Last summer my son and I found these old rock stools along the western shore of McIntyre Lake on what may have been a campsite decades ago. There was no evidence of use for many, many years.



A quarter mile to the south was another site with a fantastic rock fireplace w/built-in wood cache (still had some wood in it)--all grown over with juniper. A stone bench with backrest stood in front of it. Here are a couple of before and after photos of the second site. We decided to brush out and use the old fireplace, and camp on the site, even though the only tent options were on exposed bedrock or a brushy sponge of wet moss.

Looking at how many lichens covered the furniture, and the lack of cuttings, I am speculating that this site was mostly used by fly-in fishermen on day trips out of Ely back in the 1940s.
Certainly, these sites have seen very little use in the past half century, but a HUGE amount of effort was put into building these rock structures.

Any thoughts?

Now that is cool stuff! Was it near campsite LH or LS? I imagine having other nice camps in the area just leads people to those and the one you found just isn't looked at or notice. Several nice camps on McIntyre and they are pretty obvious from the water, so folks probably just head straight for them.

It is site LS. I think the lack of decent or comfortable tent pads really limits who would camp there--especially since there are a couple of great sites on the island to the northeast.

My big question is why anyone would put that much effort into stone furniture.

A party of rookies portaged them in back in the 60's. Not sure why they left them. Probably had not heard of LNT. ;)

I had lunch on the more southern spot years ago. It was cool but I would agree it was not much of a campsite at all due to the lack of tent pads. I always meant to stop there again and never have. Perhaps I will this year, thanks for the reminder!

Sounds like a hammock site.

Same site in 2011?

Boji,

OT, but what are the pieces of noodles on the canoe for?

Looks like a good shore lunch spot.

quote linkster: "Boji,


OT, but what are the pieces of noodles on the canoe for?


Looks like a good shore lunch spot."

I think those go with his inflatable pool toys.....

quote bojibob: " Same site in 2011?



"

Doesn't appear to be the same objects.. Similar area though?

quote linkster: "OT, but what are the pieces of noodles on the canoe for?"

They do a decent job of cushioning one's knees/lower legs while paddling. One of our guys did this last year and he said it was well worth doing again.

quote schweady: "

quote linkster: "OT, but what are the pieces of noodles on the canoe for?"

They do a decent job of cushioning one's knees/lower legs while paddling. One of our guys did this last year and he said it was well worth doing again.
"

and if you would flip the canoe won't have as much suction and fliping it back would be easier.....Sounds good as I type it-:-)

It was site LS.... I think maybe they removed a few slabs from the pit and made some seats... but it also could have been aliens.... or bigboot

I think I like the noodle idea. Looks like they were duct taped on?

My guess is this was a luxury shore lunch set-up--we couldn't find any decent tent pads. There's a well-known trout reef off the campsite that's been pretty much fished out. The stones in the bench have to weigh 500 lbs each--Boy Scouts are the only answer, my guess is it was built in the 1960's.

quote linkster: "Boji,


OT, but what are the pieces of noodles on the canoe for?


Looks like a good shore lunch spot."

I use a similar set up, but the noodles are just in front of my seat, and I use it to set my paddle down quietly while fishing. We do a ton of fly fishing, and so stealth is important. I can really tell the difference in our catch rate when I forget them at home or at the campsite.

quote linkster: "I think I like the noodle idea. Looks like they were duct taped on?"

Gorilla Tape