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Voyageur camp sites


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Thought I'd post this again. Took off from Crane this Thursday morning (4th) intending to camp somewhere on Sandpoint or Namakan. Searched every campsite from north Sandpoint to Kettle Falls and never found an available site. Spent several hours doing this. Very discouraging. Came to one site where a person was sitting on the shore "holding" the campsite---there was no boat, gear, or tent. Just told us it was taken. I thought that wasn't allowed. That person was likely holding the site while others in a boat searched for a better site. What does a person do if no site is available? Can you camp anywhere, or just go home?

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I believe you can camp on any island as long as everything else is filled.

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That happened to me one time and we thought about finding a nice spot that had room for a tent on an island somewhere and just setting up camp. We figured if we were stopped we'd tell the CO that all spots were filled and had no other option. But then I decided to head up into Grassy Bay on Sand Point. There are several campsites in there and all of them were open. So even though the whole lake appeared full, it truly wasn't. We just had to back track and go someplace we hadn't thought about. Grassy Bay has some of the best Walleye action anyway, so it actually worked out OK.

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Yep, a person used to think getting up there on Friday would be plenty early. How things change!

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I also noticed that every camp/houseboat site was taken on both Kab and Nam. We were on the lakes the final full week of July.

I am glad to see people using the park and facilities. On the other hand, it was frustrating not being able to find a spot for a quick shore lunch.

We observed that nearly every safe place to land a boat, was a camp/houseboat site. The remaining shore lines were all rock, mud, or privately owned.

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Marmot, Not all sites are sandy beaches. Thier are many houseboat site on the chain of lakes that you tie up to rocks. Just like up at Kettle Falls when you bring a houseboat up their you tie up to Rocks. Not all sites are sand access.

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Every campsite on Kab is either a sand beach or has a dock. I am not even sure if Kab has docks. I cannot think of any rocky campsites on Kab.

I am not very familiar with Nam. We used our map to check several campsites and each had a sandy beach or dock.

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We were up from the 5th to the 9th and were on the Wolf Pack islands. The westernmost site opened up sunday night and the next day someone came and pitched a tent and put 2 camp chairs down on the shoreline and left, never to be seen again. The next day the NPS workers came to clean sites and asked if anyone was next door as they saw just the tent and chairs. They called the ranger and informed him and the next morning they both arrived and took down the tent and chairs and confiscated them. Never did see anyone come into that site by the time we left wednesday afternoon. I can tell you that they said this type of thing happens all the time nowadays, and I will in the future definitly be looking alot closer at sites that appear to be being "held", and if there is no gear other than a tent around and noone shows up, there will be some gear left on the nearest shoreline til the ranger stops by.

Fishing was good, leeches on rigs and spinners both produced in many spots. 28-34' mainly with about 50% overs and not a single fish under the slot, which was very different from a week prior when I fished Kab and caught about 4 shorts for every slot and over.

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We were on Kab from July 15-22 and found a bunch of campsites open. Bluefin Bay, which is a beautiful site, didn't have anyone camping all week. There were a number of sites in Lost Bay open and lots on the Gold Portage end. Maybe bears had something to do with them being open, but I didn't see any bear advisories at the Park HDQ's. We saw a bear on one small island but other than that nothing. Fishing was great, never had to travel more than 5-6 miles from the resort to get walleyes. Leeches on a lindy rig, red or orange hook, 28' of water. 5:00-7:00 AM was the best and again after 8:00 PM to dark in the evening. It was way to hot to fish midday, that was time to swim.

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xplorer - glad to hear all is well and the fishing is still good. Nice to chat with you and your buddies @ Kettle Falls

a few weeks back and thanks for trading cameras so we could all bring back memories on film. My son tells everyone he met xplorer. Good luck with the campsites and maybe we will see you in the Fall!

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laker taker,

Great to meet you also, hope you and your boys had a great time. When I returned with the family we had another fantastic trip, a small storm and quite a bit of wind but non problems to speak of. And thanks for the tip on Rainy, I'll keep that in mind if i venture down there in the future to stay on the far south side of the reef.

Xplorer

mjgrose: You'll have mail in a bit!

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