Almost all the backpacking and canoe-tripping my wife and I do is on Crown lands in Ontario, and as untrammeled as those woods are, there are there three things that annoy and anger me: backpackers and campers who try to ‘improve’ a site, people who litter, and destructive ATVers.
The first is a heavily impacted or “improved” campsite: Some people seem to think that anything that’s served others as a campsite, be it an official, designated campsite in a park, or an established campsite on Crown land, is a place where they can build crappy furniture (benches, tables), hammer nails into trees, build up bonfire-sized fire pits, string up clotheslines all over, and then leave the site with all this crap. I have canoed to some pretty remote places to discover beautiful sites that have are strewn with broken folding chairs, huge firepits with enormous half-charred logs, 3 or 4 grates lying about, rope and string left up from where they hung their wet clothes, not to mention unsightly and flimsy camp carpentry. When such a spot is the only suitable spot on a lake, one feels like one is moving into a fleabag motel, rather than camping in the woods. How I wish that people would pack out their crap, dismantle what they build, or at least build it out of natural materials, so that there aren’t rusty nails sticking out of live trees and bits of wood. Invariably, where there are large fire pits or fire rings, the sites are beaten down to bare dirt, with all ground litter and nearby firewood having been consumed. Even in such places as Algonquin Park, it’s not uncommon to have to paddle away from one’s site and go off in search of firewood and paddle back with it because people think that camping means having a large roaring fire every night.
Here’s an example of a site where my wife and I camped that had been ‘improved’ by previous campers:
Note the crude ‘table’ made by hammering a board and pieces of cut live wood. It stank so badly of fish guts (a lure to bears) that we dismantled it and burned it right after making our supper.
Note also how the ground has been picked clean of ground litter, lacks all ground vegetation, tree roots are exposed, meaning that the site turns into a mud pit whenever it rains. Notice also the size of the fire ring in the background.
In this next photo notice the absurdly large fire pit, the iron grate over it (one of 3 on that site), the nails in the trees from which I have hung some gear (I pulled these out when we broke camp), the abandoned broken folding chair to my left, and on the far right you can make out part of a heavy iron table that was also abandoned. Note the complete lack of ground litter or living ground vegetation.
Sadly, sites such as these are typical of Algonquin Provincial Park, which is why I avoid camping there or other parks. I always feel like I’m moving into some delapidate shanty instead of camping in wilderness.
The 2nd thing that bothers is, of course, litter. Whenever we hike, go backpacking, or canoe tripping, we carry along one or more plastic garbage bags to pack out litter we may encounter on my way back. I’m happy to say that I don’t find much most of the time on Crown land, but there have been occasions where I have picked up entire large garbage bags full of crap left behind by inconsiderate campers and hikers. Below are a few photos of one site we paddled by on our way home after a short 4-day canoe trip. We filled two large garbage bags on that occasion, but even at that, we had to leave some of the garbage behind because we had no more bags and little room left in our boats. Predictably, this site was one that was accessible via motorboats or by ATV. Most backpackers and canoeists, predictably, do not pack in folding chairs, iron grates, nor bring lumber, tools, and nails, much less cases of beer. It never fails to amaze me that people who reach a camping spot by a motorized vehicle (and therefore didn’t have to do any heavy lifting to get their crap there) cannot be bothered to just leave with their junk.
Below are some photos of my wife and I and our camping buddies cleaning up one such site.
The third thing that irks me when backpacking or canoe-tripping is inconsiderate ATVers. It seems that some significant portion of the ATV community loves to cut trails into virgin woods solely for the pleasure of despoiling the woods and wrecking existing trails and portage routes.
I've had the misfortune of discovering a section portage trail I'd used just days before, and which was undamaged on my way in, was completely unusable on my way out. ATVers had been 'mudding' there in the meantime. The section in question had been a narrow foot trail through a low-lying area with dense spruce on both sides. Once the ATVers had their fun with it, those lower areas were effectively permanent wide, shallow ponds of mud and water, deeply rutted, and impossible to portage or hike through, forcing us to portage around through dense, uncleared bush and thus forcing us and other canoeists and backpackers and hikers to create a parallel trail along sections of this once lovely trail. I have not revisited it this area. It’s a write-off.
I've seen the same thing happen along the Seguin Trail (a hiking trail) in Sprucedale, Ontario. It's supposed to be a multi-use trail (it's an old railway bed) but sections of it are impassible even on dry days without knee high rubber boots because sections of the trail have been turned into wide mud pits and one cannot get around them because the rail bed passes through a sensitive low lying bog. The trail is actually the only raised area where one can walk, but that section is now usable ONLY by ATVers. And that unusable stretch keeps getting extended. Through-hikes for backpackers are no longer viable along some sections of the Seguin Trail because of ATV use.
Hope this helps,
- Martin
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Originally Posted by Mr.Black
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