My wife and I paddled the Dumoine River this past August. We had a great trip down the river and figured we were spending out last night of the trip at the Three Sister camp site. Next morning the weather was beautiful. We decided that we just weren't ready for the trip to end that day so we decided to stay on the campsite for a second night.
When we arrived on the campsite there was a fire pit with three small tree trunks wrapping around the first pit. With a bit of extra time on my hands while my wife decided to do some writing, I pulled out my bush saw and spent a couple of hours cutting through a large tree that had fallen in the camp site. I made a 6' or 2 m long raised bench by the existing fire pit. Bench is a generous description. It's a long log, stripped of it's bark, resting on two short logs that have cuts which prevent the long log from rolling off. It's something comfortable and stable to sit on by the fire. It's something that I didn't think looked out of place or obtrusive.
At every other campsite we stopped at along the river minus the Margret Spry Campsite maintained by the Rod & Gun club as photographed in MartinG's trip report
http://www.myccr.com/phpbbforum/viewtop ... 16&t=47074 there was nothing at the campsites except fire pits created by previous campers. Sometimes there was a log that had been dragged close to the fire pit. As I had just about finished my last cut the thought fallen tree it occurred to me that maybe there was no benches (raised logs) at the campsites because some folks like their campsites to be left natural. Or maybe folks had been too tired from paddling white water all day and didn't have the energy or inclination to build something. I later found out as we paddled the last miles/kilometers out that at the campsites where motorboats can come up from the Ottawa river, things were not left as natural, 20 ft tree trunks for benches, a metal table brought in. Definitely not as nice looking IMO. Now there had obviously been a big effort by a group who's name now escapes me, to bring in colorfully painted thunder boxes to a number of the campsites along the river, again, as documented in MartinG's trip report. And a big Thank You to all those involved in that effort.
So camping's prime directive is that you should leave a campsite as you found it or cleaner if someone has littered. We also know people leave their fire pits and sometimes brush stack by it. Some parks such as Kawartha Highlands Provincial Park in Ontario have metal fire pit boxes and metal picnic tables at all their back country campsites. When someone cuts trees along a portage or arranges some stones to make crossing an area easier is that an acceptable alteration? At the Grand Chute on the Dumoine there was stacks of lumber in August for replacing or adding boardwalk on the portage trail around those falls. Some campsites I've stayed at people have constructed tables lashed with rope between trees to make life simpler. I've used the table and left it. I was on a campsite in Algonquin once and someone at a island campsite near me had a chainsaw going for an hour. I don't think it was just for firewood.
As you might guess by my long rambling post, my conscious is wrestling with my action. My question, what campsite alterations are acceptable? What does camping etiquette say?... or am I just making a mountain out of a mole hill?
Dave