View Full Version : Are people still staying in shelters?
Bluegrass
06-12-2023, 18:02
When I attempted a SOBO through-hike way back when, I stayed about 80% of nights in shelters, using my tent when needed for various reasons. Watching various YouTubers do their through-hikes this year and last, as well as comments I have seen here, it seems like a lot of people's default is tenting near shelters. It seems like people are spending 90% of their nights in tents, if not more.
Is this just a skewed view of reality? It might just be that the YouTubers I am watching are solo hikers, who are more likely to stay in tents, and who need the privacy of a tent to do video editing at night?
chknfngrs
06-12-2023, 18:54
Shelters are nasty, but, still used frequently. They serve a purpose, and are appreciated by so many of the thru crowd still.
Love shelters. I used them about the same ratio as you on my SOBO in 21. 4 times hit full shelters, Hurd Brook, Gov Clement, Little Rock Pond and Upper Goose Pond. Otherwise just tented if my stopping place wasn’t a shelter or town. I do get the impression that the SOBO shelter experience is quite different than NOBO. Fewer Noro stories. It is a little funky staying in one solo though.
If you’re just asking for anecdotal experience, I recently went for an 8 day section hike in VA and didn’t even camp at a shelter, much less sleep in one, the entire trip.
For me a shelter represents just a little less chore time, little more hiking time. And never had a mouse issue, oddly enough.
And maybe it’s a southern thing (didn’t grow up in IL) but I love the sound of rain on a tin roof shelter.
wornoutboots
06-13-2023, 07:20
I only use a shelter if I walk into it in inclement weather, if it's nice, I always tent and get much, much better sleep.
ScottTrip
06-13-2023, 07:28
On my hike I stayed in shelters the majority of the time. Easier less setup/take down time just more relaxing for me.
Gambit McCrae
06-13-2023, 08:01
I stopped using the shelters about 1000 miles into my AT completion. For me personally I repeatedly got terrible sleep in the shelters for 1 of many reasons depending on the night....Mice, dogs in the shelter barking randomly in the night at something out in the darkness, hikers crashing in at midnight, my pad or others pad making all kinds of racket, snoring, early packers, people getting up during the night, people rolling over in my space....My tent eliminated all of that and I now get great sleep in my tent, rain or shine
Traveler
06-13-2023, 08:47
FWIW - Some areas of the AT do not allow discreet camping (aka "stealth camping") outside of these camping areas, which often have a shelter, so the choices with these is primarily two, use the shelter or set up a tent in the area. Shelters have a value that can be difficult to see on the sunny days and starlit nights. Periodically we read of a small group of two or a troop of scouts that gets pinned down in heavy, unforecasted snow and manages to get to a shelter to survive the event. Though I would like to think differently, I believe shelters have saved my bacon at least three times over the past 50 years.
I tend to use shelters as a known place to meet when hiking with others who are faster/slower so the group stays together. Having been caught well into the forest by a windstorm that starts snapping treetops and limbs off, the value of a hard shelter is quite a beacon that I will head to ride things out. They also provide a decent place to dry out wet gear (presuming no one is around who wants to share the space). However, I typically do not sleep in them due to the issues Gambit McCrae points out, which can be very irritating and in opposition to a good rest that are easily escaped with a tent.
garlic08
06-13-2023, 08:55
I wonder if Covid caused a shift?
I also wondered what value people saw in shelters. Other than three times in really raw weather, I avoided them on my thru hike. In the Smokies, I hiked until late in the day so the shelters would fill up, and I could legally pitch a tent.
One Half
06-13-2023, 09:31
last year when I was sectioning the shelters were always full and the overflow of tents was tremendous. Of course, this was in the bubble I was hiking.
LittleRock
06-13-2023, 10:09
I stayed in the shelters almost exclusively when I started section hiking the AT 12 years ago. That's slowly changed over time and now I mostly sleep in my tent.
Why? Several reasons:
- Snorers, people coming in late/getting up super early and making noise, mice, etc.
- I like the privacy that comes with having your own sleeping space
- I sleep with my food in my tent vs. having to hang when staying in a shelter
- Far Out and other sources which didn't exist 10 years ago provide better info on stealth camping options
I still sleep in the shelters occasionally, usually when the weather is nasty.
- I sleep with my food in my tent vs. having to hang when staying in a shelter
Had a bad shelter experience one day in NC. A group of students from Florida filled the shelter but made room for us since weather was bad. So we had our dry food all sealed in plastic and didn't want to hang. The students noticed this and some were going to forcibly take our food to hang it, "to protect themselves from bear attacks because of our food in the shelter". Yes it was going to be a fight about food in shelters, between strong 20 year old novice hikers and senior trail hands in their 60's...
So to avoid mayhem with crazy idiots we handed over our food, and they took it out of sight, ostensibly to hang it "safely" and avoid murder by bears.
So we got up first in the morning and went out back to get our food bag, and I found a huge bunch of foodbags all hanging, but within 3 ft of the ground. Pretty easy pickings there beginner dudes.
Yes, there's insanity going on in shelters. We generally aim for one, get water there, then walk on and camp.
We have also met certifiably insane people who show up at shelters and make a scene. One with a machete...
LazyLightning
06-13-2023, 16:51
It takes a lot for me to use a shelter. I'll never forgot the look I got when I got to Siler Bald shelter in a snow storm and these 3 guys that had just passed me are like "we got it all tarped up plenty of room" and I'm like "I think I'm gonna set up my tent". They were like "What?" "Your gonna set up your tent?, we got plenty of room for you in here".
Later that night the shelter was so packed people were setting up tents because they had to, I made the choice when it wasn't even half full. I had to hold up my tent frame from a gust that surely would have crushed my tent to the ground more then once that night, and snow was blowing in through the screen like nobody's business. Still I have 0 regrets not staying in the shelter that night.
I’m usually so whipped I’d sleep thru a brass band. For mice I just put up a “Free toe cheese” sign and they leave my stuff alone. :D
Mikerfixit
06-14-2023, 07:20
I've been section hiking for the past several years. I've only once stayed in a shelter.
The weather was predicted for light rain in the morning warming up into the mid sixties and cloudy for the afternoon. Night time temperatures were expected in the upper forties to low fifties, usual stuff for us.
About a hour into the hike the rain started dumping and the temperatures plummeted into the low to mid thirties with a strong wind heading up the mountain side. My hiking buddy and I decided that our gear wouldn't be enough to handle the wind that would be blowing up under our tarps and we would need to stay in the shelter because it acted as a wind break.
Sarcasm the elf
06-14-2023, 13:04
Personally, the steady increase in reports of Noro outbreaks during the 2010's has made me more hesitant to use shelters and common areas in general and I suspect it's played a role with the general popularity of shelters among other hikers as well.
I still commonly use and enjoy them in the winter when they see less use.
The good thing is there are plenty of shelters and plenty of good tent sites. Enjoy as you see fit.
Tennessee Viking
06-15-2023, 08:40
With how much traffic is on the AT now compared to say just 10 years ago, its grown dramatically in numbers.
Shelters are nice if you are needing to get out of bad weather. Heard stories of late April snows above the 3500' mark in TN/NC/VA areas and hikers bundling up in shelters. But they do tend to attract the mice, bears, and party crowds.
Personally I would rather tent on good nights.
I'll gladly stay in a shelter if I get to one late in the evening and it's empty or nearly so. That's not terribly unusual in the offseason, particularly mid week. When they're crowded the appeal goes away very quickly.
No one stays in shelters any more, they’re too crowded.
peakbagger
06-15-2023, 11:47
I look back to the "good old days" of a 5 week southbound section hike in the spring of 2002 starting April 1st at the south end of SNP. We were definitely ahead of the "bubble". It was colder than expected up on the ridges so not a lot of hikers on the trail. During the week we had the shelters to ourselves. I would start a fire each evening for something to do as there was plenty of wood on the ground from winter storms and would burn out the fire pit of all the big chunks of charred green wood left in the fire pit. If there was a shovel, I would shovel out the fire pit in the morning and would confirm daily that aluminum will not burn in a fire pit so I would put it in ziplock and haul it out. On weekends we might have one of two weekenders. As we headed south around the 4th week we started seeing a few folks but the shelters were rarely full. Around the end of the 4th week we ran into the early stages of the NOBO bubble, mostly big groups of college age folks hiking ahead of Damascus who intended to head back to Trail Days. It started getting less fun as these large groups of usually ten plus would do long days and one or two would come cruising into the site around dusk and announce that they were part of a big group of "thru hikers" and implied that everyone at the site needed to make room for the rest of them.
My theory has always been is that shelters are first come first served and that I have the right to the space under my thermarest. Barring dangerous weather or an emergency, when the shelter floor is full, the shelter is full. It was obvious that those so called thru hikers expected special treatment. They were ignored by those in the shelter and after an hour or so of noise and grumbling that they were "real thruhikers"while they set up and cooked with headlamps, they shut up and we were up and gone long before they were even awake the next morning. That got old after a few days and then we switched to some slackpacking for the next four or five days of increasing crowds and ended the hike in Damascus. In later years from Damascus south we hiked in the fall to avoid the bubble and again had the trail and the shelters mostly to ourselves.
The good thing is there are plenty of shelters and plenty of good tent sites. Enjoy as you see fit.
Bingo! Everyone has their own prefernces.
No one stays in shelters any more, they’re too crowded.
I just spent 3 out of 5 nights in shelters, with a very nice variety of hikers and room to spare. The last night I had the place to myself - no hikers, no critters.
I really try to avoid shelters. Mostly because of the rodent problems. I'll never forget sweeping the mouse $hit off one of the bunks inside Chestnut Knob and seeing in the sunshine coming through the window just how much of it I aerosolized. I was watching for symptoms of hantavirus for several weeks after. Then there were the really big somethings inside the walls of Bryant Ridge and one of the huts in Shenadoah that kept me up all night. And my last experience just S of Duncannon, where I think a spider bit me 3x on my leg overnight. I had gigantic welts for a week. No mas.
No one stays in shelters any more, they’re too crowded.
If no one stays in shelters anymore, how can they be so crowded?
No one stays in shelters any more, they’re too crowded.
Good one Yogi! :D
If no one stays in shelters anymore, how can they be so crowded?
Shout out to the great Yogi Berra comment on NYC restaurants.
gpburdelljr
06-15-2023, 20:54
People still use shelters, but a tent should always be carried for when a shelter is full.
Good one Yogi! :D As a Yogi fan, I'm embarrassed I missed it.
For me a full shelter is mostly an etiquette problem, not wanting to disturb others when I need to make a nighttime potty break or just getting up and out early. I’m usually the first one up, a bit before first light, and if someone is getting up a little earlier it usually gets me going. But there was a couple at Sabbath Day Pond shelter right next to me that slipped out in total darkness without me noticing at all. And they were in the corner, and had to skirt right by my head. Like ghosts. And they had air mattresses.
LazyLightning
06-16-2023, 17:42
That's another reason, I'm always trying to be hiking at the crack of dawn, usually leaving in the dark. The funny thing is, I'm so slow that everybody who was sound asleep is passing me within 4 hours.
Patrickjd9
06-20-2023, 09:03
I wonder if Covid caused a shift?
It did for me. Before it, I would stay in a shelter to keep from carrying a wet tent if it was raining, or getting late and looking like it wasn't going to be crowded.
Post-COVID, I'm very unlikely to stay in one.
jacob_springsteen
06-27-2023, 10:35
I'll tell you one shelter I'll never stay in. The Pass Mountain hut in SNP. This was several weeks ago. Lol, I walked into the hut spot near dusk. Wondered why no one was in the shelter and all tented out. Thought, great I can sprawl out in the shelter. About 15 minutes after seeing an average size mouse lurking and shrugging it off, I saw a rat mouse the size of a kitten who would scurry away as soon as it saw me see it. I immediately pulled all my gear off the shelter floor and set up my tent near the shelter. Heard that big rodent bouncing around the shelter floor a good bit of the night. Literally heard the thumping noise. I could deal with maybe a typical mouse maybe scouting out my gear as I tried to sleep but that rat was unnerving.
a rat mouse the size of a kitten
Sounds like a good time get that nice fire pit going and have a barbecue!
Wonder why it would scamper around the shelter with nothing in it when all those tents were nearby?
Odd Man Out
06-28-2023, 14:18
For me on my AT section hikes, I would always hike to the end of the day. Since there was never a shelter at the end of the day, I just camped. I have used them to sit out a storm or eat a meal when they were conveniently located.
LittleRock
06-29-2023, 09:22
I'll tell you one shelter I'll never stay in. The Pass Mountain hut in SNP. This was several weeks ago. Lol, I walked into the hut spot near dusk. Wondered why no one was in the shelter and all tented out. Thought, great I can sprawl out in the shelter. About 15 minutes after seeing an average size mouse lurking and shrugging it off, I saw a rat mouse the size of a kitten who would scurry away as soon as it saw me see it. I immediately pulled all my gear off the shelter floor and set up my tent near the shelter. Heard that big rodent bouncing around the shelter floor a good bit of the night. Literally heard the thumping noise. I could deal with maybe a typical mouse maybe scouting out my gear as I tried to sleep but that rat was unnerving.
Another story involving mice and the Pass Mtn Hut: I stopped in for the evening and went to use the privy. I found the wood chip bucket empty except for a mouse who was trapped inside. I finished my business, carried the bucket 100 yards in the opposite direction from the shelter, and let it out. I went to use the privy again in the morning before I left. This time, there were TWO mice in the bucket. I didn't bother rescuing them.
Lots of warnings about mice in the Chestnut Ridge Shelter, but had no problems Sept 28th ‘21. Sure was nice hearing that wind howling outside, and being in 4 walls. Was one of many I slept in alone south of Harpers Ferry, Sept and Oct. Wonder if the rodents wander off once the food supply becomes less reliable?