Algonquin Adventures / Venting

**Posted by RCSpartan** 8/12/2019 12:13 pm

Last weekend I decided to bring the kiddos out for a little taste of back country camping. It was a bit of a last minute booking but managed to grab the last available spot on McManus.

Lake was full of families camping making the usual noise you'd expect which didn't bother me at all. From my site I noticed that there was a group camping at the parking/access point. Even though it is illegal to camp there they were quiet and packed up and left Saturday morning.

Saturday night I noticed another campfire at the access point after the sun went down. It was a group who were there to party, which also doesn't bother me, as the kids were in bed and slept through the noise. As I sat watching my campfire I noticed that each time the other party's fire started to dim it would be followed by the sound of a chainsaw. They started it up several times over the hour I sat out trying to enjoy a moment of tranquility. Seriously???

Sunday morning after we packed up and paddled to the access point. The group had left but the parking lot was littered with beer cans and other garbage, which I did my best to collect. When I walked up to get the car I noticed that these morons had even ripped off the wood panels for the doors of the outhouse. All class...

Stopped by the Sand Gate office to tell them of the damage and received perplexed looks from the staff; "Huh? They did what now???"

I'm by no means an angel, and I respect the fact that people go camping camp for different kinds of enjoyment, but this was probably the worst display of campers I had ever come across. This will not ruin what was a fabulous trip with he kids but what I saw has been bothering me and therefore felt like I should get it off my chest.

Hope everyone is having a great camping season so far.
RC

**Posted by Dead_Weight (DW)** 8/12/2019 1:19 pm

It's frustrating as hell ... hearing something like that and then seeing the damage. Thankfully its few and far between that would resort to bringing their own chainsaw but its still frustrating.

RC .. I have the McManus, smith and Whitson lake on the list to take my kids .. do you mind if I PM you about sites and that area ?

**Posted by RCSpartan** 8/12/2019 1:21 pm

@DeadWeight absolutely!

**Posted by PaPaddler** 8/12/2019 1:48 pm

Terribly unfortunate; probably two options...

1. Educate through outreach and other contact
2. Enforce - probably the best educator is a stiff fine with publicity

Often the situation plays out as you described with little opportunity for either to be achieved. Just hope for some karma, I guess.

**Posted by swedish pimple** 8/12/2019 2:13 pm

budget cuts have not helped ontario parks,,,
the interior camp site that i was on had a complete cooking set, pots, pans, very large pot you could boil a dozen cobs of corn in,, fishing rod, some sort of 24 inch pipe made of bamboo complete with a bag of tobacco stuffed inside, very nice camp chair and a small gas stove in a plastic case, saw blades?
there was another site on the lake that had a similar stash of junk just down the lake,,
algonquin is a 4 to 6 hour drive for 4 to 6 million campers and canoe heads,
things are getting outta hand

**Posted by solos** 8/13/2019 3:22 pm

swedish pimple wrote:
,,,the interior camp site that i was on had a complete cooking set, pots, pans, very large pot you could boil a dozen cobs of corn in,, fishing rod, some sort of 24 inch pipe made of bamboo complete with a bag of tobacco stuffed inside, very nice camp chair and a small gas stove in a plastic case, saw blades? there was another site on the lake that had a similar stash of junk just down the lake,.,

That sounds like a busy lake and I assume it is easily accessible by road or boat. It's these kinds of things that makes me choose hard to reach sites in the park, but even that doesn't guarantee not coming across obnoxious parties or junk left on sites.