Four of us are doing our WCPP maiden voyage next early June. I understand the trees are generally smaller and more sparse than we're used to in the BW and Q. Is it to the point that hammock camping, particularly with four involved, can be a problem? With rare exception, a tarp goes up at every site, using four to six trees. I presume that'll not be a problem.

I'm not an expert or camped as widely as others who frequent the park, however I can say that it can be hit or miss in terms of finding a site with tall enough/strong enough trees for hammocks or hanging food for that matter. It may also be at least somewhat route-dependent as well. If you are on Knox for example, there is a fantastic island site on the southern end, blanketed with pines and deciduous trees with a couple of good flat tent sites. The Gammon river route has sites but they are spread out and some of them would be challenging to get a hammock up either due to sparsity of suitable trees or the spacing between them. One would want a plan B to fall back on such as a tent or tarp/netting perhaps. Just my two cents.

See the comments from Jcavenagh and Sns re hammocks in this thread
I think that hanging hammocks will be very dependent on the route you choose. I've been to WCPP only once. The burned or recovering areas won't have trees to support hammocks or tarps. Other areas might be OK.

If you choose to use hammock for sleep, be prepared to sleep on the ground, too.
So bring a pad and ground cloth, at least.

Well, shoot - this is the second less-than-terrific response to WCPP questions our group's gotten. The first being the paucity of SMB in the place. As much as we're wanting to see someplace entirely new, and as much as we're looking forward to the fly-in and paddle out, we may need to punt and head back to Quetico. I can sleep on the ground and live w/o SMB myself, but others in the group probably less so.

I wouldn't give up just yet. Harlan at RLO knows the park as well as anyone (except for Claire!). Get in touch with him to talk campsites-with-hammock-trees and then adjust your route as needed to accommodate your sleeping preferences. He'll set you up with some good advice.

In my email to the group this morning, I mentioned a chat with Harlan before committing to de-committing. Of course, I think I know how that conversation would go if I were in his shoes :-))

If Claire's lurking around, perhaps she wouldn't mind weighing in!

Anytime you get up around 50* North you are going to run out of SMB and bigger trees.
That's just the way it is for now.
Things may be different in 100 years or so, but for now, in the immortal words of Favre, "It is what it is."

Parker

You should go to Musclow. Plenty of smallmouth although I did not get on bigger ones in August. The fishing is awesome however and the remoteness of the lake is superb. Naturally you should stay at camp Wolf Spider. The views off the front porch as well as stellar fishing right from camp, make it a superb place to camp. If the lake kicks up you have access to the river which also has nice scenery and solid fishing prospects. Pretty sure there would be good trees for hammocks but not being a hammock camper you would have to take my opinion with a grain of salt.

At Mastertangler@blogspot the trip report "Mighty Musclow" might be worth your perusal. Naturally you can email me for more info as I spent some 10 days there. Paddle out to Lund Lake can be done in three days.

For the most part WCPP has a pretty open understory meaning there may be huge areas near camp to select hammock trees.

ParkerMag: "In my email to the group this morning, I mentioned a chat with Harlan before committing to de-committing. Of course, I think I know how that conversation would go if I were in his shoes :-))


If Claire's lurking around, perhaps she wouldn't mind weighing in!"

Give the park office a call. They will be more than happy to talk routes and give suggestions.

I am an avid "hanger" and have traveled WCPP several times. Just like Quetico, some sites have multiple areas for hanging a hammock and some sites have only one spot suitable for a hammock. If you were planning to base camp then I would say you would likely find one campsite on your chosen lake suitable for 4 hammocks. Some of the larger lakes have 5 star campsites with large areas to spread out. If you get to some of the more remote lakes with just one campsite then sometimes there is barely space for one small tent and you'd likely have trouble hanging even two hammocks. If you plan to travel each day and arrive at the sole campsite on a remote lake and hope to find ideal spots for 4 hammocks with rain fly, then I would say you are asking too much. Most experienced hammock campers know how to get "creative" though. By creative I mean hanging a hammock at the water's edge. Sometimes you may need to set up your hammock away from camp a ways to find suitable trees. WCPP gets many more burns than Quetico and the BWCA. There are vast areas of areas with very few trees larger than your wrist because of recent burns. So it really depends on where you are traveling. If you posted your route and travel plans then I am certain youd get a more definitive answer regarding feasibility. I'd agree that Harlan at Red Lake Outfitters would be the one guy to point you in the direction of campsites with suitable trees for multiple hammocks in WCPP. Good luck. Looking forward to the trip report

I have hammock camped in WCPP and Opasquia. There are some times that trees are not able to support a hammock on their own. We camped the first night in Opasquia in a burn area. I hung my hammock between 2 burned trees. I put the tarp up first and has extra ridge line which went on to the base of other burned trees to support the hammock trees. Most night that14 day trip I spent with at least one end of the hammock attached to something that needed a guy line to hold it up. Learn to use your tarp lines to help support the hammock trees.