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Last week I went to do the Rock-Welcome-Louisa loop.. We left Rock Lake Tuesday morning and headed for Clydegale for night one. On the way down Pen we stopped at most of the campsites. We didn't see a single campsite that wasn't covered in food wrappers (granola bar, fruit-2-go, etc). Every fire-pit was full of balls of foil, etc.. this is fairly typical but still annoying. Then we came to the 4th or 5th site down and seen this :
The structure is at least 20ft long, and consists primarily of green hardwood. These people cut down 10+ maple trees right behind the site just to make this. I'm assuming it was an illegal winter fishing camp? They made the ladder just to assemble the structure that's how tall it is (10ft+?)
We took the island site on Clydegale which was great but again covered in garbage, a folding chair, a crappy old hatchet, various pots/pans/baking sheets etc. In the evening I seen my dog digging only 15 or so feet away from the fire pit, someone stashed baby wipes everywhere around the site, but not actual buried, just covered in needles/leaves. From then on I had to keep my poor dog on a 3ft Leash by the fire-pit just so she wouldn't get into something disgusting.
On the way out we stopped at the 'big beach site' on Pen Lake about halfway up the lake. Only about 2 ft. away from the trail going up to the site and about 5ft from the water edge someone had recently went #2, a big pile of crap and TP right on the BEACH!
At this point I called it quits and left immediately. I couldn't believe it! Last month I did a 7 day trip out of Brent and undoubtedly seen less garbage on that whole trip than I seen at just one (any) campsite on this trip out of Rock.
Last edited by ATVenture (6/10/2018 6:45 am)
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Highway 60 attracts backcountry savages. I've seen it too many times to keep tripping in the area.
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Not that it's acceptable, but I generally expect to see garbage and things left behind at campsites on lakes very close to Hwy 60, like within one short portage away. It attracts a different kind of camper.
But the poop and cutting down several trees beside the campsite is just ridiculous... leaving a bit of garbage behind is one thing (like I said not acceptable, but easily dealt with since the next person can just burn it), but you would think a little bit of common sense would prevent someone from taking a crap on a beach or trying to build their own house.
It's a shame you witnessed this because it's such a nice little loop to do, but obviously something like this will leave a bad taste in your mouth for the future. Personally I've started 3 or 4 trips out of Rock within the past few years and haven't had any experiences like this.
On a side note, did you make it to the north site at Clydegale? Send me a message if so 
lol
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trippythings wrote:
Not that it's acceptable, but I generally expect to see garbage and things left behind at campsites on lakes very close to Hwy 60, like within one short portage away. It attracts a different kind of camper.
But the poop and cutting down several trees beside the campsite is just ridiculous... leaving a bit of garbage behind is one thing (like I said not acceptable, but easily dealt with since the next person can just burn it), but you would think a little bit of common sense would prevent someone from taking a crap on a beach or trying to build their own house.
It's a shame you witnessed this because it's such a nice little loop to do, but obviously something like this will leave a bad taste in your mouth for the future. Personally I've started 3 or 4 trips out of Rock within the past few years and haven't had any experiences like this.
On a side note, did you make it to the north site at Clydegale? Send me a message if so
Honestly I've done many, many trips out of Rock lake. I do the Welcome loop twice a year usually and have never seen anything like this. The worst I've seen prior to this was last fall on Bonnechere. There was a girls camp just leaving a campsite as I was paddling across the lake. I was booked on the lake for the night so I decided to go check out the site they were leaving. We exchanged greetings and they seemed alright. When I got up to the site I could see little specks of white everywhere behind the site, upon further examination it looked like every single time one of the girls had to take a pee they picked a spot at random and left a little ball of TP. There were at least 30 very fresh balls of TP scattered around the site.
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Yup, little piles of TP. The wife and I cleaned up her friend's mess when we left the Lake of two Islands in Massassaga PP because she thought the thuderbox was ickky. During the same trip her brother in law hacked out a new tent pad so he could "sleep where no one has slept before". Another trip in Algonquin we told some people in the group to burn the excess bagels on the last night but they said that was wasteful. In the morning they wanted to bury them rather than carry them out. Duh!!!
However, at almost every site, no matter how remote, I always seem to find tin cans in the fire pit, twist ties and plastic bits, and some larger piece of junk that should have been packed out by its owner. It's not hard to leave a site cleaner than when you arrived there.
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m t beer cans
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Tampon applicators
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About 5 years ago late Sept before I knew about the leaf colour watch. Hwy 60 was an absolute zoo. Everywhere. My brother and I stayed at an interior site on Cansibay. Really can't stand the crowds and the young wardens these days. So we would paddle out do some trails do some fishing. On the Sat I couldn't believe the people. Every trail was packed with cars. Within a km or so both sides of the road....cars. You had to stop because people would walk right out in front of you. We couldn't find a spot to make a lunch. Every beach in all camp sites full. LOTR beach couldn't even park. Costello picnic area polluted. Tea lake dam, overflow. Couldn't go no where. I had a folding table and Coleman stove I said lets go the the driveway beside Smoke creek. Whip up a late lunch. There's a little parking spot. I often launch my canoe from there into Tea lake. Again it was full. About 5 cars partying it up. About 20-25 people. I'm not going to comment on their nationality. So we went to the driveway into Tea Lake campground. Chilled for about 2-3 hours. We went back to the little road beside Smoke creek and couldn't believe my eyes. Looked like after a concert. Styro foam food containers filled with food scraps, napkins, tin foil, cups, parchment paper, plastic water bottles of all sorts, plastic cutlery. Picture 20-25 people all with a meal. You can imagine what it looked like. My jaw hit the ground. How could someone litter so badly let alone in God's country. I had 1 garbage bag which I had to stuff and step on to get it all in. It was totally pathetic. I've had numerous back country litter of all sorts which I could either burn or pack out, but this was the worst I've ever seen. I should've taken a pic. Never even thought of it. But really what would it do if I was to complain. They were only there for the day and left.
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Oh....and I never have or ever will be around weekend peak leaf time again. 45min from LOTR to Tea lake Dam. Total congestion.....
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i would like to see all styro foam use banned from algonquin,, just like cans and bottles,,
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i would like to see all styro foam use banned from algonquin,, just like cans and bottles,,
I agree.
I see no reason why it not to be.
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i would like to see all styro foam use banned from algonquin,, just like cans and bottles,,
I agree.
I see no reason why it not to be.
I think they should replace the can ban with a styro foam ban.
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I often wonder what percentage of backcountry users are of the selfish, rude disgusting type. A question I guess I will never get the answer to.
I suspect the percentage isn’t as high as it sometimes feels when you are standing in campsite riddled with clumps of toilet paper or piles of human feces only a few meters from a thunder box.
If the percentage were really high the majority of campsites would be a in a horrible state.
I do admit to avoiding popular easy access lakes when it’s possible. Not that I haven’t seen some really bad stuff on lakes 5 -10 portages back in though but it is less frequent.
All I try to do personally is clean up what I can when I see it( with a few curse words thrown in to let off the steam) take pleasure in a well left campsite and always try to leave a site better then I found it.
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Haven't witnessed anything terrible in Algonquin's backcountry compared to what I've seen on Crown Land. One thing that bothered my thing spring was that the site on Clamshell Lake was absolutely littered with cigarette butts.
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On the Pet, stopped at one of the sites midway down 5 Miles Rapids for lunch. There is a site with a kind of sunken fit pit. It probably had 50 beer cans, a blue foamie, a yellow canoe back float, all sorts of other garbage, busted chairs, clothing.... it looked like a bachelor party exploded on the site. There was even garbage stuck in threes, chip bags, underwear, socks, beer cans. It was sad.
Had we been in canoe we would have cleaned it up, but we were walking up the portage to play in some of the rapids on a hot summer day.
Oh and when we got to McManus, I think the same people had left a mountain of garbage at the pull out. It was insane. Busted tent, giant air mattresses shoes, more beer cans.
Also crap beside a thunder box. Why?
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ATVenture ...... Interesting observations and picture . I agree that it should be " illegal " for all ...to build such winter fishing camps . It's illegal for you and I , but not fer status card holders.
Two sets of rules fer two peoples , fer one park , just ain't right .
A few pictures of some of the Traditional First Nations carnage I've seen in Algonquin .
Luckless Lake ... the remains of a Winter fish camp . Green wood used fer support , and a point cleared of living trees fer better view of multiple ice holes.
North River Lake ... South Bay
First in there a few years back , the point cleared at snow level , fer better view of fishin holes in the ice .
Makes me wonder .... who are the stewards of Algonquin Park ?
Terrible!!
I seen that spot on N.R.L. last year, I had the same assumption. You can find the same type of B.S. around the Allan/North depot area.
Although I didn't think the natives were aloud to fish out of the hunting zone? Not 100% sure though....
2 falls ago after thanksgiving I was camped on Kiosk Lake, I could see 1 mile bridge. I hiked into my campsite using the railbed and all was fine. While at camp the natives pulled a dead cow moose from the mink lake area down the rail bed, they stopped at 1 mile bridge to transfer it from a 4 wheeler trailer to a truck bed. I don't know if they knew I was around or not but they were yelling a screaming at the top of their lungs, cussing and swearing. After they left I went and investigated and there was beer bottles (a couple smashed) around where they were that weren't there the day before.
But let's not turn this into thread bashing any specific groups, I know many, many algonquin status card holders that are respectful. A wise man once told me 'the respectful ones are keeping the bad ones away', or something like that. lol
Last edited by ATVenture (6/12/2018 7:24 am)
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But let's not turn this into thread bashing any specific groups, I know many, many algonquin status card holders that are respectful. A wise man once told me 'the respectful ones are keeping the bad ones away', or something like that. lol
Given that the amount of patrolling of the interior during the winter months is either very little or perhaps none at all, I'd have to believe that it isn't just natives that are snowmobiling in to go ice fishing. The interior rangers are also spread pretty thin during the summer months and no one is stationed at roads leading in to the interior (unlike when my family drove in to Basin Depot back in the early 70's). If the chances of getting caught illegally driving into the interior on roads that are closed to the public are low, I'd have to assume that some non-natives are going to take that chance.
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