View Full Version : Plumorchard Gap Shelter
Former Admin
09-29-2002, 22:36
Info, questions, comments, experiences (good or bad) regarding - Plumorchard Gap Shelter
Past/Present hikers - what can future hikers expect here? Have any good stories or memories from here?
Future hikers - any questions?
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Hammock Hanger
09-30-2002, 08:44
I stayed here the first year it was in place. Signs of the new shelter designs to come. It was very nice. Slept there once, stopped by for lunch a few times. My last time I could already see some signs of misuse by hikers. All in all it has a number of water sources and is a nice place to stay. WARNING: Use to have an old stump near by that was home to a family of Copperheads. Not sure if it is still there. Hammock Hanger
I was here all by myself in May. No copperheads. Great place. Highly recommended.
Squirrel
01-20-2003, 19:41
I loved staying at this shelter. It is the best one in GA, IMHO. I did not see any copperheads. The shelter was built as a training exercise (airlift) by the rangers from Camp Frank Merill.
-Squirrel
Footslogger
01-20-2003, 21:00
This was the first shelter we stayed at in 2001. There aren't that many good tent sites in close to the shelter anyway so unless you want to back-track you might as well pull up a floor. Nice and roomy 3 level shelter. Good water source on the hike into the shelter from the trail.
Bad Ass Turtle
01-20-2003, 22:37
What I remember about Plumorchard Gap is that when we spent the night there, of the 20 something hikers, I was the only female. The first time that happened, but certainly not the last!
I also remember an 18 year old kid who poured all of his fuel into the fire ring and then dropped a match in it. Whoosh! We all shook our heads and threatened him within an inch of his life . . .
BAT
windwalker
04-21-2003, 10:29
Great Shelter.
Took a near zero-day at this shelter on a rainy day. Great shelter. Played rummy and met several great hikers including Wizard, who we hiked with most of the way on our trip.
MedicineMan
04-21-2003, 22:31
Was there just 6 hours ago! Awesome shelter that, as you prob. already know, can accomodate a small army of hikers...did a quick lunch there on my section hike. Too bad Tenn. and GSMNP shelters aren't like The Plum!
Youngblood
06-22-2003, 11:20
http://www.whiteblaze.net/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=1115&papass=&sort=1
http://www.whiteblaze.net/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=135&papass=&sort=1
http://www.whiteblaze.net/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=1273&papass=&sort=1
Really nice, well built shelter ! Saved us from the rain on 5/9/04 that afternoon. Spent the night. No mice problems. Good water source. ;) This shelter is a triple decker ! :clap
Drala Hiker
08-28-2004, 16:05
I spent a night at Plumorchard on a section hike, last week of July, 2004. It was clean, never saw or heard any mice. However, a bat was hanging from the rafters asleep, so we waited until he departed at sunset before pulling out sleeping gear! Bear cables about 100 yd S of the shelter. Also, this is the only shelter I've seen with TWO privies! Both are open top, a pain in the rain!
The new one was fresh put up by the GATC but stayed in the old one (identical to the Stover Creek) that was still standing in '93 as it was a breezy and cold night and it seemed more wind-tight, though the third platform probably would have been fine. A nice area with good water sources well removed from any roads.
applesofgold
08-08-2006, 19:54
Plumorchard is by far my favorite shelter, as it was my first. I had the pleasure of staying here last month. We shared the shelter with a group of about 15 teenaged campers from a Christian Camp. It rained buckets that night, but luckily this shelter is a triple decker and alot of people can fit inside! The privy was wonderful! It actually had a door!!!
There are lots of mice at this shelter...I woke up in the middle of the night to my husband smacking me. Well, he was actually smacking a mouse off my sleeping bag. I turned on my flashlight to see about 6-7 scurrying across the floor. There is a huge snake that lives near there, we never actually saw it, but someone has hung a HUGE snake skin on one of the pack hangers.
Gray Blazer
08-09-2006, 08:41
That snakeskin was still there 2 weeks ago. Really nice shelter with 3 levels. We stayed there with 9 hikers from a christian camp in Brevard. I was really impressed with this group. They were out for 10 days from Amiclola to Rock Gap with no resupply. They were very respectful and good campers. My son and his girlfriend were trading oatmeal packs for top ramen and this one fellow was looking at me, so I pulled out one of those 69cent packages of meat and handed it to him. His eyes lit up and he said, "I haven't had any meat in a week!" I put my finger to my lips and he scurried up to the 3rd level and devoured it. I made the mistake of having my son talk me into sleeping in the shelter (I like to sleep in my tent out of respect to others because of my snoring and I don't like mice crawling on me). Well, he kept hitting me in the back every time I would doze off and start snoring. Needless to say, I did not get much sleep that night. I noticed no mice, but, the kids sleeping on the upper leverls, especially the 3rd level said they had lots of mice. They had mouse traps and I know they caught at least one. One of the kids saw a bear when he went to the privy early in the morning. There was a good water source and a picnic table with benches. All in all, a pleasant, renemberable experience.
Skidsteer
08-09-2006, 08:55
There is a huge snake that lives near there, we never actually saw it, but someone has hung a HUGE snake skin on one of the pack hangers.
There sure is:
http://www.whiteblaze.net/forum/vbg/showimage.php?i=10467&catid=favorites
Sleep tight everybody! :D
Monkeyboy
07-10-2007, 22:10
Stayed there 7-7-07. Excellent shelter.
Very excellent water source (biggest, cleanest one at a shelter in GA that I've seen).
Very spacious lofts, but the top one can get stuffy in the summer due to the plexiglas windows on top. Also, with a larger shelter, you can get more people in, which means more "shelter shakers". Had three in the shelter with me and it sounded like an IMAX theater presentation on grizzly bears!
Otherwise, two thumbs up!
fiddlehead
07-11-2007, 21:41
Interesting thing happened to us back in '89 at that shelter.
It was very new at the time (possibly less than a year old?) and there where a bunch of us there and this one guy from Canada was a real talker and turned out to be a social reject and retard. He was badmouthing people left and right. He was carrying some strange things including an axe!
Anyway, someone asked him what he was doing out here if he wasn't happy with anybody around him. He started talking about nature and how he grew up in it in Canada and respected it. And he would get really excited about his stories and at one point, he swung his axe and stuck it in the beautiful dogwood tree that was right behind the firepit.
He left the trail a few days later from what i heard. I don't remember his name but i'll never forget that axe sticking in that tree.
Is the tree still there? I doubt it, i don't think dogwood trees get to live very long lives and this one was already about 25 or 30 feet high.
Lone Wolf
07-11-2007, 21:49
Interesting thing happened to us back in '89 at that shelter.
It was very new at the time (possibly less than a year old?) and there where a bunch of us there and this one guy from Canada was a real talker and turned out to be a social reject and retard. He was badmouthing people left and right. He was carrying some strange things including an axe!
Anyway, someone asked him what he was doing out here if he wasn't happy with anybody around him. He started talking about nature and how he grew up in it in Canada and respected it. And he would get really excited about his stories and at one point, he swung his axe and stuck it in the beautiful dogwood tree that was right behind the firepit.
He left the trail a few days later from what i heard. I don't remember his name but i'll never forget that axe sticking in that tree.
Is the tree still there? I doubt it, i don't think dogwood trees get to live very long lives and this one was already about 25 or 30 feet high.
wrong shelter. same area. kinda like right church, wrong pew. they ripped open the woods and choppered in a big monstosity of a shelter. SO against LNT (a big joke)
Monkeyboy
07-12-2007, 08:33
wrong shelter. same area. kinda like right church, wrong pew. they ripped open the woods and choppered in a big monstosity of a shelter. SO against LNT (a big joke)
Yeah, but the shelter was one of the cleanest I've seen in the GA Section. It had no trash just laying around. A lot of the smaller shelters had WAY more trash in them.
I oughta know, it was me and my BSA troop that hiked out as much as we could carry from each shelter we stayed at.
Hawk Mtn. was the worst for trash. Tray Mtn. came in second.
Lone Wolf
07-12-2007, 08:43
Yeah, but the shelter was one of the cleanest I've seen in the GA Section. It had no trash just laying around. A lot of the smaller shelters had WAY more trash in them.
I oughta know, it was me and my BSA troop that hiked out as much as we could carry from each shelter we stayed at.
Hawk Mtn. was the worst for trash. Tray Mtn. came in second.
ALL shelters suck. did i ever mention that? :cool:
ALL shelters suck. did i ever mention that? :cool:
Don't hold back. Tell us how you really feel.:D
Nightwalker
07-13-2007, 02:05
ALL shelters suck. did i ever mention that? :cool:
It would probably be interesting to know exactly how many times. But with over 9,000 posts to look through, it's a job for someone else.
You should go hiking with me sometime on a trail with no shelters. They're certainly out there! :)
BlackCloud
05-27-2008, 18:22
As of Memorial Day 2008, the shelter is in good shape w/ only a modicum of trash in the firepit. And although the place was CRAWLING with mice, the all-night-candle kept them @ bay once again.
Lots of camping space in the area too....
bloodmountainman
05-27-2008, 18:50
Plumorchard Shelter...... Mice Motel.
daddytwosticks
10-12-2008, 17:14
Stayed there last night on a short section hike. The trail and the shelter area were busy this weekend. I was the only one to sleep in the shelter. Very clean and no mice attacks. Water source was flowing strong. This is one of my favorite shelters.
Doc_of_the_bay
10-14-2008, 19:38
I'm going to hike from Dick's Creek Gap to Deep Gap (NC) this weekend. Other than at Plumorchard, how are the water sources in that area?
I'm going to hike from Dick's Creek Gap to Deep Gap (NC) this weekend. Other than at Plumorchard, how are the water sources in that area?
Someone posted about this section's water availabilities not too long ago. You might want to search under water and GA. :)
daddytwosticks
10-15-2008, 18:54
Don't know about north of Plumorchard. South of Cowart (sic) Gap (about 1.8 mi north of Dick's Creek Gap), there is a low flowing stream that parallels the trail...some water here. Have a great hike.
http://georgia-atclub.org/water_resources.html
There are two threads running now with the same question. Both get the same answer.
Hikes in Rain
10-15-2008, 19:28
Actually, that's encouraging. (But we need only one)
one of my favorite shelters
I also loved this shelter. My favorite overall. Clean...love the architecture. Few mice, but not bad. A bat was roosting in the upper loft, and about dusk started flying in and out of the shelter. Mosquitoes were pretty bad before he came out...I think he helped us out...and he provided entertainment for us!! :)