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Hey everyone!
I was just reading posts on the Campsite Pirates thread and it reminded me of an odd campsite situation on Head Lake my friends and I had this Spring. Thought I'd share and ask if anything like this has ever happened to anyone else?
We got to this site after passing by the waterfall site which was occupied, only to find the firepit smoking quite a bit. With no canoes, tents, packs or people in sight, we thought that the previous campers may have left without properly putting out the fire. After a looking around the site to make sure we weren't intruding on other campers we ended up finding a full bag of Doritos, a 3/4 full bottle of Jack Daniels, some Vodka and here is the really weird find that stuck with me, about 8 chicken breasts ditched some 20 feet behind the site..... Our initial thoughts were that a group of campers were coming back, or that a group of campers had an emergency and had to get out as fast as they could...... OR this is what we went with - A bunch of drunk idiots that have no business camping in the backcountry camped here and left within the hour of us arriving.
It was a pretty odd situation and we really did not know what to make of it. We ended up burning the chicken breasts, eating the Doritos, emptying the booze and bringing back the bottles (it was our 2nd to last night, our food barrel had room and was getting pretty light).
Anyways... Hope everyone is having a great summer so far! Heading back to the park the last week of July!
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Wow... I haven't been to a site quite this bad thankfully... I've seen garbage, fuel canisters left in boom box, but also similar to the chicken - Bunch of cooked up eggs, hash browns, etc dumped in the bush about 30' from the site... Irritating enough, but the icing on the cake for me was that we couldn't find my dog for 30 or so minutes - Initially thought he may be lost in the park, only to find him chowing down...😬 While he may have enjoyed eating it, his tummy didn't seem to like it later on...🤢
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I set very low expectations for the behavior of people and I am rarely disappointed. It makes you scratch your head how incredibly dopey some people can be. Kudos to you and your group for doing the right thing.
We've cleaned up more than our fair share of garbage left at sites but haven't had the pleasure of finding liquor and raw meat. The folks that frequent Algonquin Adventures generally leave their campsites cleaner than they found them. We also like to leave a complete campfire supply (birch bark, kindling, small wood and big wood) for the next group; in case they get there cold, wet and tired it's a wonderful gift to pay forward!
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I make a habit to spend a few minutes poking around a prospective campsite to find out what 'presents' might be lurking. The first site I stopped at on Rosebary a couple of weeks ago had half a garbage bag filled with cans and a fully intact camp chair proudly sporting the Canadian flag. I mention the flag because that ticked me off more than anything else. Don't pretend you love our country if you're perfectly fine with defiling it.
It always amazes me what people are perfectly willing to trek into Algonquin but then seemingly aren't willing to carry back out. Every time I encounter garbage I want to punch someone in the face, but it also never surprises me.
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I can see being pissed off at find a bag full of cans at a campsite but we don't mind finding a usable camp chair. The first time we went to St. Francis Lake there were two camp chairs. After a fairly long day getting there from Grand Lake we were happy to have them to sit on. Oddly, there was also a blue recycling box there!
It's too bad that some people leave garbage behind at campsites but at least in Algonquin the campsites are maintained. Crown land campsites are much more likely to have garbage and once a can dump is started people rationalize that they are not doing any harm if they add a few cans to the pile.
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Highlight so far this year for me is someone who took a poop right on the canoe landing. ( definitely human)
Had a lot of fun scraping that off my canoe let me tell you.
I subscribe to the 80- 20 rule. 80 percent good or at least decent people and 20% morons.
But wow those 20% amaze me sometimes.
I often wonder if the 20% know they are morons or live out their lifes in denial or ignorance.
Last edited by ShawnD (7/13/2017 9:46 am)
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I've found a couple unopened beer cans, and a set of broken tent poles, but as far as I can remember that's the worst of it. There's always random garbage throughout the site though and sometimes burnt tins leftover in the fireplace as well.
Open a map. Put a pin on Canoe Lake. Plan your trip. The farther you are away from the pin, the less likely you are to find a messy campsite 
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PaPaddler wrote:
I set very low expectations for the behavior of people and I am rarely disappointed. It makes you scratch your head how incredibly dopey some people can be. Kudos to you and your group for doing the right thing.
We've cleaned up more than our fair share of garbage left at sites but haven't had the pleasure of finding liquor and raw meat. The folks that frequent Algonquin Adventures generally leave their campsites cleaner than they found them. We also like to leave a complete campfire supply (birch bark, kindling, small wood and big wood) for the next group; in case they get there cold, wet and tired it's a wonderful gift to pay forward!
As a kid I would go on canoe trips with the camp I was at, and we often had very long days and got to the campsite pretty late. There was no better sight than getting out of the canoe and seeing a nice 'courtesy pile' waiting for us beside the firepit. That's one thing that has always stuck with me, and I always do my best to leave at least something for the next group.
Get a pile for dinner, get a pile for the rest of the night, get a pile for breakfast, then get a bit more for a courtesy pile.
This was my favourite courtesy pile that I've left; one of the few times I've actually had enough to categories by size (I took the peanut butter with me, didn't leave that for them!)
Last edited by trippythings (7/13/2017 5:58 pm)
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....I don't think I ever updated the campsite pirates post, but according to my in-laws, the couple were actually evicted from the site later that day....
....And my submission to this post comes from the Highview Cabin on the Nippissing. Been to that cabin a few times but the last trip (2 years ago) has to be the worst case of garbage I've ever seen in the park; it was early spring and the fading on the beer cans suggested this happened in the fall, but there were over 100 cans strewn about the place, they had removed and burned anything that wasn't nailed down in the cabin, chairs, food containers, even the broom. They left their garbage in bags, hanging from the back of the cabin along with 3, full size coleman coolers that they didn't need to carry back I guess because they finished all the beer..... We cleaned up the cabin and the cans but the coolers had to stay....
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Wow! That is pretty brutal.... I just hope this doesn't continue to get worse every year. It seems like more and more people are getting into the backcountry every season!
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....And my submission to this post comes from the Highview Cabin on the Nippissing. Been to that cabin a few times but the last trip (2 years ago) has to be the worst case of garbage I've ever seen in the park; it was early spring and the fading on the beer cans suggested this happened in the fall, but there were over 100 cans strewn about the place, they had removed and burned anything that wasn't nailed down in the cabin, chairs, food containers, even the broom. They left their garbage in bags, hanging from the back of the cabin along with 3, full size coleman coolers that they didn't need to carry back I guess because they finished all the beer..... We cleaned up the cabin and the cans but the coolers had to stay....
I think it is highly unlikely those coolers were carried in over a canoe route. There must be a road that comes close to the cabin. I would also assume the cabin was being used illegally, after Thanksgiving Weekend.
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Probably snowmobilers and/or ATVers. Happens more than we like to think. I've come across many 'winter camps' in the summer where evidence of ice fishing can be seen all around.
I spent 4 days at Highview in September of last year and I was greatly disappointed in the cabin's condition. Not garbage per se, but the build up of crap and dirt from the lack of a broom and mop.
However, in 2014 I spent a night at the Wenda Cabin and never again. Garbage all around the property and inside the cabin. Food, gear, electronics, glass, cans, clothing, shoes, booze, everything. I was furious. My buddy said in the twenty years hes known me, he's never seen me rage out like that. It took a few shots of whisky before I eventually calmed down. I wish I had photos of it, you guys would not believe your eyes.
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I'm happy to report that I really haven't seen anything too egregious in the Park. It is much worse on crown land within an hour from Ottawa. One site had a huge pile of rusty cans, a boxspring, cigarette butts everywhere, fishing line everywhere, toilet paper everywhere and broken glass everywhere. An absolute disgrace! A lot of the negative things I've seen on site in Algonquin are vandalism related (carvings in trees, trees cut down, rope left on trees ect..). Other than cigarette butts I really haven't run into any sites that have been completely trashed!
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Coming down the Portage from Opalescent lake 2 years ago, there is a site right at the bottom of that portage at Brigham lake. The occupants were still there.
The campsite was littered with beer cans, and garbage all over the place. They also left their canoes right on the portage landing so we had to move them. But that's the worst I've seen.
Hopefully they cleaned up.
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The funniest garbage story I can recall was finding a partial case of bottled water at the start of the portage from Lake Louisa to Rock Lake. I could only assume that someone actually carried a full case of bottled water across the 3km portage from Rock and then decided they didn't want to carry the unused portion back to Rock Lake.
Worst garbage I saw was someone leaving behind a broken down Alligator on a island on Catfish lake. Rusty metal pieces everywhere. Can you believe the nerve of some people...
Honestly I've been pretty lucky overall with garbage on sites. Last summer when checking out a site we saw something odd next to the Thunderbox. Upon inspection we noticed it was a large toilet seat that someone fashioned out of foam and wrapped in plastic. Are you kidding me? Wasn't touching that...
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