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Does anyone know what time one has to be out of the campsite?
I've never experiened a fully occupied lake until this weekend when we arrived at Pinetree Lake. We had permits for one night. After seeing the first site was occupied, we paddled to the south arm of the lake and saw both campsites occupied as well. A group on one of the campsites said they had permits for the night, and we didn't see anyone on the other site but tents were pitched. So 2 of us paddled back to the north arm and asked 2 young guys fishing in a canoe and they said it was their site but they were leaving today and that we could start setting up camp and they would leave soon. Well we spent 2 hours paddling back and forth and back again to the campsite, and started setting up at 1:30. The occupants didn't leave until about 3 pm. They came back to the site, prepared and ate lunch. We didn't make it a big deal mainly because I wasn't sure what the "check out" time is. I just want to know for my own knowledge and also to let others know should this happen again.
Have any of you experienced this before and how did you deal with it?
Last edited by Hass (8/24/2015 3:00 pm)
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Hi Hass .. On page 35 of the official park tabloid, there's a listing of Rules and Regulations. Under Camping Permits, it states, "Campers are required to vacate and remove all property from campsites by 2:00 pm.on the permit expiry date." Failure to comply carries a possible $95 fine.
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It certainly can be worthwhile to ask people at a campsite if they are going to be leaving. Last Saturday we got what we consider the best campsite on Stratton Lake by paddling up and asking the occupants what their intentions were. We could see there were no tents up, but they did have several packs lying in the campsite. It turned out they had just stopped there for lunch. They even offered to leave right away and have lunch elsewhere but we told them they were welcome to stay. We had our own lunch at the other end of the beach while they used the main part of the campsite.
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Funny you should say that yellowcanoe. This past saturday I saw a couple of people getting into a canoe at a campsite, and noticed there was nothing set up at the site, so I asked them if they were camping there or leaving and they told me both that they had just been having lunch there and that it was a better site than any of the others that were still available. I'll tell the full story later on the Trip Reports forum.
I can relate also to Hass. I was once starting a canoe trip in Killarney and was headed for Kakakise for the first night, as was a group I'd met at the access point. We got to Kakakise before them, and saw that there were people at the first of 2 sites on the lake. I knew that unless they were cheaters they must be packing out that day, since there were only 2 sites on the lake and I'd met the other group with a permit for it, but we wanted the other site anyway so we just passed by and thought nothing of it... but arriving at the farther site I knew that inevitably we'd get a visit from the other group, who'd be looking for an available site, and we'd have to send them back up the lake explaining that the people there must be leaving. When it happened I sorta felt bad for not having told the folks at the first campsite that there would be people behind us looking for a site and they should let them know they're leaving, but maybe that would have been too meddlesome anyway.
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