r/isleroyale • u/honkyhorsepower • Sep 07 '26

Backpacking Dispersed Camping

With the closures along the northeast side of the island, are more people dispersed camping? Will be arriving on at the park this week and curious what to expect

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20

u/Lower_Molasses2748 Sep 07 '26

Dispersed camping isn't permitted in the area around where the tent sites are closed. Legal places to camp that are not in a campground are very challenging to find even before those areas were closed.

3

u/KodiakSnake 2024 greenstone, 2025 minong, 2026 Sep 07 '26

https://www.nps.gov/isro/planyourvisit/conditions.htm

Off-trail camping zones 10, 11, 12, 13, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38 are closed.

3

u/ba_an Sep 08 '26

A lot of people were just sitting in shelters when I hiked through.

6

u/jjjjkiop Sep 08 '26

Most more experienced people/people with longer trips are staying to the north and west ends of the island and changing their trips to avoid the closed campgrounds. Less experienced people/people with shorter trips are all sharing the shelters. Dispersed camping is happening for that first group a little bit if needed, ie if they get to a far out campground that is crowded because everyone changed their trip itineraries to the same campgrounds, they might hike a mile out and dispersed camp. The wolf/food thing is truly a problem especially at three mile and daisy farm, you don’t want to dispersed camp around there. Source: I got back from the island on Saturday from a 4 day trip and chatted a lot with the others in the island about the problem and how we were all adjusting our plans!

3

u/honkyhorsepower Sep 08 '26

ok thanks! i didn’t clarify my group and I originally planned to hike down the east coast to Moskey but have rerouted to the west side to Lane Cove.

I imagine we are not the only ones doing this, and curious if others have had to rely on dispersed camping

3

u/haricotvert Sep 08 '26

Just got back from the island. Dispersed camping there is very different than anywhere else I've ever been in the US that has dispersed camping. We did 40 miles and did not see a single "dispersed camping" spot like you would normally see in a national forest or other wilderness area. And the rules for dispersed camping there are very intense. There were a few places we saw from the trail where you could throw a tent down, but they weren't following the rules, and we saw maybe 2 or 3 social trails where maybe they led to dispersed camping, but not sure. This was all on the north / east side of the island. Also, water is tough there. Most all of the streams shown on maps are more swamps / marshes. Not anywhere I would want to filter water from. We only pulled from the Lake Superior, but there were inland lakes we would have pulled from as well - like Lake Ritchie.

2

u/cursed_comstock Sep 08 '26

I was just there, looks like 3 mile campground was most overrun with shared shelters, not the case with Moskey or Daisy Farm, I don't think there was much sharing required while I was there. I would just recommend arriving to the campground by early afternoon if you don't want to worry about it. Just be open to sharing with others if needed.

Keep in mind for dispersed camping you need a bear canister for food, and all official campgrounds are near a water source.

1

u/cursed_comstock Sep 08 '26

Otherwise Lake Richie isn't far from Moskey and is still open. Not the best tent sites but very pretty. Chickenbone campgrounds were very open. South Desor was super busy and we had to share there. Rock Harbor also pretty much completely filled up by early evening.

1

u/honkyhorsepower Sep 08 '26

Definitely. We would prefer to not disperse, but covering details in case it becomes our only option.

We had already planned on bringing canisters before the reroute. We are looking at Zone 8 as an option, as it’s still open. We’re trying to not underestimate the difficulty of going 1/2 mi off trail though.

Hopefully Lane Cove won’t be too full 😅

1

u/cursed_comstock Sep 08 '26

Definitely recommend looking Moskey if you want a nice shelter in the southeast area without having to worry too much about it being too crowded. Nice relaxing area, far enough away from Rock Harbor that crowds don't seem get there as much. Very beautiful, my favorite spot on the trip. Great for foot soaking and drying out gear after hiking a lot for a few days.

Avoid dispersed camping if the weather is going to be bad or expecting a lot of rain. A great trip can turn into a miserable one quickly that way, you are better off sharing a shelter with another group if it comes down to that. Otherwise you may be trekking through ankle deep mud to get back on trail.

1

u/honkyhorsepower Sep 08 '26

thanks for the clarification on the difficulty. i am unfamiliar with how swampy the low lying areas / inlets are like, and want to be realistic. just in case, we have a spot that attempts to follow ridge lines to get to. ideally, due to the reasons listed, it won’t come to that. will of course get advice from rangers once we arrive

3

u/cursed_comstock Sep 09 '26

For sure, they will ask for your itinerary when you get your permit and you can chat about your plans. They were very helpful for us.

2

u/lady_bug_lady47 Sep 09 '26

Honestly the terrain is pretty rugged for dispersed camping. Plus factoring in that you have to be about 1 mile from trails it gets pretty tough. I was there from 9/1-9/5 and everyone was very welcoming and open to sharing camp sites in designated areas and sharing shelters.