Doesn't anyone do a campsite walkdown before they leave anymore? We noticed lots of trash at various campsites we checked out. I couldn't believe it. And at our campsite was a huge pile of walleye/guts and all right where the perfect tent pad would have been.

Manners people!

Three of the four sites we were on/looked at had trash.

Of two on Agnes one had so much food on the ground and water we just left never stayed. The other on Agnes where we ended up staying I walked around for what seemed like hours picking up trash.

The site on Iron we picked up a fair amount of trash.

We always do a walkdown before leaving and sadly upon arrival too.

Absolutely! Go so far as “sweeping” the site with a dead branch to not leave any trace of our footprints. Sadly I seem to spend more time picking up trash when I first get to a new campsite then when I’m leaving one.

walllee: "Absolutely! Go so far as “sweeping” the site with a dead branch to not leave any trace of our footprints. "

Nice! I usually kick like a cat where we sawed so our shavings aren't all piled up. I just couldn't believe it. Tent debris, fish guts, cig butts, water flavouring packets, etc.

I mean, if you accidentally leave something of value, cool, maybe... but trash? Come on!

I sure do. It's my biggest pet peeve a clean camp. I carry out way more trash than I bring in each trip. I think tin foil users are the some of the laziest people as it's in every fire grate. Or maybe the one lazy foiler is always one camp ahead of me.

Out of curiosity lindsey were you in the ely area

I always do a walk around camp when I arrive to pick up trash. If the amount of trash is beyond a gallon Ziplock it will have to stay because I don't bring anything bigger for my trash. When I leave I do another walk around to make sure I haven't left gear or trash.

yes, it is the courteous thing to do.

Yes always. I even pick up trash on portage landings usually have a pocket full of package "corners", cordage and fishing line. I find it annoying but also my duty to leave it better than how I found it!!

MN_Lindsey: "

walllee: "Absolutely! Go so far as “sweeping” the site with a dead branch to not leave any trace of our footprints. "

Nice! I usually kick like a cat where we sawed so our shavings aren't all piled up. I just couldn't believe it. Tent debris, fish guts, cig butts, water flavouring packets, etc.

I mean, if you accidentally leave something of value, cool, maybe... but trash? Come on!
"

Haha Lindsey, I thought maybe you were hiding the evidence you used a chainsaw. Haha

I’m greatful for people like you who care about this great place. It’s amazing how people differ in their thought process on this. Almost everyone I’ve traveled with does a good walk through before leaving. It’s amazing what we find we might forget otherwise. It’s kinda humbling when a canoe partner comes out of the campsite holding something asking if you were leaving this for someone. Haha. Good reminder. We just have to be careful not to think we’re better than anyone because we do care. It’s just something we do. Some people are just that ignorant.

burrow1: "Yes always. I even pick up trash on portage landings usually have a pocket full of package "corners", cordage and fishing line. I find it annoying but also my duty to leave it better than how I found it!! "

+1

Yes, always. Like many others have said, we do a walk-through when we get to a site before we set up, then again after we tear down before we leave. We have found many wrappers, plastics, and things people have tried to burn instead of packing out - it can be frustrating. We also pick up anything we might see at the portage heads, usually fishing line, once ended up finding a bungee cord that came in handy later on.

Last year we pulled up to a campsite in Tiger Bay, just to check it out for future reference, and it was terrible. We found a cardboard box in the firegrate that was filled with leftover rice packets, shore lunch seasoning, plastic bags, pancake mix, rope, and an old pair of socks. Even more, they cut down a live red pine (~6" diameter) on the site and used for firewood, we saw the stump and shavings around it, and there were a half dozen or more logs still stacked up by the firegrate.

walllee: "Absolutely! Go so far as “sweeping” the site with a dead branch to not leave any trace of our footprints. Sadly I seem to spend more time picking up trash when I first get to a new campsite then when I’m leaving one."

I thought I was the last dinosaur when it come to "sweeping" the campsite!

My nephew and I were on Meeds Lake in May. We wanted to stay on the eastern island site because everyone says it's the best on the lake, but it was occupied. The people staying on the site were very loud and could be heard from our site every night.

When they left, I wanted to check out the site. When we landed, there were fish guts in the water. On the site itself, they had built a wind block around the fire grate with green branches and rope. They piled cut firewood on top of the grate and poured bacon or fish grease all over it. Also there was trash around the site.

I picked up trash and told my nephew we would come back the next day to dismantle the wind block. Before we could make it back, another group occupied the site. I spoke with them the next day and they thought the wind block was great. I told them them rules about cutting green branches and leave no trace and hoped they would take it down. Not sure if they did as we left that day.

Still see way too much sawing down of green life in the camp as well. Reflecting on four decades of paddling up there, I feel there is overall less, not more. Thankfully.

Less overt litter (cans, foil, fish guts, cig butts - seriously how does a person smoke and portage??? I'm in awe, less toilet paper and less tackle). But yeah, it's such a buzz kill seeing and cleaning up the trash. Years ago, my friend had a job in the Bob Marshall wilderness on horseback and pack mule following the trails of backcountry hikers to erase their trace. High adventure tales she has.

ozarkpaddler: "

walllee: "Absolutely! Go so far as “sweeping” the site with a dead branch to not leave any trace of our footprints. Sadly I seem to spend more time picking up trash when I first get to a new campsite then when I’m leaving one."

I thought I was the last dinosaur when it came to "sweeping" the campsite!"

Going to have to adopt this habit, thanks!

I probably have far less nights and less campsites visited up there than most people commenting, but just wanted to note that I've almost never found anything of any significance when checking out a site, or occupying one. A twist tie here, some foil in the fire there, and the occasional cigarette butt - that's about all I've ever come across. Seems to me that most people do a good job of respecting campsites (with obvious exceptions).

Many years ago when I worked summers at a Scout camp, one of my responsibilities was inspecting a campsite before signing out a troop and letting them go home. I learned two things doing this; one is that I have an eagle's eye for spotting every little twist tie, bottle cap, I burned match, or bit or string. Sadly I also learned that many people, even when they are trying, simply don't have the ability to see it. It's always amazed me and confused me both.

I carry a heavy duty zip lock in my left cargo pocket specifically for bits of trash dropped by others in camp or on portages.

I forgot to mention that while staying on our site on Meeds I was surprised how many foam earplugs I picked up. They were around every tent pad site. They looked to be be of different ages so not all from same person/group.I didn’t realize how many people use them.

We've had several really garbage-filled sites that needed cleaning up. Biggest pet peeve is fishing line everywhere and attempts to burn food packaging that is plastic or foil based.

And we've had sites that are pristine and you can only tell that people have been there because the path to the latrine is well-worn and the fire pit has been used regularly.

Somewhere in between - closer to the pristine state - has been the norm for us.

The closer to an entry point we are, the more likely it is that a site will have garbage. We usually travel in several lakes to set up a base camp so maybe that's why we see less garbage.

Worse ever was on Ham Lake - so not a BW lake but still forest service campsite - wet bathing suit, garden shovel, broken gear and various pieces of garbage strewn about. We packed it all up and packed it out. It was our last night so we didn't have far to bring it out but it wasn't fun to be cleaning up camp as a thunderstorm was heading our way.

We always clean up and do several final sweeps through camp. When our daughter was younger she lost her bright orange whistle somewhere in camp and we never found it. We were back through Snipe lake again twice in following years and I looked for it. I still feel a little guilty that we left a trace a decade ago.

Always do this especially upon arrival since I have found a lot of mostly low value items. I have quite a large collection of tent stakes and have many pieces of cordage found a campsites. We always pickup and remove any litter no matter what or how much.

AmarilloJim: "

burrow1: "Yes always. I even pick up trash on portage landings usually have a pocket full of package "corners", cordage and fishing line. I find it annoying but also my duty to leave it better than how I found it!! "

+1"

+2

In sweeping campsites I find mostly trash, but I also found my currently used camp dish towel and the really nice cordage that I used to wrap these axes last weekend.
Lemonade out of lemons I say......

like in the video do a walkaround and pick up the tiniest piece of foil etc.

Yes, but what works best is just to pack it up as I go and stay organized. I usually don't find many really trashy campsites - the occasional small odds&ends, a little aluminum foil, etc. The worst is cutting live vegetation - can't fix that. A lot of overused sites.

moray: "My nephew and I were on Meeds Lake in May. We wanted to stay on the eastern island site because everyone says it's the best on the lake, but it was occupied. The people staying on the site were very loud and could be heard from our site every night.


"

Wow! I have found a few pieces of tinfoil, but that blows me away. Have not been impressed with Superior National Forrest campsites, but almost all the BWCA sites I have stayed at have been pretty clean. They either didn't give a damn or were really ignorant to cut live branches like that.

"Always leave a campsite cleaner than when you found it."

MN_Lindsey: "Doesn't anyone do a campsite walkdown before they leave anymore? We noticed lots of trash at various campsites we checked out. I couldn't believe it. And at our campsite was a huge pile of walleye/guts and all right where the perfect tent pad would have been.

Manners people!"

It’s hard to fix stupid and even harder to fix inconsiderate !

AmarilloJim: "

burrow1: "Yes always. I even pick up trash on portage landings usually have a pocket full of package "corners", cordage and fishing line. I find it annoying but also my duty to leave it better than how I found it!! "

+1"

+2 My PFD has a big side pocket on it and I find myself constantly stuffing small pieces of trash in it and depositing in our trash bag whenever I have a chance.

The cutting of green trees at the campsites drives me crazy! I cannot believe what some people think will burn in a fire.

We walk through a site before setting up, and have bypassed a couple sites because of issues (like fish guts in the woods) found during our 'inspection'. We walk through before leaving both to pick up any trash we might have missed upon arrival and to ensure we're not leaving something. We have missed the occasional problem in our arrival 'inspection'--a turd under a rock near an otherwise perfect tent site comes to mind!

TZ

I just had my trip 2 weeks ago and I saw a lot of cut green branches at our site. I was a little frustrated with it until I found more green branches that were not cut, just broken. I'm thinking that in this case it was storm damage that someone used for firewood and to clean up the site a bit. The green pine needles I saw were probably just the scrap that was tossed back into the woods since it was too small to split and dry in front of the fire.

If a branch or a tree is entirely broken off and on the ground, it might look bad to be cutting it up and processing it when it is still green, but it is dead and down. A tree can not be alive without any roots.

The trash part is more frustrating though. I see crap in the ashes all the time. One question I would ask is how people feel about burning a cigar butt. A cigar butt, without the label on it, is just tobacco leaves, so if it is broken up and tossed in the fire, is that ok? How about if it was scattered in the woods? I have heard the argument that it is "just leaves" many times and wondered if others felt the same.

Always . As others have said both on arrival and before we leave. My guess is that unfortunately the folks reading this message on this forum are not the offenders leaving trash behind.

Now that didn't seem to help me not lose my Leatherman Wave at our campsite on Gabbro this past May. To be fair i don't know where i lost it just that i had it at camp packing up and i didn't have it when i got to the car. Hopefully that one is a positive find for someone and i did actually drop it somewhere at the last campsite where it could be found and used before it rusted away .

x2jmorris: "Out of curiosity lindsey were you in the ely area "

Indeed.

moray: "My nephew and I were on Meeds Lake in May. We wanted to stay on the eastern island site because everyone says it's the best on the lake, but it was occupied. The people staying on the site were very loud and could be heard from our site every night.

When they left, I wanted to check out the site. When we landed, there were fish guts in the water. On the site itself, they had built a wind block around the fire grate with green branches and rope. They piled cut firewood on top of the grate and poured bacon or fish grease all over it. Also there was trash around the site.

I picked up trash and told my nephew we would come back the next day to dismantle the wind block. Before we could make it back, another group occupied the site. I spoke with them the next day and they thought the wind block was great. I told them them rules about cutting green branches and leave no trace and hoped they would take it down. Not sure if they did as we left that day.
"

a total disregard for the rules. happens everywhere.

It's why I usually travel long days the first 2 of a trip. The back country sees far less D-bags.

TrailZen: " We have missed the occasional problem in our arrival 'inspection'--a turd under a rock near an otherwise perfect tent site comes to mind!
TZ"

I found two of these surprises within 15-20 feet of the fire ring on Sunday Lake in Quetico. They were at the edge of the clearing and not in the woods. It's like "really??"

TomT: "

TrailZen: " We have missed the occasional problem in our arrival 'inspection'--a turd under a rock near an otherwise perfect tent site comes to mind!
TZ"

I found two of these surprises within 15-20 feet of the fire ring on Sunday Lake in Quetico. They were at the edge of the clearing and not in the woods. It's like "really??"


"

Same, only it was dog feces. Right by tent pad and also in the path to the latrine. Several piles. It wasn't bear or wolf scat; they don't eat diets made by extrusion.

jillpine: "

TomT: "

TrailZen: " We have missed the occasional problem in our arrival 'inspection'--a turd under a rock near an otherwise perfect tent site comes to mind!
TZ"

I found two of these surprises within 15-20 feet of the fire ring on Sunday Lake in Quetico. They were at the edge of the clearing and not in the woods. It's like "really??"



"

Same, only it was dog feces. Right by tent pad and also in the path to the latrine. Several piles. It wasn't bear or wolf scat; they don't eat diets made by extrusion. "

Gross! I thought the fish carcass was bad enough on the tent pad. How rude.

Again, I understand forgotten items, but actual trash or destruction like Moray is just nuts. Our site also had a large B carved into a tree, and someone signed their names below it.

Always do a look around when I get to a site. Didn't find anything a S. Hegman #1 when I was there (big thanks to previous occupants) . And I always police the area before I leave, wherever I am. I notice a lot of people taking youngsters along (as did I) and doing this, I feel, is a very important lesson for them. Along with leaving the same amount of kindling and firewood, or more, that you found at the site.

It's unfortunate, but the people that litter are not the ones that read this board. Inconsideration in the BWCAW is just symptomatic of an overall societal problem. Many people just don't see nor care about anything outside their own personal cocoon of convenience. Cigarette butts anywhere, running red lights, park wherever you must to save seven steps... it's a sad erosion of civility.

In May, I actually asked a party to quiet down as they passed our campsite. These guys: Everything had to be communicated, right now, yelling over the wind.

We always walk the campsite for garbage and to insure we leave nothing behind.

Mike

Moray,

We had to clean up the same east island site on Meeds July 2018. Previous “campers” left tons of fireworks trash, rope, fishing line/lures, carabiners, etc. Checked out the latrine and they dumped a LARGE ziplock bag of trash inside (didn’t fish that one out, but notified our outfitter and FS). Carried their trash around the rest of the trip.

All other sites we’ve stayed at had just bits of trash that we could easily pick up and carry out. Nothing remotely close to the Meeds site.

Jonesy: "Moray,


We had to clean up the same east island site on Meeds July 2018. Previous “campers” left tons of fireworks trash, rope, fishing line/lures, carabiners, etc. Checked out the latrine and they dumped a LARGE ziplock bag of trash inside (didn’t fish that one out, but notified our outfitter and FS). Carried their trash around the rest of the trip.


All other sites we’ve stayed at had just bits of trash that we could easily pick up and carry out. Nothing remotely close to the Meeds site. "

I guess the sites that are rated the highest on most lakes will receive the most pressure and there for have higher chances for being abused. Being close to an entry point probably doesn’t help.