I don't ever begrudge anyone for taking any campsite regardless of whether or not the site is appropriately sized for their group.  They got there first.  That's all there is to it. 

I try not to camp near others, but if the best available site on the lake I choose to stay at is near another occupied site, so be it.  I pick my nightly destination lakes for a good reason so there's little chance I will move on unless there's simply no choice.

Whether solo or group, I don't travel with noisy people so I don't worry about me or my group disrupting the other at all with noise issues. 

Visually, it is what it is.  My mug is ugly and they'll just have to deal with it as best they can.  When they picked their site close to another campsite, they had to know that it was possible for the other site to get selected.  If having other campers within view offends them, then they did a poor job of campsite selection and that's their problem, not mine.

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I honestly don't think that there would even be a discussion in our group, particularly if we didn't know anything about the sites in question. Unless we'd been there before, we wouldn't really know how good the site would be, so once seeing it occupied, we'd just move on and see what lies ahead. First come, first served.

Although, I did vote on the poll to move on.

I have talked to other people/groups on portages to get a feel for their plans, if it seems like there may be site "competetion", particularly in the BWCAW where choices are limited. Not to set up a competition, but just to at least get a feel for what we may be up against. For example, we were on the Frost River last June on a very rainy, windy chilly day. There was a tandem ahead of our group of 6, and we asked them early on if they planned on taking the Bologna Lake site, or if they were going farther. They said they were going on, so we at least knew Bologna was an option.

I've never considered this to be a moral dilemma, and I still don't. All sites are first-come, first served. The other group(s) should also know that and be prepared for contingencies. If it was storming and I saw a group looking for a site, I would invite them in, and share the tarp & coffee, & a meal if we were preparing one anyway. Then, when the weather clears, I would bid them farewell, as they find their own site.

I'm with Wally on that one.

marlin55388 wrote on Apr 22^nd, 2010 at 3:47am:

What spawned my question was the (You need to Login or Register to view media files and links). I couldn't understand why someone would plan that route that way. It worked fine but at the same time it didn't make sense to me. Was the reason Laker fishing or a desire to have people close by. Doesn't matter - just not how I would do it as I like to avoid people while hitting nice areas w/ the sort of options I like for layover days.

I don't care who thinks what and some people's answers don't surprise me.  I was just curious if there was some unspoken social norm I missed somewhere along the line. Call it my feeble effort to determine what normal might be. And yes this sample is obviously skewed but at least it'll be an informed and thoughtful point of skew. Hence the ability to re-vote.