Old Camp

Felt a bit adventurous today getting a closer look at an old camp I discovered this summer. The island has a bunch of abandoned trails, many of which were well built and are still quite passable when you find them. Since the place is always crawling with tourists in the summer its nice to discover spots nobody really knows about. Oftentimes you get a real sense of history when you come across old stone work overgrown by the woods. 

Going over old maps and using satellite imagery on Google sometimes reveals where an old trail might be. That's how I originally found this old camp, off in the woods in the park where as far as I knew there shouldn't be any structures. I was surprised, and from the aerial imagery it was hard to know just what I was looking at. After some sleuthing I eventually found the path which led to this old camp.

As you can see it has a curious lookout tower on the top, which is what I saw on Google. It's very odd. Clearly it used to be a place people spent some time, but now its in disrepair and mostly abandoned. I say mostly because there are signs someone has come by and done a few things, such a clear a trail through the woods down to a nearby stream. Yet other things appear to have been left untouched for many years. I poked around, took some photos, and left everything as I found it. The boat in the extra, by the way, is used as a water catchment. It would be very difficult to get that boat out of the woods at this point since the trail would not be wide enough.

But that's not all. On the way back to the car I took a little detour down a mostly unused spur on the fire road and came across another abandoned trail. As it started to peter out in the woods I saw some old fire pits covered in moss. Following from one to another I was surprised to discover the foundation of what seemed to be an old pavilion. Obviously I had stumbled into an old picnic area which had been overgrown years ago. Getting home and doing a little research I figured out that was exactly what I had done. The pavilion most likely would looked just like the one I took a picture of yesterday - both had been constructed by the CCC at the same time. In the 30's and 40's there would have been a beautiful view to the west, but now the place is all overgrown with spruce and fir. I haven't been able to locate any old photos online but will make a mental note to look into again someday.

Apparently there was also a third pavilion in another location which is now overgrown. Something to do on another day!