Campsite Evaluations

[yellowcanoe]

Relatedly, one of the most important things about a campsite is that it's on the correct side of the lake, any important crossing being already made. When I'm camped on the wrong side, the nighttime breezes in the trees sound like taunts from the wind gods, "It will probably be OK if you get an early start, HUH, HUH, HUH!"

yah coming out of the West Branch onto Chesuncook , if the wind and waves are reasonable, I will take it then. One big crossing off the list.. just a smaller one at the end of Gero.

 

[Patrick Corry]

As others have said, campsite requirements are variable being dependent on safety (widow makers), weather, sunset/sunrise orientation, bugs, heat, etc. Having said that, the condition and relative size of the established fire pit is the first thing that makes me stay or go! As a soloist my fire requirement is tiny... literally. A huge, disorganized fire pit strewn with trash and half-burnt semi-green wood is a huge disappointment. In my view the 'need' for a fire, and therefore fuel, leads to the greatest abuse of the surroundings. Look at this disaster:


My fire usually consists of a narrow slot between a couple of stones meant to keep the fuel from rolling away as they burn. It allows me to feed long pieces into the fire as they burn, eliminating the need to cut pieces to length. The narrow shape tends to funnel wind (oxygen) into the fire and the stones allow me to set my pot directly on the fuel. Of course I sometimes use grills left behind, but that tends to bother me a bit as well. If you were capable of bringing your grill into the woods, why leave it behind?

The fire ideal I strive for is to emulate the canoe tripper "Hoop", whose videos appear on YouTube under the name Wintertrekker: