Strange.  Obviously  they were clueless about the park.  (and there are no site numbers - the numbers we use are an AA PCI invention)

Only thing I had that came close was years ago  on Hogan when a European couple pulled up around 11:00 PM, not having  realized that a 3.75K portage takes a bit more effort than a similar hike.  Obviously let them share the site.

 

Last summer we were on Mink staring up at the stars around 11pm when I noticed a dark shape moving through the water in front of our site. Paddlers at this hour? The couple ended up coming into our bay asking if there were other sites available on the lake. 

No clue I said but there was a lot of traffic that day so it may be difficult at this hour to find one. Where are your flashlights I asked? Apparently they were buried deep in their dry bags.

We ended up letting them stay the night at our site and also having to give them a midnight crash course in backcountry camping. 

They were eating snacks in their tent while setting up, trying to blow up a queen sized air mattress with only their lungs. Dude was trying to start a fire using only large logs to cook some dinner (unsuccessfully). They had a cooler full of food that we had to instruct them to place well away from camp. Complete disaster.

The next morning I woke around 6am to hear them taking down their camp. I heard some laughter which makes me think their trip wasn't going to be a complete write off. I recall the girl asking her partner if they could just tow the air mattress behind the canoe so she wouldn't have to blow it up again. By 7am they were gone without a trace. My regret is not getting up to witness the canoe towing away the mattress...

Spooky stuff. Wondering if park staff were alerted and had feedback? People can be weird and no telling what their story is. Doubt that it will come to light.

That is helpful that at least you were a bunch of guys, would have been creepier for me with my family there I'm guessing - and all of us sound asleep.  I think just completely inexperienced campers paddling to what they thought was their spot based on the reservation map.  If you aren't used to the Parks booking map it does look like you are maybe getting site 125 halfway down the lake - only one green triangle on the lake, sweet!  Couple that with lack of interest in reading and voila.  As far as the timing goes, it always takes way longer than you budget for to get on the lake especially when dealing with friends and a bunch of uncertainties - where is Access Point 9 etc.  They probably parked in the Rock Lake campground and launched from the beach.  Amazing that they found Pen in the dark but GPS does have its uses : )

GordK wrote:

  I think just completely inexperienced campers paddling to what they thought was their spot based on the reservation map.  If you aren't used to the Parks booking map it does look like you are maybe getting site 125 halfway down the lake - only one green triangle on the lake, sweet!  Couple that with lack of interest in reading and voila.  bunch of uncertainties

Thank you, I took a look at the map and the green arrow makes a lot more sense as to why they were so confident. They also could have slept on the unmarked beach because they were trying to avoid taking somebody else's site.

If they were genuinely confused I feel bad for them - it must be a terrible feeling to think your site is illegally occupied. I'm thinking they may have gone to the other side of the lake where there was service, realized their mistake, and pushed off to find an actual site elsewhere on the lake (and potentially away from us to avoid any embarrassment). 

 

A similar situation occurred to myself and my mom on Annie Bay in 2020. Earlier in our week a motorboat loaded with young guys came up to us trying to land stating that they had booked that site. They were newer to the park and we calmly explained how APP works and that you book a specific lake - not site, despite the reservation code. They were friendly and eventually carried on thankful for the advice.
A few days later in the late evening near dusk a couple in a canoe with no PFD's on (we didn't see any in the canoe either but they possibly had them stashed) in rough water paddled up to our site. This day had high waves and wind and water taxis were long gone at that hour indicating they likely paddled from the Lake Opeongo access point. They were a couple in their early 20's and the female angrily announced that we were on their site. I again calmly explained to them how APP works. The female was adamant that they booked the specific site and we were on it. We went back and forth a little with me keeping my cool and the male started chiming in. I made the mistake of commenting that they were the second group that week to say this, in an effort to lighten the mood, which only provided fuel to the fire for the female thinking we were wrong and she was right. We have camped in the backcountry for over ten years and I again explained how the bookings worked. She wanted to show me her permit which I encouraged her to do and stated I would go get mine from our bags, though this was up hill and quite far away (it turns out we forgot it in the car of course but that was not discovered at the time and I had a picture of it saved on my phone if need be). However, she could not immediately find hers which only frustrated her further and she then declined for me to get mine and compare. I could see the wheels turning in the males head at this point likely starting to realize we knew what we were doing and that the female was misunderstood. We are two women in our 30's and 60's and the female announced that we were obviously 'campsite stealers' and hoped we enjoyed our trip on THEIR site. We even attempted to direct them to the nicest site on the lake with a beach which had opened up that day. They were obviously frustrated, tired, and probably hungry. They started pushing away while the female, now irate, yelled and swore at me. As they paddled off I loudly encouraged them to check in at the permit office at the end of their trip which would verify what we were saying (I realllllly hope they did this, I would have paid to see her reaction). The female continued her tirade and they went in the opposite direction of the nice site setting up elsewhere. Afterwards we looked on line and it looks like the small green triangle for Annie Bay coincides almost exactly with site # 2 on the lake where were staying so it makes sense that they felt they booked that site. At the end of the trip I spoke with a park ranger, emailed APP, and have commented on their social media about this issue. They have since put out a post that included information about this first come first serve policy but not everyone reads the regulations/rules or follows social media unfortunately. 
As for your own experience - it seems that the triangle for Pen lake is similarly placed as in our own scenario (I've stayed on that site and it is great!!) and am inclined to suggest that they were simply majorly disorganized and honestly thought it was their site even though it was 3am. Over the years we've run into more and more backcountry 'partiers' that seem out of place and unknowledgeable about the park. While I was never concerned for my safety in this confrontation, and luckily it was not 3 am (I would not have had the same tone surely) I am certain we will hear more of this as people aren't necessarily required to check in at the permit office anymore and can easily rent or borrow equipment without needing to knows this information about bookings. I'm glad everything turned out for your trip despite the problematic visitors! 

Spru85 wrote:

At the end of the trip I spoke with a park ranger, emailed APP, and have commented on their social media about this issue. They have since put out a post that included information about this first come first serve policy but not everyone reads the regulations/rules or follows social media unfortunately.  

The most frustrating part is that it's such an incredibly easy change to fix this.

On the email confirmation it says "Your site is reserved" then followed by the booking where it shows on the left column "Site 1, Site 2, Site 3 etc." and the righthand column titled "Site Number".

Literally all they need to do is use the word "Lake" instead of "Site" and it would clear up so much confusion.

@ trippythings. I have asked that exact question as to why can’t they change the word “site’ to ‘lake’ to a park ranger, and got the following answer: the form is being used in all the parks, so nothing can be done about it, as many parks are site specific backcountry sites.