Hello,
I was wondering if I could pester you for a moment about camping on
Little Tupper Lake? I think I might like to head up there for a mid
week trip some time this summer.

Where is the parking area, on County Highway 10?
Is it near the Whitney Head Quarters?

I understand that there is some kind of self check-in where you post
on a bulletin board where you are camping?

Any more info you can give to get me started, or pointers for maps or
books?

Thanks in advance,

George

George wrote in
news
Just in case Mike doesn't repond right away....
Hello,
I was wondering if I could pester you for a moment about camping on
Little Tupper Lake? I think I might like to head up there for a mid
week trip some time this summer.

Where is the parking area, on County Highway 10?

I'd have to check a map but there is only one road leading into Little
Tupper and there is a large parking area near the beach where you
launch/register.

Is it near the Whitney Head Quarters?

I understand that there is some kind of self check-in where you post
on a bulletin board where you are camping?

I think Mike said it may have changed a bit but there used to be a board
with a map of the lake that had all of the campsites numbered. Next to the
map were numbered hooks with tags on them with Occupied on one side and
unoccupied on the other. Find a site that you like, check the tag and if
it's unoccupied flip it over. There was also a log book to fill out to list
your name, the campsite you're staying at, and how long you're going to be
there.

Mike also posted a really good article rating most of the available sites on
the lake. Do a google search for it before you go.

Also, just down the road is Lake Lila, which I've heard has a similar
boating/camping set up.

Any more info you can give to get me started, or pointers for maps or
books?

Here are a couple of links:

http://www.dec.state.ny.us/website/d...dk/whitney.htm
http://tupperlake.net/Whitney.htm

George,

Happy to help. Answers interspersed below:

Where is the parking area, on County Highway 10?
Is it near the Whitney Head Quarters?

The parking area is at the Headquarters, just across the lake from the
Camp on the Point (The fancy 3-story Whitney place on the lake).

I understand that there is some kind of self check-in where you post
on a bulletin board where you are camping?

There used to be a sort of tote board, like at Stillwater, on which
you selected a site and moveda numbered tag from the unoccupied to
oppupied side. This didn't work very well, so now you just sign in on
the log book and paddle in looking for a site (no pre-registration).

Any more info you can give to get me started, or pointers for maps or
books?

I'm going to e-mail you a copy of our campsite rating system for
Little Tupper; this has every site on the lake rated and ranked in 7
categories: maximun tent capacity, landing ease, views and water
proximity, buggieness, swimming potential, site wanderability and
sun/shade mix, along with a cumulative ranking for each sites total
score and notes and comments on each site..

E-mail me your postal address and I'll mail you a map of Little Tupper
with the campsites denoted and numbered.

Let me know if you have any questions or need anything else.

Mike

Thanks in advance,

George

George, I tied twice to e-mail you (replacing the "dot" with . the 2nd
time) and both messages kicked back.

Shoot me an e-mail and I'll send you the campsite score sheet for all
of the sites on Little Tupper. And send me your snail mail addy too
and I'll send you a copy of the map.

Mike

On Fri, 20 Feb 2004 12:05:07 GMT, John Fereira
wrote:

George wrote in
news
Just in case Mike doesn't repond right away....
[...]

Mike answered too.
Mike also posted a really good article rating most of the available sites on
the lake. Do a google search for it before you go.

Yeah, I saved it from last year, made it sound like it would be well
worth the six hour drive.

Also, just down the road is Lake Lila, which I've heard has a similar
boating/camping set up.

Oh, didn't know that, thanks.

Any more info you can give to get me started, or pointers for maps or
books?

Here are a couple of links:

http://www.dec.state.ny.us/website/d...dk/whitney.htm
http://tupperlake.net/Whitney.htm

Thank you.
After posting the request for info last night, I kinda slapped my head
thought about googleing for answers. I googled on little tupper lake.
found a bunch of stuff and answered most of the preliminary questions
Better late then never.

Thanks again for your help.

George

On 20 Feb 2004 04:31:52 -0800, (Mike McCrea)
wrote:

George,

Happy to help. Answers interspersed below:

Where is the parking area, on County Highway 10?
Is it near the Whitney Head Quarters?

The parking area is at the Headquarters, just across the lake from the
Camp on the Point (The fancy 3-story Whitney place on the lake).

I understand that there is some kind of self check-in where you post
on a bulletin board where you are camping?

There used to be a sort of tote board, like at Stillwater, on which
you selected a site and moveda numbered tag from the unoccupied to
oppupied side. This didn't work very well, so now you just sign in on
the log book and paddle in looking for a site (no pre-registration).

Ah this makes sense, I wondered what would happen if you got to the
choosen campsite to find less then desirerable, you would have to
return to the tote board to change camp sites.

Any more info you can give to get me started, or pointers for maps or
books?

I'm going to e-mail you a copy of our campsite rating system for
Little Tupper; this has every site on the lake rated and ranked in 7
categories: maximun tent capacity, landing ease, views and water
proximity, buggieness, swimming potential, site wanderability and
sun/shade mix, along with a cumulative ranking for each sites total
score and notes and comments on each site..

Thanks, can't wait to read it.


E-mail me your postal address and I'll mail you a map of Little Tupper
with the campsites denoted and numbered.

Mike, this is very kind of you. Thank you, I'll be in touch shortly.


Let me know if you have any questions or need anything else.

I'm going to move this to e-mail, but if anyone else is interested,
just chime in and I'll share what info I have. I plan on going there
early in the summer (blackflys or not)

George

George wrote in message

There used to be a sort of tote board, like at Stillwater, on which
you selected a site and moveda numbered tag from the unoccupied to
oppupied side. This didn't work very well, so now you just sign in on
the log book and paddle in looking for a site (no pre-registration).

Ah this makes sense, I wondered what would happen if you got to the
choosen campsite to find less then desirerable, you would have to
return to the tote board to change camp sites.

That was one of the problems. One of many problems with such an
occupied/unoccupied honor system. Some people would find the site they
had chosen at random not to their liking and simply paddle on to
another, creating two errors on the board; an unoccupied site listed
as occuiped and also the reverse.

At Stillwater we've pre-selected a site, flipped the tag from
unocupied to occuiped and paddled out to find someone already camped
there. In one memorable episode we were a couple of hundred yards away
from the site, obviously headed ashore, when a motor boat shot past
us, beached at the site and hurriendly began disgorging gear.

We paddle up and discussed this with them, and they claimed that they
had flipped the tag. Not much we could do but paddle back to the put
in, flip another tag and try again.

In talking with the Rangers it appears that this was a not infrequent
occurance, with an even worse strategic reaction - some folks knowing
that this happens were flipping two or three tags in an effort to
increase their chances of finding an unoccupied site; the sites they
flipped but didn't use of course apeared to be occupied when looking
at the board.

And then there is the issue of having to paddle back to the put in if
you wanted to move on to another site later in the trip. All in all
those site occupancy boards created more problems than they solved,
and I thing pretty much every place in the Adirondacks except
Stillwater did away with them and went to a simple paddle out, first
come-first serve system.

On 24 Feb 2004 06:56:02 -0800, (Mike McCrea)
wrote:

George wrote in message

[...]
Ah this makes sense, I wondered what would happen if you got to the
choosen campsite to find less then desirerable, you would have to
return to the tote board to change camp sites.

[...]


In talking with the Rangers it appears that this was a not infrequent
occurance, with an even worse strategic reaction - some folks knowing
that this happens were flipping two or three tags in an effort to
increase their chances of finding an unoccupied site; the sites they
flipped but didn't use of course apeared to be occupied when looking
at the board.

And then there is the issue of having to paddle back to the put in if
you wanted to move on to another site later in the trip. All in all
those site occupancy boards created more problems than they solved,
and I thing pretty much every place in the Adirondacks except
Stillwater did away with them and went to a simple paddle out, first
come-first serve system.


I like this system and it worked fine on our trip up the Osteopathies
River.

What didn't work was the time we were in Algonquin Park and we were
informed that our chosen route may not be passable due to low water
levels, on our permits they put down our chosen campsites and also
gave us some alternate campsites. We ended up going to the alternate
sites, but around 5 pm another party came around saying they were also
given the same campsite. It worked out in the end, as our site was
hugh and we were happy to share as was the other party.

Algonquin seems to be running at full capacity on weekends all summer,
except for the deepest of interior site (3 days travel or more.)

George

George wrote

What didn't work was the time we were in Algonquin Park and we were
informed that our chosen route may not be passable due to low water
levels, on our permits they put down our chosen campsites and also
gave us some alternate campsites. We ended up going to the alternate
sites, but around 5 pm another party came around saying they were also
given the same campsite. It worked out in the end, as our site was
hugh and we were happy to share as was the other party.

After experiencing a number of alternatives I still prefer the
crapshoot of a first-come, first-serve paddle in and find a site
situation.

We're willing to schedule our trips to avoid putting in on Fridays or
Saturdays, so that we aren't in such heavy competition for sites, and
on long trips we'll often try to schedule our paddle out days for a
Friday or Saturday, in part so that a site opens up when it is most
needed, in part because such timing will put us back on the road,
re-supplying and en route to someplace else for a Sunday or Monday
launch.

One alternative I didn't care much for (although I recoginze the
management need for it in popular areas) is the oxymoronic
"backcountry reservations", especially when these reservations are
site-specific (ie, site #37 on Thursday night) as opposed to simply,
say, specific to a particular lake or area.

We had site-specific reservations in a couple of Ontario Provincial
parks a few years ago, and even though I had made the reservations a
few months before our trip I knew some of the sites were gonna be the
pits; when you call to make "backcountry reservations" months before a
trip and find that only one site remains in certain areas you can be
pretty certain there's a reason it's the only one left. Even more
maddening than reservations to camp at a damp, muddy, bug-ridden site
from hell is the realization that there are far better sites that
remain unoccupied because the folks who reserved them didn't show up
that day.

On 26 Feb 2004 06:54:10 -0800, (Mike McCrea)
wrote:



After experiencing a number of alternatives I still prefer the
crapshoot of a first-come, first-serve paddle in and find a site
situation.

We're willing to schedule our trips to avoid putting in on Fridays or
Saturdays, so that we aren't in such heavy competition for sites, and
on long trips we'll often try to schedule our paddle out days for a
Friday or Saturday, in part so that a site opens up when it is most
needed, in part because such timing will put us back on the road,
re-supplying and en route to someplace else for a Sunday or Monday
launch.

This really is a fine plan.


One alternative I didn't care much for (although I recoginze the
management need for it in popular areas) is the oxymoronic
"backcountry reservations", especially when these reservations are
site-specific (ie, site #37 on Thursday night) as opposed to simply,
say, specific to a particular lake or area.

So often the reservation taker is far removed from the park they have
no inkling of what the park is like, never mind what kind of lake or
campsites it has.

We had site-specific reservations in a couple of Ontario Provincial
parks a few years ago, and even though I had made the reservations a
few months before our trip I knew some of the sites were gonna be the
pits; when you call to make "backcountry reservations" months before a
trip and find that only one site remains in certain areas you can be
pretty certain there's a reason it's the only one left. Even more
maddening than reservations to camp at a damp, muddy, bug-ridden site
from hell is the realization that there are far better sites that
remain unoccupied because the folks who reserved them didn't show up
that day.

Oh, that reminds me of the time we pulled out of our trip after one
night of a five day canoe trip due to illness. I had to explain twice
to the person at the park office that the campsites were going to be
freed up because we weren't staying and other campers could use them.


BTW, Mike, the map arrived today, thanks again!

George
(Who ate hot dogs and bean for dinner just because I need to go
camping)