**Ranger Review: GrubStick at Promontory Park and Marina **
Campground Review: I hadn’t heard of Portland General Electric“PGE” Parks prior to a few weeks ago when friends invited us to camp with them. The campground and Marina were quite nice but one of the main reasons our friend booked this campground was to teach their daughters to fish in the stocked“kids only” pond. Unfortunately, the website doesn’t say the fish can’t survive in the pond during the hot summer months. The campground did, however, have awesome park staff (Matthew was AWESOME) who put on two great activities for kids every day. We stayed in a“Yome,” which is a cross between a yurt and a dome. Between our families, we had three young girls who got to attend two hosted activities per day. The campground has 50 campsites, a handful of yomes and small cabins, too. The restrooms and showers were a bit of a trek down a hill from our yome and weren’t clean as well or as often as I would have liked but, it was nice to have running water all the same. The campground has electric cooking stations and picnic areas spread throughout. Additionally, there is a large picnic shelter, with cooking facilities that you can rent. One of the biggest attractions to this park is the stocked pond called Small Fry Lake. It was developed for kids and is stocked from October to April(the fish can’t survive once the water temperature rises too high). Youth up the 17 can catch a limit of two fish per day. NOTE: the pathway to the“lake” is surprisingly steep!! They have a handrail however, it is steep! The store offers pre-packaged items as well as a handful of items such as corn dogs and hotdogs. There are a picnic and seating area and it appeared to have a small stage for live music. You can rent boats, kayaks, and canoes but, they are more expensive than most places(in my opinion). The marina is on gives easy access to the 350-acre North Fork Reservoir where you can fish and boat.
**Top reasons I love this campground: **
- Kids programming (give Ranger Matthew a raise!)
- Kids only fishing pond Location(only an hour outside of Portland)
- Yomes (fun for the family)
- On the North Fork
Things I didn’t like about this campground:
- The stocked kid's pond doesn’t have much fish throughout the summer because they can’t survive the heat BUT, this information isn’t on their website.
- A bit of a trek to the restrooms Restrooms weren’t very clean No alcohol(just keepin it real)…………….
Product Review: As a Ranger for The Dyrt, I occasionally get to test products. At this campground, I tested the Grubstick Deluxe Kit. This collection of camping cooking utensils and accessories is fun and functional for the entire family. I love the compact 30” collapsible, stainless steel, telescope stick, with the rubber handle. It’s sturdy, easy to clean, and comfortable to hold. The Grubfork is awesome. It is strong enough to hold two hotdogs or marshmallows. The Grubcage is good for toasted s’mores (your graham cracker will get toasted or burned if you aren’t careful). It’s square and can hold wider items than the round Grubcage which is meant for burgers and patties. Both can hold items such as veggies, fruit, and bread or English muffins. The release tool takes a bit of getting used to operating while holding your Grubstick I would buy a ton of the handles and sticks to give as gifts but having to buy everything by the package is way too expensive. The good news is that I’ve heard that Grubstick is going to start selling individual pieces- hopefully, this is true. The Grubpocket is the size and shape of a marshmallow. We used this to create bacon pockets and it worked pretty well (can’t go wrong with bacon!). The bacon clip is tough to operate. It needs to be tight to hold the bacon in-place but, that also means that it is hard to squeeze open wide enough to go around tick cut bacon. The Grubtube is a steel cylinder that you can wrap the pastry around. I forgot the pastry but can’t wait to try out a few recipes and start to create our own! All in all, I love that the Grubstick products have given me a spark to rethink my camping meals!
Pros:
- Rubber handle
- Telescopic and collapsible to 30” Stainless steel and easy to clean
- Makes me want to cook more creatively
Cons:
- The bacon clip is really hard to open.
- The grabber is good in theory and useless in reality. Falls off your fingers unless your fingers are tilted upward.
- The packages are pricey
Overall, I give the Grub Stick and Grubfork 5 stars and the accessories 3.5 stars.
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