I plan to stop at the Lost Mountain Shelter 15 miles outside Damascus. Anyone know about it? What is it like?

It's a nice log shelter with a lot of good camping spots around it. The spring is fairly reliable but I hear the local trail crew has found a better one at the site.

Nice shelter, good tenting areas, nice privy. The spring was very wet and soggy in 2001.

Stayed there Saturday night 3 Jun. 06. I think the shelter was built in 1995. Water source that I found was stream behind the shelter. Very nice shelter. Did not see any mice. Also stayed there three or four years ago with a thru-hiker with the trail name "Tuba Man".

Stayed there Friday night (12/19/08) with a section hiking friend and a ne'er do well going by the trail name Out and About. Out and About had a fire going when we got there so that was nice. However, as soon as we began pulling our dinner out, he unleashed the sob stories and started bumming food. We gave him a few spare snacks. Even though we were skeptical of his motives, he provided some great entertainment for the night. He gave his skewed advice on women, dogs and hiking. The best part was his rant about young hikers thinking you have to look GQ with synthetic materials and how we wanted to be like Earl Shaffer and wear cotton even though he hates how long it takes to dry out. I thought the irony in that was awesome. I didn't correct him.

Oh yeah, the shelter. It was really nice. Very clean deck and the corner walls that came across the front a bit did a nice job of keeping the wind out. The privy was first rate as well. The water souce was flowing very slowly even though it followed several days of rain. It was good enough though.