View Full Version : Approach Trail Shelter
Youngblood
06-22-2003, 11:53
Photo Link to Black Gap Shelter:
http://www.whiteblaze.net/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=1116&papass=&sort=1
The shelter was in pretty sad shape when I was there a few days ago. No Journal or broom - the place needed a good sweeping. One of our food bags was attacked by vermin while bearbagged in a tree quite a distance from the shelter. The water source is across the trail from the shelter down a pretty steep path - not alot of fun at the close of a day. The new Springer shelter is much nicer.
Bret
Spent Saturday night Oct 18th here. Shelter was in good condition, register was new, broom was handy. The water was down a pretty steep hill opposite the trail from the shelter. I was hiking solo and stayed there with a family of 3 (Dad and 2 teen aged sons) It did look like someone with a new alcohol stove had burnt a hole in the floor near a support post, kinda funny. One of the teenagers had left a roll of TP in his pack and the resident mouse built a nice nest at night. Had a deer right in front of the shelter at 4 AM.
max patch
10-20-2003, 18:35
Originally posted by bretb
The new Springer shelter is much nicer.
This is the old Springer shelter which was moved to this location when the current Springer shelter was built.
steve hiker
10-20-2003, 19:52
First I've ever heard of mice attacking food when bear bagged away from the shelter. (See 2d post.) Anyone else hear of this happening, anywhere?
Youngblood
10-20-2003, 22:06
Originally posted by steve hiker
First I've ever heard of mice attacking food when bear bagged away from the shelter. (See 2d post.) Anyone else hear of this happening, anywhere?
I have heard of it happening at one of the Georgia shelters that have the cable system for food bags. Don't remember the particular shelter, but when I looked at the cable system it looked like some of the rotating sleeves had locked up, probably from corrosion. I always try to find a cable where the sleeves actually rotate... a lot of them don't.
As far as bear bagging in trees, I have heard of rodents getting into those food bags but was not able to see how they did their bear bagging.
I have heard of rodents defeating the 'upside down tuna cans' on shelter hangers by jumping out to the food bags.
I have heard of rodents chewing their way into tents to get to food bags. I can remember swatting a rodent that climbed up the side of my tent one night and can remember several times where I woke up hearing some small critter trying to get into my tent and one time it returned twice after I had swatted it away.
I also met someone who told me that a bear jumped from a tree and got a food bag that was 25 feet in the air, 10 feet below the limb and 10 feet from the tree. When I commented that they must use a pretty long rope for their bear line, I was told they used 70 feet of rope... that's a hell-of-toss, not sure I could do it.
Sometimes it's hard to seperate fact from fiction or exageration. I think that even when we do our best, that sometimes the critters will win. When we bear bag in a tree, once they find one end of the rope all they have to do is follow it and that will lead them to what is on the other end. Try to make it difficult for them to find the rope.
Youngblood
smokymtnsteve
10-20-2003, 23:53
you'd be surprised about them critters and food..why somettimes and ole possum will team up with a racoon, the racoon will climb up the tree limb were you ang your food bag and shake it so hard, the food comes out of the bag and the ole possum on the ground eats the food...I"VE SEEN IT HAPPEN...
the above is a TRUE campfire story
Rain Man
10-21-2003, 00:44
Originally posted by steve hiker
First I've ever heard of mice attacking food when bear bagged away from the shelter. (See 2d post.) Anyone else hear of this happening, anywhere?
Happened to ME at Hawk Mountain Shelter about 8 miles north of Springer on night of July 31, 2003. Mice got into my food bag overnight. The bag was up on the bear cables.
They got my good stuff. The M&Ms and the cashews. Pissed me off! LOL
But the next morning I did find an MSR Titanium spoon under the picnic table there, so it evened out, I reckon.
Rain Man
The Solemates
11-05-2003, 16:29
We stayed in the Springer shelter a few weeks ago and had no trouble with mice what-so-ever. Seems to me that if you are careful to not spill any food, and take necessary precautions, you should not be bothered. Then again, we were in the loft, rather than on the ground portion of the shelter.
Mice in the Smokies seem to be a lot worse than in GA.
Mice are in shelters because slobs before your have spilled food.
Like you say, don't contribute to the problem by being very careful not to slop and packing out everything.
Footslogger
11-05-2003, 19:26
Certainly not a rodent expert but I've seen plenty of mice in the cleanest of shelters from Georgia to Maine. My guess is that they'd be in the shelters whether there was food there or not ...of course food spills and left behind food items don't help matters any.
The mice like dark, closed in areas that are out of the weather. In a lot of cases they're more apt to snitch a wad of toilet paper and turn it into a nest than they are to steal your food. The chipmonks clearly have them out-classed in that area.
I stopped by there on Sunday 1-17-10. There is a dead possium under the back that will be stinking bad when it warms up. There also appeared to be some abandoned supplies laying in a tarp out about 20 feet in front of the shelter and a tent nearby with no apparent occupant at that time (noonish). The floor was pretty clean considering the mud around the shelter and 1/2 of the front has a plastic sheet up for wind protection. The shelter is completely usable at the time I was there.