Info, questions, comments, experiences (good or bad) regarding - Kirkridge Shelter

Past/Present hikers - what can future hikers expect here? Have any good stories or memories from here?

Future hikers - any questions?

This shelter sits right on the trail and is a walk in shelter and is in need of repair.There is a fire pit right in front of the shelter and to the left of the shelter that is as you are looking into this shelter is a faucet to get your drinking water,please rememmber to shut the faucet off.A litte further on down the trail is a very good spot for tenting out.:o

A great site to the left heading northbound as you PASS it, potable water.

My wife, small son and I hiked into this shelter several times last year near the end of june, start of July with a cooler of sodas and frozen snickers bars, hoping to be trail angels. The first evening there was one section hiker and the second evening we found nobody. I now beleive most hikers continue right thru to DWG.
Cheers

The significance of the shelter is the water source at Kirkridge retreat, the first reliable water northbound from the town of Wind Gap or the Outerbridge Shelter Spring just south of Lehigh Gap.-- Walt

I heard sharpshins dad was a caretaker at kirkridge and sharpshin as well. Is he still? Has anyone heard of him in the area? If so get him to register with this site please!

When I hiked that section in '99, the thing that impressed me the most wasn't the shelter or the water supply. It was the condition of the trail just before and just after. Unlike all those other miles of unavoidable sharp, pointy rocks that twist ankles and assassinate boots in the region, that little section of the trail was a pleasant exception.

I remembered thinking at the time, "Whoever rehabbed this should lead a trail maintenance seminar in Pennsylvania." I know it must have been a LOT of hard work, but the benefit to hikers was so obvious.

Hopefully in the intervening 4+ years, it's still a pleasure to walk on.

When I hiked that section in '99, the thing that impressed me the most wasn't the shelter or the water supply. It was the condition of the trail just before and just after. Unlike all those other miles of unavoidable sharp, pointy rocks that twist ankles and assassinate boots in the region, that little section of the trail was a pleasant exception.

I remembered thinking at the time, "Whoever rehabbed this should lead a trail maintenance seminar in Pennsylvania." I know it must have been a LOT of hard work, but the benefit to hikers was so obvious.

Hopefully in the intervening 4+ years, it's still a pleasure to walk on.

It is. I like to take my 3 YO there because of the ease of walking and the nearby vista.

Just a note if you are planning on resupplying your water at the shelter: Water at the tap gets shut off in the cold months (I found this out the hard way last week) and there isn't much else in the way of water till you get to either the Leroy Smith shelter southbound or the Delaware river Northbound.

I was at Kirkridge Shelter yesterday. What a nice new shelter. Wood chips from construction were still in the fire place. Seems to be built on old foundation, but there is now a huge overhang with a picnic table under it.
Rambler

Anybody have a photo of the new shelter?

I was there today,they sure have built a nice shelter.have pictures will download when i get back to Tn. they also have a nice outhouse also.

just north of the shelter on the right is a beautiful field with a lookout to the south.. almost like a bald.. great for tenting. in 00 me n Goslo spotted a HUGE black bear hanging around the lookout... like a 300-500 pounder!! good thing we used our foodbags as pillows instead of hanging them so the scent wouldnt travel more.

if its after the season and the water is off , dont expect to find water at the religious retreat thats right there...

That's a big bear. I just did Wind gap to Delaware water gap in the beginning of April. We camped just to the north of the "bald" you mentioned. Woke up to a bear poking around our tent and camp site. First time with a bear encounter and was pretty freaked out. Didn't get much sleep the rest of the night. Well after I got home Sunday night my wife was unpacking and found two granola bars that she forgot about in her pack. After I asked her like 5 times, "you sure you have all the food out of you pack".

According to my AT guide book water is available via an outside tap at the Kirkridge retreat. However, it is noted that the water is Seasonal. I will be hiking from Lehigh Gap to DWG during the weekend of November 4th and 5th. Does anyone know if water from the tap will still be available at that time.

According to my AT guide book water is available via an outside tap at the Kirkridge retreat. However, it is noted that the water is Seasonal. I will be hiking from Lehigh Gap to DWG during the weekend of November 4th and 5th. Does anyone know if water from the tap will still be available at that time.


Unreliable after October.

Thanks for your answer. Do you know if the shelter is relatively close to any roads?

Thanks for your answer. Do you know if the shelter is relatively close to any roads?

Edit: the water source isn't just unreliable, it actually gets shut off by the retreat folks, depends on how early it gets cold. Mot likely it will be off by November. As someone already said, don't count on getting water from the retreat just up from the faucet.

Road:
Yes, about 0.6? mi from PA 191. Its not a busy road, but does get a decent amount of traffic; you should have no trouble getting a hitch ahead to Stroudsburg, or back to Bangor, though I've never tried. That said, if its icy, don't count on anything! Just hike on to Water Gap. Its only about 7 miles.



You should be able to carry enough water from Wind Gap to Water Gap without needing to get more when you stay at the shelter.

Anyone have a photo of the new shelter built here. Was through early last spring while they were building it. Was curious as to what the final prodcut was.

It's a beautiful shelter, and a great site. Nice views. My evening at Kirkridge was probably best of my last section hike. The only confusion was finding the spigot. Rather unusual water source, I'd say. Oh, and it has a fire ring that's not too ugly. It was the only campfire I enjoyed in that 11 day hike. (And sad to say, my fire-starting skills were in a woeful state.) Sorry, this photo isn't of the shelter itself... but of some cute grafitti on one of the front porch supports:

<http://www.terrapinphoto.com/cpg143/displayimage.php?album=6&pos=34>

I was up at Kirkridge a couple of months ago on a winter day hike. It's still a very nice shelter with a very nice interior setup, entirely rebuilt and replacing the old structure. The covered porch in front of the sleeping platform in so large that it has the picnic table under it with plenty of room to spare.

There's also a very nice privy and the water spigot up at the "Spiritual Life Center" is the only reliable water between Wind Gap and DWG. The view is also nice, though it was getting a bit obscured by trees when I was there. It's a southeastern view, so the rising sun shines straight into the shelter, but of course that means you can watch it without rolling out of your bag.:D

Here are some pictures I took that day of the shelter.

I was very pleasantly surprised when I went though there last summer during my thru hike, great shelter. I hike that section in in 2005, and there is no comparison to its current condition. The maintenance crew in this area did a great job redesigning the shelter.

I was up at Kirkridge a couple of months ago on a winter day hike. It's still a very nice shelter with a very nice interior setup, entirely rebuilt and replacing the old structure. The covered porch in front of the sleeping platform in so large that it has the picnic table under it with plenty of room to spare.

There's also a very nice privy and the water spigot up at the "Spiritual Life Center" is the only reliable water between Wind Gap and DWG. The view is also nice, though it was getting a bit obscured by trees when I was there. It's a southeastern view, so the rising sun shines straight into the shelter, but of course that means you can watch it without rolling out of your bag.:D

Here are some pictures I took that day of the shelter.

Nice pics! It's been over 20 years since I was there - about all I really remember is the spigot and the sunrise! (I gotta get off of this computer and get out more....)

It was nice, real nice, back in mid-Sept. '06. Nobody there but me. A bit weird to get your water out of a spigot. The road's weird too, but since it's a private road to a mountaintop Xian retreat, it wasn't as much of a worry, somehow. Good cell reception. ;)

...I hate to bother the Kirkridge retreat center to find out when they've turned the water on for the warmer weather... is there any chance someone might post that it's turned on when they've gone by and know it is? one of PA's fine maintainers? i know it'll be about a month, but wanted to wait for a section hike until i could count on water there. THANKS!!!

We had a great night there (almost stayed in a beautiful field north of the shelter though). The water spigot was very nice to have and the shelter was spic & span. We were entertained all night by two rabbits who hung out under the table.

When I stayed there in September of 08 I was alone-almost. A large black snack came to visit and decided to explore the shelter. Seems like his kin folks were at many of the PA shelters last year but they all seemed friendly. They just stopped in to say HI and really didn't cause much of a problem. Being alone, I set up my tent that night and slept without any worries about visitors. I do remember the water at the spigot having a metallic taste, but it was water.

Yes there is a big snake there that hangs in the tree (he did when we were there). And a big bear not too far from there also. Nature city.

i visited Kirkridge just this past weekend. i was very impressed with its condition. everything was clean and there were a bunch of great examples of trail magic. off the top of my head i can remember an unopened jar of peanut butter in the mailbox, a small radio that got incredible reception on nearly every station, a brand new looking tent in its box (nothing special, just a walmart thing for emergencies i would assume), a BIC lighter with plenty of fluid, some dry newspaper, and tons of other stuff. there is quite a bit of graffiti on the walls and ceiling, but it all seems somewhat positive in nature. lots of people writing favorite quotes, remembering friends who've passed, etc. The only negative was the privy... :eek: terrible! and no TP.. glad i remembered to bring some. lol.

my one regret is that i didn't check out the water spigot, so i'm of no help there.

hey whats up dc?

i just got back from a dwg to kirkridge and back trip, camped in the breezy field a few hundred feet north. i used the water from the spigot for food and when it was boiling some oil was floating on top, didnt trust it so i used it to wash up instead of drinking.

hey man, not too much. same old stuff, except for the link below haha

Local Kirkridge bears (http://whiteblaze.net/forum/showthread.php?p=860948#post860948)... click the link for the story and a pic. Hang your food away from you!!!

I'm just back from a section hike and stayed last night at Kirkridge shelter. It's still in fine shape, the water tap is functioning fine, and the privy fairly clean.

It was a full house last night in the shelter, with 2-Pound, Bugman, Turtle, Bru-meister, Heidi and John, and father/daughter section hikers from Florida. I was hanging just in back of the shelter at a nice hammock spot, with Fearless Phil trying out his new ENO hammock at a site just upslope.

It rained pretty steadily from about 10 last night, with some great (distant) lightening for evening entertainment. It dawned fairly foggy, but was already burning off quickly by 6:30, uncovering a beautiful clear blue sky.

just watch out 4 the big black rat snake in the top right corner

I love Kirkridge- good water source, big sturdy sleeping platform, very dry, the only problem is the huge amount of poison ivy!

just watch out 4 the big black rat snake in the top right corner

Kiss it. It's eating the shelter mice!

u r a man wisdom, never thought of that...but still spooky

He was nowhere to be seen with all the activity on Saturday night. I'm sure he was hunkered down somewhere to wait out the rain and cool weather. Still, he's been doing his job well, as there also wasn't a shelter mouse to be seen (no signs of the little vermin either.) There were a couple of very bold chipmunks, but they're cute and entertaining.

I woke up to find one of those chipmunks in my boots- note to everyone, shack our boots out first!!! (It was a little startling- it was something lihe this, I wake up and need to visit the privy, grab my boots, clumsily try to put my left foot in and hear something like skwk, and see a flying ball of fur)

I woke up to find one of those chipmunks in my boots- note to everyone, shack our boots out first!!! (It was a little startling- it was something lihe this, I wake up and need to visit the privy, grab my boots, clumsily try to put my left foot in and hear something like skwk, and see a flying ball of fur)

I don't mean to laugh but I got a chuckle out of that. I can just picture it.. :)

i was there right after tim russert died and i wrote a little note to him , miss you "timmy " :(

I don't mean to laugh but I got a chuckle out of that. I can just picture it.. :)

No, it was absolutely hilarious (after the initial groggy reaction to something foreign in my boot), seeing this ball of fur fly across the shelter... Good times at Kirkridge.