Heading out to WC in August with my son. He'll be using a single person tent and I'd like to use my hammock. We'll be doing the Leano, Paul, Mexican Hat lake areas. Are these areas suitable for hammocking? I'd bring a two-person tent but my snoring seems to even annoy the bears now ;)

The only hammocking concern there is the ability to hang in a burn zone, which you pass through en route to Mexican Hat from Leano (I believe it was a 2016 burn).

I think the burn zone includes part of East Lunch Lake, Lunch Lake, Jake Lake and part of Paull as well.

Here's what I have for the burns

Everywhere you go in WCPP is a burn area, just that some are older than others. Unlike the BWCA or Q, there are not a lot of big old trees. Some places are they big enough to hang but it could make finding a suitable campsite difficult, especially in the recent burn areas.


Below is an example of a campsite you may encounter. You could probably make something work here but as you can see, even without the recent burn there are not lots of big trees to work with and what you have is not anchored to much soil.

I think I'll ditch the hammock (i'll use it for algonquin/temagami) and use my 2 person tent for myself.

Can't wait to get up there!

I only have one WCPP under my belt but I recommend bringing some extra cordage to use as tie-downs for your tent. Driving stakes was not possible in every site we were on so we had to tie the tent to rocks and roots.

Luckily there were plenty these rocks lying around from those who camped before us. I happened to have plenty of short lengths of cordage with me so it was not a big deal.

Just to be clear - I had no trouble hanging a hammock in WCPP (but I was not in areas that had burned recently).

I second what hobbydog mentioned! He nailed it down!

Last summer during a longer solo trip I spent two nights on Mexican Hat Lake. Came in from the West and left to the North. That's why I have no idea how the fire(s) affected the area to the South of Mexican Hat Lake.

I'm pretty sure that you could rig up a hammock at the 'beach' campsite I used. It's on the North arm where it gets narrow. There the jackpines are dying but still standing strong (see picture).

I'd suggest that you take the hammock for you and a two man tent (and earplugs) for your son as a 'backup' just in case you can't rig the hammock.



p.s. I'm pretty sure snoring keeps the bears at bay, all my bear encounters happened during daytime...........