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Boundary Waters Quetico Forum :: Trip Planning Forum :: Best time to make camp?
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| Author | Message Text | ||
| AlexanderSupertramp |
In the Fall its 1-2pm usually, short days on the water and plenty of time to collect firewood, cook, and eat. I always feel bad for those groups passing by camp at 7-8pm knowing full well that the lake is already full and that I should holler something out to them, they just pushed it too far that day. But hey, if you're a marathon paddler and like the risk, more power to ya! |
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| sns |
Banksiana: "I'm a late in the day camper. 3:00 at the earliest often after five; but I travel routes where there is little competition for sites." On our 9-day trip last month we started paddling at 2:05 - 2:15pm three times...getting to camp between 7:30 and 9. Once, had dinner and then kept traveling. But like Banksiana, would not do that in a well-traveled area. |
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| ockycamper |
Our entertainment is waving at all the ones that have to get in the miles as they paddle by! |
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| Jaywalker |
You do have to be careful in that cross-cross zone where you have people who starter late coming in, people staging to head out, and people with coolers sitting there all week. All that said, it’s all really random. I’ve paddled to remote interior places and found it crowded, and I’ve found open sites later in the day on popular destination lakes. |
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| Cricket67 |
LaVirginienne: "What I’m saying is, your planned SECOND TO LAST night is the one with real strategic importance. Set yourself up at that camp so the distance and portages on your last wilderness day are not huge or great in difficulty. A strategy that also favors bad turns in the weather…." Very much agree with this. I like to start and end fairly early most days. In general, the wind usually picks up as the day goes by. Feels great to be all set up and enjoying lunch enjoying a 'nice breeze' instead of battling whitecaps in the afternoon. Obviously lots of factors, but 1:00 like others have said is a great time to but setting up camp. |
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| JD |
If you wanted to thread the needle, best time to be pulling up to a site would be around 11am. The pokey groups have almost certainly left by then, and the early groups definitely have. But it's not so late that someone has already likely swooped in, unless it's close to an entry point. |
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| A1t2o |
If you are in a high traffic area where it can be tough to get a site, you might want to start looking pretty early. If your goal is to push through crowded areas to get to a remote area, late afternoon/early evening might be best. Are you planning on going back out to fish? If so, you might want to setup camp early enough to have a few hours before dinner to catch something to eat. You'll have to make a judgement call depending on where you are camping and what your other plans are. |
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| geotramper |
What time do you aim to make it to the lake/campsite you intend to camp at? Do you think there is a "best" time that threads the needle between other groups breaking camp and making camp? |
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| Michwall2 |
If I know that I will be heading toward or passing near an entry point, I want to leave enough time either to move past far enough to thin out the crowds or I want to leave enough time to end the trip early if there are no campsites available as I head toward my exit. Finding an empty campsite near an entry then becomes a wonderful accident. It also depends upon who is traveling with me. Death marches are not my idea of a good time. I want to leave enough time to be flexible in my campsite choices. Long days tend to lead to low blood sugar (the note about lunches above rings true) and dehydration. Low blood sugar leads to grouchy partners and poor mental choices. Dehydration leads to poor mental choices and physical mistakes. None of this is good that far from help. |
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| HowardSprague |
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| LindenTree |
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| Kendis |
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| scottiebaldwin |
Longer and better answer; when someone asks me the best time to make camp, I would have probably a half dozen questions for them before I can answer. It’s totally subjective and depends on what your needs and desires happen to be. So let’s just go with the short answer... 1:00 PM. :-) |
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| moray |
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| billconner |
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| LaVirginienne |
The way my group has dealt with this since those problems we had is to limit the number of planned portages on the last planned full wilderness day (the day before takeout), so that we still have energy to paddle and portage out a day early if we need to, or find another lake if the weather is gorgeous and we really want to camp that last night. What I’m saying is, your planned SECOND TO LAST night is the one with real strategic importance. Set yourself up at that camp so the distance and portages on your last wilderness day are not huge or great in difficulty. A strategy that also favors bad turns in the weather… This gives you three enjoyable options on the last day before takeout: easy day so you reach desired lake/camp early and relax on your last night; or you’re still in range to paddle out a day early before dark, which means you can handle the added distance and portages once you make that decision; or you can make it a semi-hard day to backtrack or find an out of the way site that night. |
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| geotramper |
1) 6-8 hours of travel to interior lake with 2 campsites, mid-July. 2) Day before exit, travel to lake within striking distance of exit point, plan to camp on popular lake with numerous campsites, mid-July. I'm not planning a trip that involves either of these. But both are situations I have run into before where open campsites were difficult to locate or unavailable. |
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| egknuti |
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| A1t2o |
geotramper: "1) 6-8 hours of travel to interior lake with 2 campsites, mid-July. " Depending on how remote this location is, it probably doesn't make a difference here. If you are going to a dead end lake that people basecamp at, the likelihood of someone leaving the same day that more than one group comes looking for a site is pretty slim. People on those lakes usually stay for days or a week. If it was a popular lake along one or more routes, then that is a little different. geotramper: "2) Day before exit, travel to lake within striking distance of exit point, plan to camp on popular lake with numerous campsites, mid-July." This is a situation where you want to be be looking for a site early afternoon or even late morning. A popular lake near an entry point is tough. Start looking very early and be prepared to continue to the next lake. |
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| Banksiana |
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