View Full Version : No Shelter Use?
The Old Boot
04-05-2011, 11:16
Is it possible to hike the AT without HAVING to stay in a shelter?
Staying around a shelter is fine, but is it possible to hke the trail and use your own source of shelter all the way through?
Lone Wolf
04-05-2011, 11:17
yes. for sure
Tipi Walter
04-05-2011, 11:19
What shelters?
no doubt it would probly be very interesting trip if you avoided them all together.. i stayd in them evry night cept for a few rocky outcrop nights.. when i hike again im gonna try to avoid them for the most part and tent camp.
I can count the shelters I've stayed in on both hands and except for 2 or 3 times it's been in the winter when I had it to myself.
Not a fan of shelters at all....
And anyway, they never happen to be where I am when I stop for the day anyway. I don't think I'd stop hiking early just because I was at a shelter.
you'll have to 'evade' the rangers in a few sections (GSMNP, whites)
The Old Boot
04-05-2011, 11:44
Thanks guys....it will be several years before I can do the AT, but after reading a long, cold winters' worth of trail journals I was beginning to wonder if it was even possible.
For right now, I'm stuck ground sleeping because of a rather spoiled elderly dog but eventually I will switch to hammock sleeping and have no desire to try to sleep on wooden boards in a shelter either overrun with people or with mice!
Besides, I'm probably a shelter sleepers' worst nightmare...I've been told I snore and I know about all my other bad nighttime habits....I'd be better off keeping to myself..:D I'd be able to keep my friends that way...:rolleyes:
Blissful
04-05-2011, 12:32
Not staying in shelters is the way to go.
Blissful
04-05-2011, 12:33
you'll have to 'evade' the rangers in a few sections (GSMNP, whites)
Iin GSMNP not if she's thru hiking or its late fall (like late Oct. Most people tented at the shelter areas. Only one ridgerunner that I saw). Paid shelters in the Whites have tent platforms. Or you can find tent sites below the alpine zone.
klpicktown
04-05-2011, 14:46
where does 'tenting next to a shelter but hanging your food in the shelter' rank in trail etiquette?????
Buffalo Skipper
04-05-2011, 15:21
where does 'tenting next to a shelter but hanging your food in the shelter' rank in trail etiquette?????
Can't answer the "etiquette" question, but if I was tenting at a shelter, I would do whatever I could to keep my food away from the shelter vermin (not the other hikers).
full conditions
04-05-2011, 15:34
When I did my thru in '76 I was 18 and inevitably headed for shelters because I was lonely and homesick and I knew there would be people there. Now I avoid them for that same reason. If you're looking for a very social hike and don't mind the snoring, rustling of gear, incessant whispering throiughout the night, and armies of mice, then by all means head for the nearest shelter. If, on the other hand, you don't want to be just another member of the Chaucerian spring pilgramage then stealth tenting (or hammocking) is the way to go.
tjforrester
04-08-2011, 23:31
You can stealth it all the way up.
I stop at shelters and visit every once in a while, but mostly I look for solace on the trail and that means hiking on and camping alone.
Monkeywrench
04-09-2011, 10:17
The only shelters I slept in on my thru were in the Smokies, as the rules require that you sleep in the shelters unless they are full. Other than those, and a few nights on the tables in the AMC Huts in the Whites, I hung in my hammock every night.
I only stay in shelters when the weather is bad.
Panzer
double d
04-09-2011, 11:34
Usually near the shelters there is quality-level ground to pitch your tent. The problem is: people wandering into the shelters at all times of the night and of course, the "quite" noise people make at night. But....I've never had a problem tenting near a shelter on the AT/LT.
ChinMusic
04-09-2011, 11:36
where does 'tenting next to a shelter but hanging your food in the shelter' rank in trail etiquette?????
Tent far enough from the shelter that the mice need directions..........
Bare Bear
04-09-2011, 13:24
Other than the required areas like GSMNP and some far north places that make you pay for a tent platform,,,you pick. I really have a personal problem with the Money Club and others charging me to use my National Parks lands.............
Rockhound
04-09-2011, 13:27
It seems to me, the more experienced the hiker, the less you will find them staying in or even at shelters. It seems the newer the hiker, the more apt they will be to stay in a box. I swear some must even think it's a requirement. If I can get one to myself or perhaps with just 1 or 2 others I don't mind them and in bad weather, but I would much prefer to stay in my tent than a shelter.
When just out for a night a few years ago at Abbingdon Gap on a warm clear summer night I recall being only 1 of 3 people camping while 7 people were crammed into the box. Laughable really. The frequent explanation I hear is so that they can save time in the morning. I don't know. An extra 5 or 10 minutes in the AM vs. a lousy nights sleep?
where does 'tenting next to a shelter but hanging your food in the shelter' rank in trail etiquette?????
Bear cables are first come first served.
ChinMusic
04-09-2011, 14:15
It seems to me, the more experienced the hiker, the less you will find them staying in or even at shelters.
It is true that the more experienced hiker knows his/her game well enough to not rely on shelter areas for water and camping sites. IMO, it is the personality of the experienced hiker that dictates whether they avoid shelters or not. Some folks love the quiet of being by themselves. Once you gain confidence those options open up more. The experienced hiker that likes the social aspects will choose to stay near shelters (if not in them).
It's all good.
earlyriser26
04-09-2011, 14:20
Have not used a shelter in over 25 years (except for lunch, mice got to eat too). I have hiked the smokies 7X and only used the shelters a few times (March of 77 with 6 feet of snow, but still tented half the time) Never stealth camp either. Maybe I'm just lucky, but only saw one ranger in all 7 trips and he saw our tent next to the shelter and didn't say a word.
kayak karl
04-09-2011, 14:21
in jan and feb you will be the only one there so enjoy. otherwise just hang out around fire and sleep 100+ feet away. you will find yourself leaving earlier and not with the pack.
Just hike and see what happens. Sometimes a shelter is a welcome place on a cruddy day, or a place with a friendly voice who might end up a very cool trail friend. :)
tjforrester
04-11-2011, 21:54
It seems to me, the more experienced the hiker, the less you will find them staying in or even at shelters. It seems the newer the hiker, the more apt they will be to stay in a box. I swear some must even think it's a requirement. If I can get one to myself or perhaps with just 1 or 2 others I don't mind them and in bad weather, but I would much prefer to stay in my tent than a shelter.
When just out for a night a few years ago at Abbingdon Gap on a warm clear summer night I recall being only 1 of 3 people camping while 7 people were crammed into the box. Laughable really. The frequent explanation I hear is so that they can save time in the morning. I don't know. An extra 5 or 10 minutes in the AM vs. a lousy nights sleep?
The rationale that a shelter saves five minutes in the mornings may be valid, but if the hiker is that concerned with the equation time saved = mileage gained, he'd forgo hiking from shelter to shelter altogether. It doesn't make sense to pull into your destination at three in the afternoon, with five or more daylight hours still available, then think you are the peak of efficiency because you start hiking five minutes earlier in the morning.
Well, I enjoy meeting folks at the shelters after a long day on a long distance hike. On overnight hikes I tend to tent. My advice is not to be dognmatic. Enjoy the shelters at least occasionally.
Frankly, I least enjoy those that camp out on good nights, but who crowd -- and complain -- about the shelters with every threatened rain shower.
stranger
04-12-2011, 03:06
I think it's fairly easy for a nobo hiker to avoid shelters all the way to White Mountain National Forest, even the Smokies are easy because in thru-hiker season, the shelters are always full anyway...so you are then allowed to camp.
Shenandoah I'm not sure these days, but in 2001 we camped out behind them in most spots.
There are literally hundreds of good campsites all along the AT, there are even more nearby the shelters. In addition, what I noticed in 2008 on my little jaunt through the south was that there was a campsite:
- at every height of land
- just before and just after road crossings (especially true at trail town locations)
The system I like best is hiking to a shelter like everyone else, hang out for a bit and then hike on til dark and set up camp, makes a huge difference in terms of overall mileage.
tjforrester
04-12-2011, 19:14
The system I like best is hiking to a shelter like everyone else, hang out for a bit and then hike on til dark and set up camp, makes a huge difference in terms of overall mileage.
I use the same method. I stop at the shelter to socialize, rest, and to cook supper. Then I hike on and find a non-impacted place to camp. Lots of times I am out of sight of the trail. I seldom sleep at existing campsites, prefer forest duff because it's softer, warmer when cold, and will drain a rain away.
88BlueGT
04-12-2011, 19:29
I find it so funny that everyone stays in shelters when they thru and than ask them a year later if there was something they would change and they all say that they would not stay in shelters! :rolleyes:
Personally, I have only stayed in a shelter one time and that was because I got stuck in the rain right as the sun was going down and didn't really have time to look for a spot. Besides that, I stay away. No mice, solitude, no bears and other critters stealing your stuff, no snoring neighbors, noone listening to their headphones so loud you can head the music coming through other orifices, no book worms reading at 1 in the morning with their headlamps on blast mode, no late night snacker who wakes everyone up at 4 while hes trying to get chocolate out of his bag, etc. etc. etc. etc. lol
Shelters are for people who are scared to sleep in the woods :D
mateozzz
04-12-2011, 19:55
I enjoy the shelters (most of the time) because I get enough solitude during the day and would like to chat while cooking and in the evening. Having water and a privy can feel like a luxury. It is definitely a HYOH situation, though. Definitely need to hang the food outside so the mini bears don't get it and wear earplugs to deaden the bodily noises. You'll get some good stories to tell, too!
Game wardens in Pa can give you a $100 ticket for tenting on (public) gamelands, be careful around Bake Oven Knob in particular.
So is it Trail policy to stay in shelters, i.e. I don't get the "stealth" comment.