Shelters stories..
What are some of your most craziest incidents in shelters ?
Early Spring - first night on a section - Georgia, 2003. Got to Springer Shelter, a few AT newbies there (myself included), One person had a wonderful wool stocking cap, handcrafted by his mother, and quite stunning. Reds, grays, woven together in a cacophony of design. And he loved it very much - talked about all the attributes. So the temp begins to drop, we all tuck in and go to sleep. Next morning, he still had that hat on -- except by now, some enterprising mouse had snuck up during the night - probably numerous times - and had absconded with over half his hat!
Obviously this henpecked (but diligent) mouse had a family to worry about and his wife was hammering him about the heating bills, so I guess he had found some extra insulation - happy wife, happy life!!! It was hilarious, and we all commented about this entrepreneurial little furry one - and I guess you can tell what the hiker's trail name became!
Probably not appropriate to relate here in full, but here's an excerpt from my journal:
"...Then, as I approached the Spaulding Mountain Lean-to, I could just glimpse a naked woman, fully frontal. I made some noise, something like a gasp, and stayed in the woods as she dressed. She was sitting on an air mattress and her trailname was "Quickie". I'm not making this up, I couldn't if I tried.
I'm not sure why a woman would a) sit naked on a public trail, and b) use "Quickie" as a trail name. It would be like a guy naming himself "Foreplay". Now that would be a meeting I would like to see.
After Quickie, we had a lot more energy (we had to get out of there fast!) and today's climbs of Spaulding and Crocker went very well...."
Another year, when I was section-hiking with my NOBO wife, we got to an AMC campground in Maine. My wife went to get water and asked me to find out about the next water source. The caretaker, a woman of a certain age (about my age, in fact), made an obvious advance. After I turned down the advance, we chatted a bit and she asked if I'd seen much wildlife. Earlier that morning I'd been confronted by a young bull moose. I figured he was all frustrated because the bigger bulls were getting all the cows. She smirked and said, "I know how he feels--I gotta get to town." Later that day I warned some SOBOs about her and they said, yeah, we already know. I wondered we hadn't heard and figured it was because I was hiking with my wife everyone figured I'd be "safe."
"Throw a loaf of bread and a pound of tea in an old sack and jump over the back fence." John Muir on expedition planning
that is some funny stuff.....
I once stopped to take a leak...stepped a few feet off the trail...when I was done and got back on the trail I looked up and just a few feet away was a young woman sitting on a rock taking a break and had apparently witnessed the entire thing. Neither one of us said a word.
Its no fun to wake up in the morning and everyone in the shelter is staring and watching a skunk walking around in the shelter everyone was scared to move because they didn't want it to start spraying, never the less it was a late start in the morning.
I once woke up in the middle of the night in Mollies Ridge shelter and everyone was watching a skunk walking around. The skunk went under the lower bunks and decided to climb in my bag through the unzipped foot end. Fortunately he only sniffed around a few moments and then left. Could have been my feet overwhelmed him and he had to exit for some fresh air.
I am not young enough to know everything.
I had the same thing happen to me. Woke up in a shelter and a skunk was about a foot away from my face. I waited him out and he eventually left.Originally Posted by tim.hiker
There are so many miles and so many mountains between here and there that it is hardly worth thinking about
On our thru attempt last year early in the hike, I think it was the Blue Mountain shelter, an aggressive mouse attacked the sleeping bag of one of the female hikers sharing the shelter and we awoke in the morning to a coating of down feathers covering everything. There was so much down present that we at first had a hard time discovering who's bag had been victimized as the damage to the fabric was so small. There were seven of us all total that night and as far as we could tell no one else was affected. In all my years of sectioning and reading the blogs and journals this was the first and only time I've ever heard of this happening? That mouse sure had a thing for down feathers!
"every day's a holiday, every meal a feast"
The worst for me
Second half of this blog, after the words "Big mistake!"
http://www.whiteblaze.net/forum/entr...ou-live-Part-1
The air horn would really piss me off. The rest of it, if they were not disturbing me, live and let live.
I am a smoker and have always asked anyone around if they minded or I would just walk off. As far as they other smoke goes, I enjoy the smell and may have asked to partake. As far as the air horn goes, I'm not a violent man but, that would have sent me over the edge. I always carry a small thing of mace and may have had to introduce them to my little friend.
"You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace;the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands."
Isaiah 55:12
The only thing more annoying than idiots who stay up late doing that, is waking up late to find your pack and/or food gone in the morning along with the old guy that was annoyed with you....
My Southbound thru-hike was waaaay back when the Smokies had the chain link fences at the front of the shelter. I arrived at Icewater and it had some boy scouts, a couple of weekenders, and a newly married couple where the husband was bringing the wife backpacking for the first time. The young married couple is central to my story. That night, one of the resident skunks ate some of their dinner as they were cooking it on the shelter floor. The wife had retreated (screaming) to the top bunk. The next morning as they were putting on their rain gear, which had been hanging on the fence, the wife starts screaming hysterically and beating the side of her leg. A bat had crawled in her pants overnight was still in one of the pants legs when she put them on. She peed on herself, and beat the poor bat to death. As the husband was trying to console her, I was about to walk out of the gate when a bear came running around the corner of the shelter and skidded to a stop 5 feet in front of the gate. I slammed it shut and latched it. The bear started pacing along the fence, eventually pushing on it with 2 paws, trying to gain entry. The wife took hysterical to a new level. After about 15 minutes, the bear left. I would bet every penny I have that the wife never went backpacking again.
I hope you took the air horn, too!
Sleeping at Gooch Mountain Shelter near about 20 Boy Scouts. They were not at all quiet packing up and heading out at 4:30 am!!
Once we stopped at a shelter, to cook dinner in NH.
It was full of "Hoods in the Woods" kids and their counselors.
My partner at the time, asked one of them how the hike was going?
He said we hiked 12 miles in the last 2 days.
My partner replied that we had hiked that since lunch.
The kid said: "Yeah but you like it!"
Don't let your fears stand in the way of your dreams
16 Feb. 2015. Just before Blood Mountain. I was in the shelter below Blood Mnt. I got there about 430 pmish. I could not hang the hammock because the ice was coating the trees....and my straps would slide down. I went to the shelter (with the ninja mice). I cooked dinner and got settled in for the night. About 6pm this couple....that was in blue jeans and other cottons...came in and pitched a tent in the shelter....taking almost half of it. The guy started gathering fire wood and beating the ice off of it on the side of the shelter.
Then he started a fire about 10 inches from the shelter platform. I was not thrilled at all. I told him if he burned down the shelter I was going to kick his dumb ass all over Georgia.
It was in the low 20s an a light snow was falling at this time.
He got the fire going and pulled 6 to 8 river stones out of his pack and put them in a very large fry pan and started to heat them.
His girlfriend was in the tent, in the sleeping bag with bath towels sew together as a blanket. She moaned and cried she was wet and cold.
While heating the stones he pulled out a thick black plastic and covered the tent. He said he was making an Indian style sweat house.
It was about 8pm when they got quiet and went to sleep.
I woke about 6 am the thermometer showed neg. 6. there was about 6 inches of snow on top of the ice from the few days before.
I go up and got out. I do not want to be with homeless type people in the woods ever again.
There are wonders out there, now to find them.
that would have been something else
While sleeping in TriCorner with my boys, my oldest boy woke me up saying he felt something tickling his toes and surprised to find a bear smelling his feet. We were on the upper bunk. After I woke up, I looked at the floor and there was a bear looking around. About 3 or 4 bears came through the shelter before it as over. This happened about seven years ago so details are fading. It's something my boys will never forget. My understanding is this shelter is the most isolated shelter in Tennessee on he AT.
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