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Has anyone encountered a situation where you've reserved the only site on a lake and found it occupied when you've arrived? Wondering what the protocol is. Thanks!
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No official protocol that I know of, but I made a similar thread a few years back you can read some people's opinions:
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I like sharing a site, I have offered that in the past. it's kinda fun actually.
however, it's a different time with the COVID... I would likely ask them to leave if there was any time in the day. ...
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Oh boy, with the significant rainfall coming and full capacity of the park (with lots of novice campers), I can only imagine how many issues there will be from people camping off-permit today and tomorrow.
It would be pretty upsetting to travel through all the rain to find out your destination campsite is occupied because those people didn't want to travel in the rain. I met a group at the Pardee portage once who told me they stayed on Pardee an extra night because it was raining (...it was barely raining). If someone else had Pardee booked they would have been forced to take the lesser desired site because of this. There's unfortunately probably a lot of that going on this weekend.
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Yet another reason why you should just be able to book a site like at Kawartha Highlands and other parks. How amazing would it be to head up to Algonquin on a Friday evening without being worried that you won't find a decent spot?
My guess is people who are afraid to travel in the rain will be squatting regardless of the booking system.
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papabear wrote:
Has anyone encountered a situation where you've reserved the only site on a lake and found it occupied when you've arrived? Wondering what the protocol is. Thanks!
There is no protocol. If you have a permit then they shouldn’t have an issue with you coming ashore and setting up. Who knows, they may be just packing up or stopping for a break. If they intend on spending the night then likely they have a good reason. If it were me I’d talk to them and assess the situation then decide to stay or seek other options.
I wouldn’t except that they would leave if they didn’t intend to. However, if the situation were a little reversed and I was already on the site with valid permit then I’d be very resistant to accepting guests.
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Not on a lake with a single site but on Carcajou Bay, with four sites and we had two reserved. Squatters were set up on the nice point site - family of four - we talked to the two other occupied sites and they had permits for Carcajou. Approached the squatters and he said they have a permit for Grand Lake and played dumb that the bay would naturally be part of the lake. He got somewhat belligerent and asked us "what do you want us to do, pack up and leave?" which we responded "yes". But he refused.
Fortunately, we were a 45 minute paddle from an access point and we went directly there to report the infraction. Luckily, we ran into an AA board member at shore and he invited us to join them on their site on Grand Lake. We did see the rangers visit their site in the morning...I hope they gave him a fine because the guy acted like an ass.
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