Primitive Camping Etiquette

Most campers are nature lovers and want to return to the area as clean and natural as when they  departed their camp site. Here are a few pointers to help maintain this  “Wild and Scenic River”:

 

Dispose of Waste Properly

• Bring a trash bag with you. If you are able to pack in your supplies, you have room to pack out your trash which you did not burn in the campfire. Especially glass bottles and the steel food containers.

• Bury human waste in a small hole 6-8 inches deep and 200 feet or 70 big steps from water. Or bag it - take it.

•  Use a plastic bag to pack out your pet’s poop to a garbage can.

• Keep water clean. Do not put soap, food, or human or pet waste in lakes or streams.

• Use a camp stove for cooking. Stoves are easier to cook on and create less impact than a fire.

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Leave What You Find

• Please do not “hack away” at the living trees with hatchets and saws.  Cutting live trees can result in a heavy fine.  Green wood does not burn well in a campfire anyway.  Use and cut up ONLY dead trees, branches and high water debris.  

•  Preserve the past: examine, but do not touch, cultural or historic structures and artifacts.

•  Leave rocks, plants and other natural objects as you find them.

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Respect Wildlife

• Observe wildlife from a distance. Do not follow or approach them.

•  Never feed animals. Feeding wildlife damages their health, alters natural behaviors, and exposes them to predators and other dangers.

• Control pets at all times, or leave them at home.

• Avoid wildlife during sensitive times: mating, nesting, raising young, or winter.

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Respect Others

• Loud River Partying - Please be courteous of other campers and cottage owners along the river and lower your noise level during normal sleeping hours. Remember that sound and voices carry farther on the river and can be heard a long way off.  Too much noise can bring unwanted attention to your camping group.

• Gun fire - On the river, is no place to safely target shoot or discharge bullets into the river. It can be  dangerous, annoying, and in most cases, illegal.

• Extinguish campfires when you leave. ​

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