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Author	Message Text
mastertangler	09/23/2017 12:18PM   Burning TP in cat hole would be a super big no-no IMHO. Plain and simple, don't do it and lets not promote it. I got reamed a new one for making a couple hundred yard trail amongst what is part of a forest which encircles the planet. You would think I started a fire in a cat hole and it consumed thousands of acres after I walked away thinking it was out. Take your TP and burn it in a fire pit, which is the only place one ought to be starting fires thank you very much.
OldFingers57	09/23/2017 04:58PM   This year we found 4 tent stakes, two short pieces about 6-8 inches of paracord, a tent guyline, the rubber handle off a large vinyl dry pack, and a couple of line tighteners and a lexan knife.
Freeleo1	09/22/2017 12:59PM   We had a nightly ritual of burning the tp. we took 9 or 10 brown paper lunch sacks to put used tp in and put it in a gallon ziplock with the tp and some bug spray. We only dug 1 hole for multiple uses and "flushed" with the loose soil. We might have had individual bags if we had unrelated people with us just for the ick factor I guess. It wasn't too bad, but it took some work to get the fire going in the rain a couple of times. My husband used his genius invention to get the fire going. So he was happy to have the challenge. We also found a lot of foil in the fire pit. I dug down and pulled out several layers then gave up. Flappy its a flyswatter with a baggie on it. He wants to patent it.
flopnfolds	09/21/2017 09:34PM   We didn't find as much as you, but we did find a shoe. So if anybody is looking for a lost shoe lost right before the portage in the mck from the unnamed lake to the unnamed lake before Side. I had it, although it may have been displaced between here and the outfitter. Oh, and I agree, burn your tp.
Pinetree	01/27/2018 08:06PM   Savage Voyageur: "tuscarorasurvivor: "We don’t even bring TP with us. As a junior in HS, my son attended for one semester an experiential boarding school in Colorado in which they took 3 one week wilderness trips. Strict LNT. Taught them to use pine cones, sticks, stones, dry leaves, etc. Skills. If a bunch of 17 yo kids can do it, we adults can too." If you “Properly” bury your toilet paper it would not be a problem. Most just cover it with leaves or did a shallow hole. If you burn your paper in the fire grate it also is gone. I like the brown paper bag trick. But there is no way I’m not bringing a roll of TP! " I agree and if we don't do a better job by everybody who knows what kind of restrictions will come down. There is many ways to bury your toilet paper that it will never surface.
joewildlife	09/21/2017 08:13PM   My daughter and I just got back from a 9 day loop in the Man Chain, Falls Chain, McEwen, and Louisa. I'm pleased to say, we found very little trash overall. BUT the amount of TP laying around was disgusting. For the love of God, WHY can't people just take a lighter with them when doing their business and burn it up in the hole? jheez. We even found a whole, wet roll. I wasn't about to pack it out, so I left it in the firepit. Sorry to have to do that. We always make a game of finding little "treasures" left behind. We stop at a lot of campsites just to take a look. Some is trash. Some was probably unintentional. I'll take the pliers, the tent stakes, and a couple little items. The lures--all had barbed hooks. A broken off piece of coffee cup handle, was found in a foot of water off a tiny island that had a campsite on it years ago... Every firepit had tinfoil in it. I wish the Quetico rangers would stress to folks to burn TP and not put foil in the firepits. It's embarrassing to think that most of the slobs are probably Americans trashing this Ontario gem. Joe
Eyedocron	09/23/2017 06:11PM   Wow, OldFingers. Sounds like you found all the stuff we lost. Did you find anything on a little rock island in a lagoon?
OldFingers57	09/24/2017 11:41AM   quote Eyedocron: "Wow, OldFingers. Sounds like you found all the stuff we lost. Did you find anything on a little rock island in a lagoon?" Why yes we did. We especially took care of that. It helped out on some cold evenings. Thank you very much.
Savage Voyageur	01/21/2018 09:50AM   tuscarorasurvivor: "We don’t even bring TP with us. As a junior in HS, my son attended for one semester an experiential boarding school in Colorado in which they took 3 one week wilderness trips. Strict LNT. Taught them to use pine cones, sticks, stones, dry leaves, etc. Skills. If a bunch of 17 yo kids can do it, we adults can too." If you “Properly” bury your toilet paper it would not be a problem. Most just cover it with leaves or did a shallow hole. If you burn your paper in the fire grate it also is gone. I like the brown paper bag trick. But there is no way I’m not bringing a roll of TP!
Mad_Angler	02/06/2018 12:42PM   I have to admit... The toilet issue is the main thing that I don't like about the Q. I much prefer the commodes of the BW. For some reason, it creeps me out knowing that is a random field of poop hiding in the leaves behind every campsite.
TomT	02/06/2018 04:16PM   Mad_Angler: "I have to admit... The toilet issue is the main thing that I don't like about the Q. I much prefer the commodes of the BW. For some reason, it creeps me out knowing that is a random field of poop hiding in the leaves behind every campsite." The worst is digging your own hole and hitting decomposed TP.
tuscarorasurvivor	01/14/2018 10:28PM   mutz: "tuscarorasurvivor: "We don’t even bring TP with us. As a junior in HS, my son attended for one semester an experiential boarding school in Colorado in which they took 3 one week wilderness trips. Strict LNT. Taught them to use pine cones, sticks, stones, dry leaves, etc. Skills. If a bunch of 17 yo kids can do it, we adults can too." Can’t even understand the reasoning behind (no pun intended) this. It can’t be the weight of a roll of tp that would justify placing a pine cone or stick where the tp will be used. " Obviously it’s not the weight. It’s the mess that’s left behind. Not much is more disgusting than to walk around a camp site and find a bunch of used TP laying around. Bad LNT. If you want to burn it or carry it out, that’s fine - good LNT - but a lot of people don’t do that. Pine cones and sticks buried in a shallow hole. Good LNT. I admit I was skeptical when my son described it to me, and I brought TP along as “plan b” on our first trip to Q, but I t’s really not as bad or hard as it sounds. Plus the pack is a little lighter :)
HighnDry	02/07/2018 06:20PM   TomT: "Mad_Angler: "I have to admit... The toilet issue is the main thing that I don't like about the Q. I much prefer the commodes of the BW. For some reason, it creeps me out knowing that is a random field of poop hiding in the leaves behind every campsite." The worst is digging your own hole and hitting decomposed TP. " Yes, or worse!
Banksiana	02/08/2018 12:28AM   Savage Voyageur: "If you “Properly” bury your toilet paper it would not be a problem. Most just cover it with leaves or did a shallow hole. If you burn your paper in the fire grate it also is gone. I like the brown paper bag trick. But there is no way I’m not bringing a roll of TP! " It's not just a matter of proper burial. There are a number of critters that will disinter your leavings, take the "good stuff" and leave the TP behind and exposed. Quetico Park policy is that TP be burned or packed out. Their park, their rules; best to show some respect and consideration and follow the regulations. What can't comprehend is why so many campers fail to put any distance between their camp and their toilet. Why not put a couple of hundred yards between your tent site and your squat site?
mutz	12/23/2017 12:14PM   tuscarorasurvivor: "We don’t even bring TP with us. As a junior in HS, my son attended for one semester an experiential boarding school in Colorado in which they took 3 one week wilderness trips. Strict LNT. Taught them to use pine cones, sticks, stones, dry leaves, etc. Skills. If a bunch of 17 yo kids can do it, we adults can too." Can’t even understand the reasoning behind (no pun intended) this. It can’t be the weight of a roll of tp that would justify placing a pine cone or stick where the tp will be used.
tuscarorasurvivor	12/22/2017 09:46PM   We don’t even bring TP with us. As a junior in HS, my son attended for one semester an experiential boarding school in Colorado in which they took 3 one week wilderness trips. Strict LNT. Taught them to use pine cones, sticks, stones, dry leaves, etc. Skills. If a bunch of 17 yo kids can do it, we adults can too.
gopher2307	02/11/2018 05:15PM   I used to do the paper bag thing too, but felt like it got kind of juvenile. I video'd one of the times: One of those flaming bags, again
jjaviervi	10/03/2017 01:22PM   We just came from a 15 day quetico from bottle portage to Nym. It was mostly clean with the usual trash in the firepit. The only exception was the Argo campsite, it was somehow trashed. Now I wish I had taken a picture but I resisted to take a picture of such disgrace at the moment. The campsite "toilets" looked like a toilet paper war zone. Easily 40+ bunches of toilet paper on the ground and about 5 huge piles of feces just laying there. Trash here and there on the campsite. Never seen such a thing, maybe its the proximity to the BWCA. Also someone cut branches of live trees and started to burn them on the firepit, and lures everywhere. On the way there on the curtain falls portage on the US side of iron lake I spotted from afar a cooler and other heavy things left behind by someone.
QueticoMike	10/03/2017 02:29PM   I found a nice knife made by Mtech. If you add an A you have my name M. TeAch. It was just sitting on top of a ledge of rock next camp.
AmarilloJim	10/03/2017 07:34AM   Just got back from a week in the Q and I think the campsites are much cleaner than they were in the 70's and 80's. That being said, I still find a few items on trips.
Johnh	09/26/2017 03:52PM   To each his own but......I came to the conclusion a few years ago that toilet paper is trash. You would not leave trash in the forest so you should not leave toilet paper. I carry a plastic bag, put it in the bag and burn it next time I have a fire or throw it out when I get to a trash can. Bury your waste, take your toilet paper with you and leave your campsite cleaner than you found it.
GreyOwl	09/25/2017 08:18AM   I'll offer a different perspective : I just returned from a two week trip up the Man Chain, Falls Chain, a lay over at a very popular 5 star campsite on Kawnipi and then a return down Agnes to PP. I was amazed at how clean the campsites were especially the TP issue. In all that time I only encountered maybe a couple poorly buried "white tulips" behind the sites. Ten years ago (the last time I was in Quetico) the area behind campsites were a mine field, not so this year. Likewise out of all my camp sites I only saw two pieces of foil about half the size of a dime in one fire pit. I only found one tent stake and it is now in my stake bag. I did find two compasses that I will be listing on the lost and found thread as soon as I get a photo of them but they were found on portages. In short I found Quetico to be far cleaner than it used to be a decade ago.
OldFingers57	09/25/2017 09:38AM   We didn't find too many toilet paper flowers this year either. We found the usual amount of foil in the fire pits and then a lot of twist ties and torn off wrapper stubs.
joewildlife	09/24/2017 12:15PM   Yeah, I left something similar around Darky and Brent area. Still there. Needs to be found.