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Boundary Waters Quetico Forum :: Quetico Forum :: Please leave your saw at home
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| Author | Message Text | ||
| CanoeKev |
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| ericinely |
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| Savage Voyageur |
A while back there was a publication “that will remain nameless” that the publisher showed pictures where he cut fresh pine branches to use as a floor in a winter tent. I’m thinking that was the case that you saw. They wanted a soft floor under their tent. If anyone should have known better it should have been him. I was just hiking up in the “Lost 40” woods here in Minnesota. They never logged the area because of a survey mistake. 300-400 year old red and white pine towering to the sky. As we were walking someone pealed the bark off an old paper birch tree. It will soon die. My point is, even in a pristine woods of the lost 40 there will be stupid people. I have also seen the shoreline stripped of branches up to about 8 feet. I’m thinking that was from a hungry moose or deer on the snowpack getting a meal. |
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| TrailZen |
A disturbing practice we found in two Quetico campsites during our 2019 visit was 'padding' for tents: a site on Agnes had moss pulled off nearby rocks and placed under a previous visitor's tent and a site on North Bay had cedar boughs similarly placed. The moss will take years to return to the areas where it was harvested--definitely not LNT. The boughs may have been taken from a storm-damaged cedar near the site's edge, but that's still not an LNT practice. I'll continue to bring my small saw, however. We don't have fires that require anything larger than we can break by hand, but we frequently find portages in need of a little maintenance. Glad to hear it was an awesome trip, (but isn't any Quetico visit?). TZ |
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| Stumpy |
HangLoose: "50+ wilderness trips under my belt. I've probably spent more than a year of my life in canoe country on wilderness canoe trips. I'm absolutely 100% with you with regards to the ugliness of the unnatural cutting of logs for firewood along the shore of wilderness lakes. It's up there in the top 10 pet peeves along with littering pistachio nut shells and stripping birch bark on a live tree. Agree with all this....and I have never cut wood from shore.....I have seen the really cool narrows on Jeff lake be made ugly by it. |
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| Jackfish |
HangLoose also makes many great points in his post above. |
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| tumblehome |
I do bring a compass and a first-aid kit. Both of those items have saved me from peril. Tom |
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| GearGuy |
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| AmarilloJim |
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| Gaidin53 |
Saw is needed for occasional portage clearing. Shelly to Montgomery with the fire the previous year had trees still falling post fire. I think we had to cut 2 that had fallen across the new portage to get it clear again, I generally don’t carry an axe because I’m worried we’d have an accident on trip with one. Ryan |
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| Stumpy |
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| Stumpy |
SummerSkin: "Stumpy: "Uhhh, no. I bring a saw and Axe on every trip." Good one! Nicer than what others may reason. ;) |
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| Canoedaround |
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| tumblehome |
I read a book where the author spent a lot of time in the far north. On a trip he came upon a campsite that he built on a previous trip 20 years earlier.The wood he cut with a saw and ax on the previous trip was still there and he then realized how long it actually takes for simple things like cut wood to be erased from the landscape. Cutting dead branches from shorelines is not LNT Tom |
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| Argo |
There were so many foul practices in the seventies when I first began canoe tripping. I don't know when LNT became de rigueur but I'm sure it's decades old. And I'd bet you dollars to doughnuts the folks who initially conceived it did not envision campers in the 2020s would be admonished for the practice of cutting deadfall. |
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| SummerSkin |
Stumpy: "Uhhh, no. I bring a saw and axe on every trip." Why do you think he’s called “Stumpy”? ;) |
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| Sunburn |
I am definitely NOT criticizing or condemning anyone for building a campfire (so please don't light me up, so to speak), but we should be very cognizant that in higher traffic areas there can be dramatic impacts over time from groups continually harvesting wood and building fires. We have all seen areas where this is true... I rarely make a fire while camping during summer or early fall anymore for a variety of reasons, but when I do, it's always with wood collected from the ground in areas that could not even be remotely seen from a campsite or the water (or seen from the trail when backpacking). The saw in my pack is for emergency use. |
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| HangLoose |
I always paddle away from camp and enter the woods well away from the shoreline to gather firewood. With all of this said I believe it is irresponsible to tell someone not to bring a saw. Even if you don't build campfires, there are certain emergency situations that could require a saw. There have been numerous storms that have caused complete blowdowns to which the only way out was to saw your way through completely blocked portages. I personally rescued a family that capsized on a river and their canoe and gear was pinned against a strainer and the only way to extricate the canoe was to cut the limbs off of the downed tree. I can imagine numerous other emergency situations where a saw would be absolutely required to save a life. Any responsible wilderness camper will have a saw in their pack even if just for emergency purposes. Instead of telling campers to leave the saw at home, let's be leaders and promote responsible firewood gathering techniques and the leave no trace philosophy. |
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| TrailZen |
HangLoose: "Any responsible wilderness camper will have a saw in their pack even if just for emergency purposes. Instead of telling campers to leave the saw at home, let's be leaders and promote responsible firewood gathering techniques and the leave no trace philosophy. " Like my PLB, my first aid kit, and my raingear, a saw will be a part of the gear we carry but hope to leave in the pack the entire trip. TZ |
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| MichiganMan |
CanoeKev: "To each his or her own, but I would never think of traveling in the north woods without an axe and saw. " Agreed. If nothing else, I want to be capable of dealing with that log that has recently fallen across the portage. That's better than everybody going around it and making a "new" portage path. |
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| SlowElk |
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| SteveSoloPaddler |
I have never needed a saw or axe in almost 20 years. There is so much wood available if people would just venture a bit into the bush to scrounge up dead fallen branches or paddle the shoreline to pick up driftwood resting on shore. If you must break off a dead branch, just break if off with your hands and leave it looking somewhat natural. If there is no wood at your site, paddle to another place and scrounge wood off the forest floor. Ok - off my rant. The trip was awesome! Just would really like to see people "leave" "no" "trace". Don't get me started on those that feel they have to build structures. |