generator rant. Sorry to all you generator users...but really. The noise is just awful.
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