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Tater
01-11-2004, 12:29
Info, questions, comments, experiences (good or bad) regarding the Derrick Knob Shelter in the smokies.

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

Photo links?

Mice good/bad, water source reliable?

Lone Wolf
01-11-2004, 12:46
Good reliable water and lots of tent spots in front of the shelter.

Zeus
01-11-2004, 13:05
I stayed inside this one according to my journal. I believe it was (in 1999) one of the old CCC stone type with fireplace. It was enclosed at that time by a cyclone fence in front in order to protect the animals from the hikers. The rule then was to stay in the shelter unless full at which time you had to tent nearby. Even if tenting all food had to be secured inside the shelter enclosure. Note this was in 1999. No note of mice. The next night I stayed at the Mt. collins shelter (13.5 mi) plus the 1/2 mile the shelter is off the trail.
I tented there. The park was full of at least two different boy scout troops plus tourists (Easter Weekend). Things were crowded but on the plus side some short term hiker people were happy to give me their excess food and fuel.

Tater
01-11-2004, 13:21
No privy according to the 2003 Companion, is this right?

smokymtnsteve
01-11-2004, 14:18
right no privy

chris
01-12-2004, 09:17
The previous shelter (SO), Spence Field, has a privy. Two shelters north is Double Springs, which also has a privy.

Zeus
01-13-2004, 01:06
There is at the no-privey shelters what are called privy areas. A sign designates an area as that which you should go to do your thing. Before the foilage comes on you see tuffs of toilet paper sticking up over several acres in some cases. Comparatively the trails in the Smokies are not in good shape either and could use much maintenance and some reroutes. Sad fact in that this flagship park is frequented by many foreign visitors. No hope in sight with the current situation in Washington, D.C. My feeling was that AT hikers (including myself) went through the park as quickly as possible because of its situation, condition and crowds.

chugger
06-01-2006, 03:27
Sheltered out front in a bivy here and noticed people from the shelter flashing pictures. Deers within a few feet of me.

Now it worries me the bivy may not have been a good idea, suppose I could have got a nasty scratch before a bear realized I wasn't a bag of hiker's food. :)

Ewker
06-01-2006, 08:50
Now it worries me the bivy may not have been a good idea, suppose I could have got a nasty scratch before a bear realized I wasn't a bag of hiker's food. :)

one reason I don't like a hammock :eek:

Wonder
06-01-2006, 09:10
NOt a bad spot.....cowboy camped out front of shelter and heard no sign of animals. Shelter is still fenced in, and it's one heck of a night hike to get up to! Pleasent day to follow a night there!

NINpigNIN
06-13-2006, 10:45
Stayed here on Friday night (6-9-2006). 13 of us in there and it was pretty cozy. Old style shelter with the fence up. There are cables for hanging food though, and the mice are present (we saw several before dark but oddly enough didn't hear much from them throughout the night). No privy but the water was flowing really well.

veteran
12-11-2009, 10:44
The Hall Cabin, While living at Hazel Creek, Horace Kephart reported having spent summers in this herder's cabin on Big Chestnut Bald on the border between North Carolina and Tennessee along the ridge line of the Great Smoky Mountains. Here, with friends and fellow hunters, Kephart pursued a more frontier like existence filled with dangerous creatures and wild weather patterns. "The Hall Cabin (North Carolina room on left, Tennessee room on right - State line- the watershed of the Smokies - runs through the entry- Elevation, 4900 feet above sea-level- J.B. Anderson and he lived here through the three summer months of 1906-1907.)" "The cabin in the Smokies. Altitude 4,900 ft. The room with window is in Tenn.; the other in N.C.

http://www.wcu.edu/library/digitalcoll/kephart/onlineexhibit/HallCabin/index.htm

http://www.whiteblaze.net/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=7381&d=1258125079

Publishers created “blueline” photographs as part of their proofreading process. Horace Kephart’s album has Several of these images. These often feature people Kephart knew or scenery from the Great Smoky Mountains.

jorhawle
12-12-2009, 00:16
Didn't stay at this shelter, but took a long break at Derrick Knob both times I hiked the trail this year. First time I was there in late July a pigeon had made its home on the top bunk. Little guy wasn't about to give up his spot either! He wasn't there during my second hike so I wonder if someone didn't eat him for dinner haha! But this appeared to be a nice shelter. No fence in front, but after reading the shelter journal a lot of people complained of mice, but of course what shelter doesn't have a lot of mice in it?

Brother Baldy
12-20-2009, 20:29
I stayed at this shelter in October 2009. Good site, reliable water source. Only drawback was that it is under a walnut tree and all night when the wind blew walnuts dropped down on the tin roof making a heckuva racket. Lots of chipmunks.

Hikes in Rain
12-20-2009, 20:35
Also no privy. And it hasn't been rebuilt yet (at least as of a year or so ago), so it's still a cage. But the view is spectacular, and the water source is extraordinary.

veteran
12-21-2009, 00:18
Also no privy. And it hasn't been rebuilt yet (at least as of a year or so ago), so it's still a cage. But the view is spectacular, and the water source is extraordinary.

It has been renovated.

http://whiteblaze.net/forum/vbg/files/1/5/3/1/0/100_3738.jpg

Hikes in Rain
12-21-2009, 07:27
Wow, now that's an improvement!! Does it have the skylight? I need to head back out there to see. Any old excuse....

Thanks, veteran!

SmokyMtn Hiker
12-21-2009, 08:49
Wow, now that's an improvement!! Does it have the skylight? I need to head back out there to see. Any old excuse....

Thanks, veteran!

I think it does have the skylight in the back section of the shelter. The photo that Veteran used looks like my photo I took in Oct of '08 during my section hike. I didn't stay there I was passing by and stopped for a break, very nice shelter.

trixie
09-03-2010, 21:20
Nice shelter with piped water. The mice were active (you could watch them crawling in the grass infront of the shelter) though not unbearable. No bear activity while I was there, but someone saw a cougar just north of the shelter shortly after we left in the morning. There is a shovel on site for use in the 'toilet area'.

OldFeet
09-07-2010, 08:50
Stayed there the second week of May this year and found it to be a very good shelter that's newly renovated. The water source is a bit of a hike down the hill but it was very strong back in May. There is no privy but that's true of most of the shelters at the southern end of the park.