Help give the bake oven knob shelter a new roof!

[shelterbuilder]

OKAY, FOLKS, HERE'S THE DEAL -- Blue Mountain Eagle Climbing Club recently received some grant money to replace the roofs of several of our shelters. I've placed worktrips for 2 of these projects on the club's activites schedule (Eagle's Nest in July and Windsor Furnace in September), but I need to get Bake Oven Knob Shelter's roof done ASAP. While this is the smallest of the three shelters, it is the most difficult to reach from our closest "staging location": it's a 1/4 mile climb UP the blue-blazed trail - AND I MEAN UP!! Many of our club's older "work-horses" have passed on in recent years, and many who remain would simply be unable to make the climb more than once or twice in a day. I really have no idea which club members will show up, so I'm looking for extra folks to help with this one.

We've got 7 bundles of shingles, 15 pounds of roofing nails, and some misc. items and tools that will need to be walked in to the site. I'm aiming for the weekend of June 19 and 20. BMECC members will be assembling in Bernville (north of Reading) around 8 AM, and it will take us about an hour to make the trip over to the staging area. Everything will have to be carried in, the old roof stripped off, the new roof installed, and the scraps cleaned up and hauled down the mountain. Anyone who wants to come out and help us is more than welcome...come for a day, or the entire weekend (there's plenty of tenting space around the shelter site...no privy...water is downhill along the blue trail).

Light rain will not stop this one, but a downpour will probably push things back until the following weekend. PM me if you're interested or need more info.

Thanks,

shelterbuilder.

[shelterbuilder]

Man, what a HOT weekend! But we had 7 folks show up on Saturday and 6 on Sunday.

The roof has been replaced...and in record time, too. Two of the guys who showed up on Saturday knew how to tear off and replace a roof, so while they worked on top, the rest of us carried new shingles up (and old ones down for disposal). By the end of Day One, most of the roof was on, and most of the old shingles had been carried down...and we were BEAT!!

We also made a decision to replace the old picnic table with a brand-new one. (The old one had deteriorated more since the inspection in March, and was unsalvagable.) Sunday morning, I started cutting pieces for the new table, and had some parts pre-assembled before we left for the shelter. After the pieces were carried up, some of us finished the roof, while others worked on clearing trail, and the rest completed the table. The pressure-treated pieces were removed, but the rest of the table parts were left for firewood.

In 25 years - when this roof wears out - I think that I'll let someone else worry about it !!!:D

[fiddlehead]

Thanks for that Shelterbuilder.
I hadn't seen this thread before and was just about to forward it to some of my hiking friends from Sch. county.
Sorry about that. Good job.

[Canada Goose]

I think it was the summer of 2001 that I stopped by the shelter for lunch. The day was a real roaster, and although the temps were high, the shade afforded by the shelter was welcomed by this weary traveller.

As an older, historical shelter, it was tired and showing it's age. There was a hole in the floor, and register reports of resident snakes.

Any attemp to improve and upgrade these older shelters, deserves our thanks and gratitude.

Thank You to all who contributed to this project. :sun

CG

[shelterbuilder]

Thanks for that Shelterbuilder.
I hadn't seen this thread before and was just about to forward it to some of my hiking friends from Sch. county.
Sorry about that. Good job.
Hey, thanks anyway.

This year, BMECC will be replacing the roofs on Eagle's Nest and Windsor Furnace Shelters as well. Multiple weekends in July have been scheduled for Eagle's Nest, and a couple in September for Windsor Furnace; tell your Schuylkill County friends to check out BMECC's website for more details - we'd love to have ANY interested folks come out to help. www.bmecc.org (http://www.bmecc.org)

Looking WAY ahead -- next year, we will have to do some MAJOR SURGERY to save the Rausch Gap Shelter....