We're heading to Disappointment on Thursday and I understand that it is a pretty busy lake. We'll be staying at Smitty's the night before and I'm just wondering how early we should try to get on the lake? Smitty's has breakfast at 7:30 and it would be nice to fuel up with a good meal, but I'm worried that would get us out a little too late.

Thanks in advance!

Its not all that far to your destination. Getting to there before people start to pack up camp and leave is pointless. Of course if you are fishing you could just fish and watch the sites for an early opening.

If the breakfast is good, I'd relax and enjoy it.

It is my feeling there is just no way to predict when is a good time. Go to early and you may miss guys that are packing up late, go to late and you may miss a spot to another group. I find that getting to the area you are looking to camp around 10-11 is best if you can pull that off. By then most people that are moving have either moved on our at least you can tell they are packing up. And you will beat a lot of people that get a late start.

Bottom line is you have to be flexible. And by now the crowds have started to die down because a lot of schools are already back in session.

That's what I was thinking as far as others departing. Breakfast it is!

We go in early and ask folks if they will be staying? Seems sites :turn-over" around 9 - 10:00 am. if they are going to.

Other than the campsite availability factor, the other benefit of an early start is that there is less activity at the portages. We went from Moose to Knife last week and found that we made much better time on our return trip when we had the portages to ourselves early in the morning.

And you're more likely to miss the wind with an earlier start.

Depends...
We entered #23 and we were there at the crack of dawn. So was every other group that had a permit! LOL
We ended up #4 in line to go out.

Well we ended up having a nice breakfast at Smitty's and made it to the entry at about 9:00 or so. There was one group heading out and one coming in.

Traffic on the lake wasn't bad at all on Thursday. We got a nice campsite on the east side of the lake and really enjoyed it.

Thanks for all the feedback here!

Glad it worked out so well. I worried about the same thing on Lake One this July. But I also realized that with two small kids along, I had limited control over the exact time we would leave. As it happened, we were on the water about 8:30 or 9 with a couple of other groups around and had no trouble finding a great campsite.