I'm going to the BW soon so I joined this site for research and preparation. I have become a little inquisitive about several comments I have read and that is worrying me about getting a campsite that is occupied and rushing to another and another. I am thinking, with over a million acres of BW...who cares? I mean, why not pick a location, pull over, and set-up? Or is it mandatory that we camp ONLY at designated spots?

Yes, it is mandatory to camp at one of the designated campsites with a latrine and fire grate.

It is mandatory that you camp ONLY at the designated campsites in the BWCA. If you plan ahead and get an early start, you should have no problem finding a site.

Yeah you have to camp at a designated site. Finding a campsite can be a nightmare but from my experience you can usually find one fairly easy. What dates and area are you looking at? You can usually find dead end lakes off your route that most people seem to avoid.

From the last week of August on, you won't have any trouble finding a campsite, with the exception of maybe Labor Day weekend.

Lots of the campsite claiming comments are from recent trips. The first three weeks of August are the most congested weeks of the season and can be slightly frustrating. If you are going then, plan ahead for campsite seeking.

You must camp at a designated site. When you sign your permit, you agree to those rules. If you are going the last week of August, sports have started, some schools or people are getting ready for school and that week slows down til the Labor Day weekend and tons of people squeeze in one last trip and usually base camp near entry point lakes. A couple more portages in and crowds thin out some. Tuesday after Labor day, crowds get very thin for rest of Fall season.

In Quetico, you can camp wherever you like. But it is much easier to use an established site. I did twenty Quetico trips before going to the BWCA.

Hmmm, we paddled the BW before it was labeled as the BW. Young we were. Very little planning. We just jumped in and hung on. Quite an adventure. Making mandatory campsites, in my opinion...remember this, slightly stains the adventure; nevertheless, it is what it is. Times are a changing. I still will enjoy the return. Maybe Quetico next year. Happy Trails!

In reality if you look at the shoreline as you paddle by there aren't that many areas suitable for camping that aren't at a designated campsite. There are of course some rock outcroppings where a makeshift came could be set up in a pinch but the vast majority of the shoreline would make makeshift camps uncomfortable at best and impossible at worst.

I've had some issues finding campsites before but its not as common as it may seem. Generally you only hear about peoples bad experiences finding campsites. You could find 100 stories of folks who couldn't find a campsite as easily as they'd have liked but you won't find any posts from the 1000 other groups that were able to find campsites without any difficulty because its just not note worthy. Of the 100 people that couldn't find a campsite I'm guessing only a small percentage of those actually weren't able to find a site at all and ended up leaving the BWCA early, camping at a portage, or doubling up with a welcoming group. The rest likely found a site it just might have been on one more lake further than they planned to go or required back tracking to a site they passed by earlier.

There are plenty of places you can go where you can camp wherever you want. Given the loads in the BW, getting people to camp in the same places keeps a lot more of the forest pristine. Also, the designated campsites keeps parties fairly far apart. In less restricted areas, I've wound up with people setting up camp right next door to us in the middle of the night. One summer we did both a backpacking trip in the Sierra and then a BW trip with friends who are very experienced campers. They didn't like the sound of the BW rules but after they experienced it they saw the wisdom and happily came back.

Your right Andym, control sites would assist in increasing the level of purity. As more and more came to the BW, more control had to be injected. Not complaining.

RLJ: " If you plan ahead and get an early start, you should have no problem finding a site."

My experience is limited to 9 trips and about 500 miles of paddling...
There have been situations where I did not get the campsite I wanted for sure.

But, I have wrestled with the question of "should I start early or late?"
If one is going for distance in any given day, starting early is important because, in my experience, wind kicks up in the early afternoon and it is always blowing against me (never understood this--no doubt Murphy is involved), so getting to the next campsite with minimal struggle against the wind is accomplished.

However, for short treks, there are two cases:
1) target campsite is occupied but occupant is preparing to leave
2) target campsite is empty but there is someone else in the BWCA who is gunning for it.

For Case 1, the occupant is also contemplating the identical problem--should they leave early or leave late. For Case 2, one is in a race with one or more campers with unknown proximity to the target campsite. The computation complexity of solving this problem (case 1 or 2) is large and the result of any analysis will be probabilities with error bars.

So, I conclude the following: if going a short distance, leave after the second cup of coffee and the gear is packed, and if going long distances, eat a cold breakfast and skip the coffee...uh...well...no...heat water and make at least one cup.

But, I am open to paddlesplaining because I enjoy tweaking my algorithms.

Over 50 trips and I've never NOT found a campsite. We don't usually have a goal when we set out for a day... we paddle until we're ready to find a site. We generally know when we're winding down for the day, and we start looking. By then we have a pretty good idea of how populated the area is, and if campsite availability may be a problem. Then we start looking. If we believe that finding a site won't be a problem, we look at a few and pick the one we want. If it's crowded, we usually take the first one open.

I agree with nofish: without substantial clearing, there aren't that may areas of shoreline in the BWCA that would be conducive for camping. Maybe laying out a sleeping bag in an emergency, but that's about it.

Mike

Here's my mathamathical assessment. I am entering the BW to escape from my everyday hustle and bustle. Racing to a campsite is not a variable in my equation. And you wouldn't catch me paddling around as light begins to depart and darkness is surfacing, wondering if the campsite ahead is available only to find it occupied. Nor will I invade anyone's space by setting up camp next to them or would I want a stranger to retreat next to me, unless it's an absolute emergency. Wont happen. Yes Worst case scenario.

I believe that camping being restricted to designated campsites was implemented in the late seventies.

Some people get hung up on getting a specific campsite and feel they need to "race" to get it. I don't care which I get because there is always a better site and there is always a worse site. As long as I can cook my food and lay down to sleep I am happy. Some of my favorite campsites have been the ones others don't like for one reason or another. I also usually pick entry points that others avoid so I have never had trouble finding a site if I stop between 2:30 and 4:30 in the afternoon.

Long day in with several portages behind me and leave a longish day out is my usual strategy. I don't use the busiest entry points, but I don't feel i have to use the most restricted ones either. Trying to find campsites close to an entry in Aug (or several other shorter holiday time periods) is just problematic. Avoid that and I have never had a problem.