We believe in honest, transparent storytelling. We don’t hide our deficiencies; instead, we use our past mistakes to help our community learn.
Although many of you see us as experts, at our core we’re scrappy, entrepreneurial, and just like you. We’re not a big development company with a large team checking off boxes—we’re real people tackling real challenges.
This honest storytelling ties directly into one of the biggest and most challenging regulatory hurdles we’ve faced. Today, we want to share the story behind our bathhouse misadventure—how it happened, why it happened, and ultimately, how we fixed it.
Our Beginning with an Old Campground
Back in 2022, we purchased an old campground with two charming bathhouses and legacy infrastructure.
We discovered two septic systems that were 50 years old.
The tanks at one of the bathhouses had collapsed, but the leach field still held promise. It turns out that if an old system fails you can get a permit to quickly replace those tanks without further engineering or soil testing… so in many ways, despite these not being in great shape, it saved us a lot of time and money.
So, we replaced the lower bathhouse septic tanks and subsequently added four outdoor showers to give guests a unique experience under the stars.
That first season was smooth sailing—the new septic tanks held strong.
Our guests loved the outdoor showers, and we felt confident in our vision. Everything was great for the first year!
Year Two: A Regulatory Surprise
In our second season, the other bathhouse’s septic tanks collapsed so it was time to replace those as well. Fortunately we had a great first season and could now justify updating this system just like we did the other system the first year.
During the inspection of the work being done for the second system, the sewage official noticed the outdoor showers at the other bathhouse — and he wasn’t happy.
It turns out when you simply update or replace tanks on old systems, those system are “frozen in time” by pre-regulatory rules, limiting us to the original number of fixtures from decades ago. You can’t add anything onto them.
Everything has to stay the same.
We added showers and were therefore in breach of these regulations.
Navigating the Challenge
We faced a tough choice: tear out the showers or invest in a complete overhaul mid-season.
Neither option worked at that moment.
After some back and forth, we reached a compromise.
We agreed to work with a septic engineer, run soil tests, and develop new engineering plans during the off-season.
Fortunately our plans for this past off-season were always to add a new bathhouse (a third) and that would require a new septic system. So we decided to tie the shower water into this new system.
In the end, integrating the showers into our new septic system added an extra $10,000 to what was originally going to be a $30,000 project. Meaning our total septic upgrade this year cost us $40,000.
Lessons Learned & Growing Our Expertise
You may be looking at this as a hugely stressful situation that could have been avoided.
But we actually look at it a bit differently.
This experience taught us that sometimes “done” is better than perfect. And that opening fast—even with hiccups—is worth it.
Ultimately we opened and generated revenue as quickly as possible…this allowed us to fund necessary improvements later.
By addressing challenges ethically and responsibly, we deepened our expertise and reinforced our commitment to guest safety and a memorable glamping experience.
So don’t cut corners to try to game the system… but also don’t be afraid of the system and let that paralyze you from starting in the first place.
🚨 You May Find This Helpful…
This lesson ties directly into the spirit of our recent Glampground Startup Challenge, where over 200 potential glampground founders joined us online.
A key message was that moving quickly—even if it means fixing mistakes along the way—is essential for chasing your glampground dreams.
Missed the sessions?
We hope our story inspires you to push forward, adapt, and continuously improve—even when things don’t go perfectly.
Happy Glamping,
Brian & Joanna Linton
