Reply to Coopers Landing

Stopped at Coopers Landing after a long day of riding the Katy Trail. It was a Friday night and we did have reservations but the tent camping area is not nice at all and the manager Mike is rude and does not take criticism or complaints well and is quick to give you a refund and tells you to move on but there are not many camping choices on this section of the trail. Next time thru I will definitely change my days routes so I do not have to stop here.

So...what was there to criticize and complain about?

Anonymous. Requiring 4 people and two small tents to each buy a tent site and not be able to share only one site and the resulting high cost is one complaint. Every other place we camped along the KT was five bucks or less per person. The sites are not marked or discernible and they describe your site with imaginary lines, uh “your site is from that tree to that dumpster to this imaginary dirt/sand road and yeah sorry your site has all those tire marks and ruts in it”. Then to be told if we weren’t happy we could get a refund and move on or go sleep on the sandbar in the river. All the RV and tent sites are so crammed together and nothing marked. This is by far the crappiest so called campground that I have ever seen in my 60 years of life. I would suggest you visit a MO State Park to learn how to lay out basic/primitive campsites. Very little grass, nothing but dirt and sand but I guess that is expected along the river. Management should also take a class in customer service. Reading old posts this place seemed really nice so not sure what happened. NEVER stopping here again. Of the entire KT experience, which was fabulous, this was the only bad experience. And it wasn’t just our group, we watched you treat other cyclists with the same attitude when they questioned the tenting location they were expected to utilize.

I'm not Coopers Landing. No need for me to visit a MO State Park again. Why do I need to learn how to lay out campsites??

No, you did not watch me treat any cyclist with an attitude about their tent location. Haven't been through Coopers Landing for several years.

I did ask what there was to criticize and complain about. When I enter a place of business I understand it is my choice to be there and is usually in my best interest to go with their flow instead of being critical or complaining. I know I can leave if its unbearable. One night in conditions that I don't think meet best business practices, isn't a deal breaker in my life.

OMG - they were going to charge you for two tent sites so you could put up TWO TENTS?

And when you weren't happy they offered to refund your money and then gave you suggestions about other camping options?

OH THE HUMANITY.

:)

I hope everyone survived.

I've camped at Cooper's and it is very basic and not terribly well laid out or organized. But I found it part of the charm and just another interesting experience. I agree that paying two fees for two tents is to be expected. I was with another rider and we both picked spots and paid separate fees to camp.

On a recent ride on the C & O Tow Path I stayed in hiker/biker NPS campsites for free, but no water and only a port-a-potty that was literally overflowing and had no TP. Later on the same trip I had to pay $35 to set up my ultralight backpacking tent at a SP in Ohio. The site was no bigger or nicer than Cooper's but had electric and a nice shower house. Also paid $54 to camp 1 night at a KOA. After a long day's ride when it's your only option you take what you can get, appreciate the experience and move on. Gotta admit though, after paying $54 to camp cheap motels became a reasonable option for the rest of the trip.

Roger Miller sang a song about Buffalo Herds years ago and when I go someplace with great reviews and all around me enjoying themselves while I'm not, I begin to wonder about me; not the place.

You can camp in Hartsburg for free. Either at Volunteer Park or the Lions ballpark.

Ok.....I’m going to defend CyclingDan here a little bit. If some of you are thinking about Coopers as it was a year ago this is not the same place under the new owners. I pulled in along Smith Hatchery Rd a couple of weeks ago with the sag trailer for our annual 4-day whole trail ride just as I’ve done for last 13 years or so. Don’t know what the manager’s name was but he comes running out saying I can’t park there because they have live music that night and I’m taking up too many spaces. Now - you need to understand that the right of way along Smith Hatchery is not dedicated parking for Coopers Landing parking. It’s county road right of way. Since we had been having an enjoyable day of riding I resisted the urge to tell him to go screw himself and backed the trailer as far out of the way as I could. We also like to buy a few beers while we’re at Cooper’s even though the sag trailer always has a well stocked cooler. In previous years buying beers there meant going inside, grabbing them out of the cooler and finding someone to pay for them. With that in mind we walked through the open door to the cooler and grabbed a couple of Modelos. This time the same young man comes running in to tell us we can’t be in there and we have to order from the window outside. Ok, fine but since we already had the beers in hand we thought we would would walk outside around to the window and pay for them. Nope.....that would be too simple. He had us put the beer back in the cooler, walk outside to the window and order them from him. By the way he grabbed two different bottles from the ones I had my sweaty hands on. As this was transpiring I to my wife that these weren’t going to be the old Cooper’s prices and I was correct. $5 a piece for Modelos but while we waiting I watched a guy pay $8 for a can of beer. Of course it subtle notes of something with some type of amazing finish. If we would have coughed up another $2 he could have had an even better can of beer. Now having said all of this I fully acknowledge the new owners can run the business as they choose and the manager can treat people as wants but I hate to see the end of what was such an unique experience on the trail.

Another bastion of freedom bites the dust.

I had no idea it had changed so drastically. My experience was a few years ago. Sounds like a loss of a real treasure and something I'll ride past in the future.

Wow! No more self-serve beer...that is a game changer!

Soon our freedoms will be nothing but a distant memory.

Yep......no more self serve beer. That was my whole point. The fact that you could pick that out of everything I said is very impressive.

I think a lot of times the actual complaint gets lost in the weeds, and needs to be summed up.

1- "I had to buy two tent sites for two tents, and was offered a full refund when I was unhappy. The site layout was somewhat unclear as well."

2- "Beer was too expensive, rona protocols were unclear and arbitrary, and owner was rude."

This is good info for people who will pass through. It will be helpful for those who consider stopping in the future. A few years back I had heard it was a cool place, but we passed through too early in the morning to judge for ourselves.

We have done the trail for the past 4 years and have stopped at Coopers each time. It has been a nice place to stop for the views and a beverage and snack. I wonder if some cleanup and general site improvements would more than pay for itself with increased sales and campsite reservations? Also better customer service by staff would be nice. We enjoyed some good food last fall that was prepared by a group from Columbia. I want to thank them for the nice lunch served with a smile.

I did stop at Coopers Landing in the first week of May. I paid $20 for a one-man tent. A $20 per night isn't really bad but in one other campsites I paid $10, and another $7. But this site has the least to offer for your money - no shower, just port-o-lets. I got drinking water from other mobile camper because I didn't know if the water on the premise is drinkable.

This brings up a question. I was cycling from Sedalia to St.Charles. When I got to Marthasville, I met another biker who was heading west. He told me that we could camp in the area between the station and the Community Park for free. Maybe that's because we were technically off the state park property? We could stay in the community park for $5 a night but why pay? The station has clean toilet and sink where you can wash and get drinking water. The only thing missing is the shower. So the question is: instead of finding a campground, why not camp one of those stations for free? Honestly I was impressed how clean those toilets were for non-attended public restrooms. Kudos to the state park. Marthasville is the best place to camp because there are restaurants and convenient store all within one mile. And it's free and safe. I understand the local police patrol the area in the night.

I'm going to stick up for Cycling Dan too.

We have been planning our Memorial Day trip for months. Much of our trip was planned around wanting to camp ON THE RIVER at Cooper's Landing. We based mileage around that. Once I had the itinerary nailed down I made a reservation for a campsite on the river for Friday, May 28. Then I made our train reservations - well, couldn't get our bikes back on the train on Sunday so we had to push our itinerary back a day.

I called immediately after getting the reservation confirmation to see if I could change my camp reservation to Saturday night. The guy I talked to was in a big hurry, said it was no problem to change the reservation and he would send me a new confirmation. When I didn't get a new confirmation the next day I sent an e-mail to confirm. I received a response saying the reservation had been changed, but still never received a new confirmation.

Fast forward to today - after reading all of the comments about the new ownership, I got worried so I called and talked to Michael - guess what - NO RESERVATION CHANGE. I was willing to pay $40 to camp right on the river on a holiday weekend. I'm not willing to pay $30 to camp in a field next to a bunch of RVs w/no other amenities. So even though I have an e-mail saying that my reservation was changed, it's the other people who get to keep the waterfront site. Oh, of course Michael is willing to refund my money - how nice, since he knows there is no other option!


***UPDATE*** I want to say that Michael just called me back and they are taking responsibility for the mix-up. He is going to make it right by us, and even though it's not exactly what he had planned, I think it will be quite the experience. I will update when we return. This goes to show, a little bit of customer service and gratitude for the customer's business goes a long way. In today's economy, I doubt there are many small businesses who can afford to turn business away.

I wouldn’t worry about being very far from the river at Cooper’s. The whole place between the river and the trail is maybe 150 ft or so. Take a look at Google maps and you’ll get a good idea of the layout. Let us know how it works out for you.