View Full Version : Tentless shelter hopping.
This may be kind of a dumb question, but is it possible to/do people go through the trail sans tent or hammock and rely on the shelters and hostels the whole way. I ask because I'm strongly considering dropping my tent for my section hike from Springer to Fontana. It looks as if there's ample shelters, but I'm wondering if something were to happen and I couldn't make it to a shelter exactly how screwed I'd be.
Tom Murphy
05-09-2012, 15:47
You assume that the other people already in the shelter will make room for you. Bad Assumption.
"exactly how screwed I'd be" - Next time it rains, take your sleeping bag, and set up on the front lawn. I doubt you will stay out there til the morning.
flemdawg1
05-09-2012, 15:54
It looks as if there's ample shelters, but I'm wondering if something were to happen and I couldn't make it to a shelter exactly how screwed I'd be.
You could die of exposure. Don't be an idiot, take some kind of shelter, atleast a tarp or a shower curtain and enough twine to rig it.
Yes, it is possible, but you'd be wise to bring some sort of shelter. You can buy or make a tarp for very little money. If you get a poncho tarp, it won't even add much to your pack weight, and might even make it lighter.
Blissful
05-09-2012, 15:59
Carry some kind of shelter, just in case. You might not make it to a shelter b/c of injury etc then you are out of luck if the weather sours.
So I gather leaving the tent at home is an overwhelming no. It's only 2 or so pounds, I'll just take it. If the Ga shelters are anything like the ones in GSMNP though, I have no intention of ever opening that tent.
daddytwosticks
05-09-2012, 16:00
When I do shorter hikes in the thru-hiker off-season and plan on shelter-hopping, I cary a poncho tarp for rainwear and shelter. :)
bigcranky
05-09-2012, 16:01
There are many times when the shelters are full, with no room left for another person. Of course, some of those people are hiking with a tent, so I suppose you could demand that one of them leave the shelter and let you have his place, but I suspect you know the answer you'll receive.
In reference to shelters:
Your shelter mates won't think very kindly of you if they find out that they lugged a 3 pound tent for the last hundred miles while you pranced down the trail ultra-light because you didn't feel like carrying the gear you need. I met a few last year doing exactly what you're describing and it didn't take long for the word to get out. Besides who wants to sleep in dirty shelters with the mice and snoring, smelly hikers ;)
Let me know how that works out fer ya......
Blissful
05-09-2012, 16:09
Besides who wants to sleep in dirty shelters with the mice and snoring, smelly hikers ;)
Esp when there are really nice sites along the way to enjoy nature at its finest in the shelter you carried on your back. I guess it depends on priorities. :)
Slo-go'en
05-09-2012, 16:11
It is possible, but very risky. All it takes is for some camp group to show up and take over the shelter minutes before you get there and your out in the rain. Of course, if you do the hike in the middle of the winter, there probably wouldn't be a problem.
flemdawg1
05-09-2012, 16:21
So I gather leaving the tent at home is an overwhelming no. It's only 2 or so pounds, I'll just take it. If the Ga shelters are anything like the ones in GSMNP though, I have no intention of ever opening that tent.
http://www.amazon.com/Equinox-Egret-Nylon-Tarps/dp/B000C3MIL4/ref=sr_1_20?s=sporting-goods&ie=UTF8&qid=1336594406&sr=1-20
$22 and 11 oz. If your primary shelter is the shelter and you dont want a poncho, this will get you thru a stormy night (provided it doesn't blow away (use as many stakes as you can)).
Tipi Walter
05-09-2012, 16:26
You're just in time for my latest shelter micro-rant---penned during a recent 20 day April trip to Mt Rogers and the Crest Zone.
BIG WILSON CREEK CAMP
I'm at my usual spot by the creek but in a more level area and away from the scorched earth war zone of a prescribed burn the forest service so loves to do. It's level and decent and close enough to Wise shelter for a dayhike visit but far enough to avoid the chortling testicle grabbing shouts and guffaws and inebriated bonobo howlings which erupt when two or more are gathered near the dank rat nest carport shelters hikers so love.
Like pus to a red wound, AT backpackers swarm the rodent boxes as if the boxes were built just for them to assuage their indoor affliction and their wont to carry no form of shelter so as to avoid squirming under load. These hikers base their routes according to the next shelter and so a man made edifice becomes their needed pacifier. Their whole trip is a protected bouncing from shed to shed, from building to building, from their mom's house to their sister's house to their friend's house to their dorm rooms to their interstate toilets and hepatitis drenched flop houses.
Okay, maybe not hepatitis drenched but filthy nonetheless. Life long homophobes suddenly have no qualms sleeping jowl to jowl and hip to bung with other adult strange men and chalk it up to a grand wilderness adventure as if they're in a cramped Stalingrad bunker during the Wehrmacht invasion. "It's survival!!" they scream and so it is for those carrying tissue thin sleeping bags and accordion pads and condom shaped tarps. "Hiking the AT with a 12 lb pack" becomes their manifesto but only when hiking the shelter-strewn Appalachian Trail. Unconsciously they plan it this way so they'll be awakened at two in the morning by a late arrival sitting on their faces. Cheek to Jowl becomes their new found interest as they sociologically delve into the curiously arousing field of mano a mano---man with man---one on one slumber---along with the frequent indecipherable bung ticklings from the shelter mice.
The newbs assume these shelters to be a permanent fixture of the quasi wilderness and act accordingly as they become entitlement junkies. The AT mystique would disintegrate if the shelters disappeared.
SOLUTION?
Remove all the shelters, tear them down and let the eventual boy scout troops burn the leftover piles.
This is my final and probably most mature opinion of the AT shelter system.
rocketsocks
05-09-2012, 16:32
I would bring some kinda shelter,if only a shower curtain.there are some really cool ones to pick from,even transparent so you can watch the storms or stars.have a good hike.
Your shelter mates won't think very kindly of you if they find out that they lugged a 3 pound tent for the last hundred miles while you pranced down the trail ultra-light because you didn't feel like carrying the gear you need. I'm sorry, but that isn't going ultra-light and and equating having inadequate gear with UL is insulting.:mad:
CaptainCoupal
05-09-2012, 16:36
I agree with some of the other posters. A Poncho tarp is a lightweight way to have shelter in an emergency, and when combined with a lightweight pad or even a tyvek ground cloth should allow for some small comfort when access to a shelter is impossible.
WIAPilot
05-09-2012, 16:43
I'm sorry, but that isn't going ultra-light and and equating having inadequate gear with UL is insulting.:mad:
It may not be UL but there are many hikers who are self-proclaimed UL, who simply do not carry adequate gear. In their mind though, they really are UL. Totally not deserving of the title.
Cookerhiker
05-09-2012, 16:53
Perhaps it would work if you left Springer, let's say, about December 18.
Isn't this sill HYOH. So far, i have never carried a tent (1200+ miles and counting). I have seen a max of about 6 peeps (thru hiker season in upper ET) on my few overnights and mostly 1, 2 or none. And, i am looking forward to hut to hut hiking with the bus shuttles in new england.
I went from Winding stair Gap (Franklin NC - Murphy, NC highway) to Clingman's Dome without a tent..... but that was in August. During thru - hike season ...the shelters might be full when you get to the one you want to stay at.
Moose2001
05-09-2012, 17:11
Isn't this sill HYOH. So far, i have never carried a tent (1200+ miles and counting). I have seen a max of about 6 peeps (thru hiker season in upper ET) on my few overnights and mostly 1, 2 or none. And, i am looking forward to hut to hut hiking with the bus shuttles in new england.
Well....you've been very lucky on both not finding full shelters or needing some type of shelter before you get to one. So, when you finally do find a full shelter and it's raining, what's your plan? Hope you like sleeping under the shelter!
doritotex
05-09-2012, 17:47
In reference to shelters:
Your shelter mates won't think very kindly of you if they find out that they lugged a 3 pound tent for the last hundred miles while you pranced down the trail ultra-light because you didn't feel like carrying the gear you need. I met a few last year doing exactly what you're describing and it didn't take long for the word to get out. Besides who wants to sleep in dirty shelters with the mice and snoring, smelly hikers ;)So, the people who carry the heaviest tent should get the shelter spaces? Should there be scales at the shelters like weigh stations? Why are the people that "lugged a 3 pound tent" in the shelters if they have a tent, according to your logic?
I love my tent so I don't have to be around the bravado and bull*****!
StubbleJumper
05-09-2012, 17:57
A couple of years ago I spent the night at Montclair Glen shelter in Vermont, which notionally has space for 10 people. Well, at about 5 in the afternoon, there were already about 8 people installed in the shelter and then this family of 5 arrives and not a single one of the 5 had a tent. Nobody gave up their space in the shelter, to hell with the people who were stupid enough to not bring a tent. They managed to squeeze 4 out of the 5 into the shelter, but the last one had to sleep outside without a tent. As it happened, it didn't rain so it was no big deal. But if it had rained, none of us would have cared about the foolish woman outside.
WIAPilot
05-09-2012, 18:13
So, the people who carry the heaviest tent should get the shelter spaces? Should there be scales at the shelters like weigh stations? Why are the people that "lugged a 3 pound tent" in the shelters if they have a tent, according to your logic?
I love my tent so I don't have to be around the bravado and bull*****!
He's not trying to be "bravado and BS" at all. As I understand it, he's basically saying that those who arrive first and/or have shelter reservations should be able to stay in the shelter if that is their choice. If it starts hailing and raining buckets in the middle of the night and some hiker without a tent wants or expects their shelter space- well, that's their problem. The shelters are for those who get there first or in some cases have reservations. Apparently though in bad weather, there are hikers who have a sense of "shelter entitlement" simply beause they refuse to carry a tent.
I don't think anyone has a problem with someone not carrying a tent or other form of protection as long as they are willing to accept the consequences and don't expect special treatment at the expense of others who are prepared.
Moose2001
05-09-2012, 18:18
He's not trying to be "bravado and BS" at all. As I understand it, he's basically saying that those who arrive first and/or have shelter reservations should be able to stay in the shelter if that is their choice. If it starts hailing and raining buckets in the middle of the night and some hiker without a tent wants or expects their shelter space- well, that's their problem. The shelters are for those who get there first or in some cases have reservations. Apparently though in bad weather, there are hikers who have a sense of "shelter entitlement" simply beause they refuse to carry a tent.
I don't think anyone has a problem with someone not carrying a tent or other form of protection as long as they are willing to accept the consequences and don't expect special treatment at the expense of others who are prepared.
Well said!
Cookerhiker
05-09-2012, 18:22
So, the people who carry the heaviest tent should get the shelter spaces? Should there be scales at the shelters like weigh stations? Why are the people that "lugged a 3 pound tent" in the shelters if they have a tent, according to your logic?
I love my tent so I don't have to be around the bravado and bull*****!
I think you misunderstood Don's point. He wasn't establishing a hierarchy of tent sizes, just pointing out that those who came prepared shouldn't feel obligated to give up their shelter space to those who aren't.
Montana Mac
05-09-2012, 18:25
The thing that use to get me is when you arrive at a shelter (not the ones that take reservations for section hikers) and it has just one or two spaces left and somebody says “Oh they are being saved for our buddies.”
The further north I got the more I enjoyed the comforts of my tent.
At one full shelter where a hiker showed up late and wanted other hikers to leave because the inbound hiker didn't have a tent -- Ha, Liptons went airborne.
At another shelter on my AT thru-hike, two hikers claimed more than half a shelter for love purposes. Oh yeah, nothing better than having a bunch of hairy musty thru-hikers and a bevy of mice watchen' on. The place filled up with thru-hikers as the evening went on. Call it a thru-hiker dinner theater.
Datto
I've told this story before on here, but it's worth telling again. Once years ago when I still had a heart on a rainy cold night a young hiker came out of the fog looking like a cold wet cat asking if there was room for one more in the shelter.
Everyone told him to pitch a tent, and he said he had no tent. I took pity on him and gave up my space in the shelter and set up my tent in the cold dark rain.
The next morning another hiker called me a sucker and told me that he pulled that same routine every time it rained, and that he had a tarp stuck in his pack.
That was the last time I gave up space in a shelter for someone without a tent. In an actual emergency I would, but other than that, the best I would do is toss them my ground cloth and tell them to sleep tight.
If you hike take your own shelter.
Ok doritotex, others got my point but since you didn't I'll share with you a true story from my Trailjournal, 4/12/11 from Erwin to Cherry Gap Shelter, 17.6 miles.
"Throughout the day there were scattered rain showers but as I climbed to over 5,000' (Unaka Mt) it started raining harder and getting colder. Even with rain gear on I was soon soaked and started hiking faster just to stay warm. The trail had almost a foot of water on it in places and after a while I gave up on trying to avoid the deep puddles. I was hiking faster and faster and getting colder as evening came. I was looking forward to getting to the next shelter just a few miles away to get out of the weather and get warm. When I got to Cherry Gap Shelter it was full so I put up my tent and got water before changing into dry clothes. I finally got into my sleeping bag and shivered for an hour until I got warm. I cooked dinner just outside my tent while still in my sleeping bag then went to sleep."
I understated the severity of my near hypothermia because I knew my family would read it and worry. Fact is my hands and feet were numb and it took at least two hours to stop shaking. The shelter was full to the point it would have been impossible to fit another person in there. There was a youth group in camp that bailed out of their tarps and took over the shelter when it started raining hard. There were probably 12 or more people in a shelter that sleeps 6. The temps were close to freezing with a good breeze, perfect conditions for hypothermia.
My point is that the shelters are on a first come first serve basis (except in the Smokys) and you never know what you will be faced with. You need to be prepared for the worst because if you're on the trail long enough you will eventually find it. You should not expect others to make accommodations for you.
I love my tent too (SMD Lunar Solo). Outside of the Smokys where sleeping in the shelters is required, I slept in only one shelter during my entire thru.
A 3 pound tent is not a heavy tent. MSRs most popular one person tent, the Hubba weighs 3 lbs. with stakes. The arbitrary weight of the tent was not the point.
fiddlehead
05-09-2012, 21:34
Time's sure have changed.
In the old days (now, I guess I can call the 70's, 80's and 90's the "old days"???), there was a saying: "there's always room for one more in the shelter when it's raining"
The most crowded I've seen was in a hurricane in Maine in '91 or '95. There were already 10 in a shelter built for 6 when 2 more came in hypothermic.
Of course we made room and practically slept on top of each other that night. (didn't get a whole lot of sleep)
To the OP: carry something anyway, just in case.
I sometimes hike and camp with two redneck friends who just carry a cheap, see-through, thin, plastic sheet. They just bunch up the corners and tie it off to trees or whatever with nylon string. I've already seen them in a few rainy nights and they were happy as a lark in there, smoking and drinking away through the night.
(before you feel like coming down on me for calling someone a redneck, these 2 guys would be the first to call themselves that)
Also, he didn't say he was thru-hiking and if he's hiking off-season, he can probably get away with it.
But, at least take a thin piece of plastic to cover yourself with JUST IN CASE.
(and maybe a few mousetraps to entertain yourself with each night)
I hiked with a guy who tried to do this. He was in between shelters and had nowhere to go. Instead he tried to sleep under the awning at Elkwallow wayside in SNP. Park rangers chased him out and threatened to arrest him if he returned. Moments later as he was cowboy camped a half mile or so up the trail, a storm came through and he got waterlogged.
There are many times when the shelters are full, with no room left for another person. Of course, some of those people are hiking with a tent, so I suppose you could demand that one of them leave the shelter and let you have his place, but I suspect you know the answer you'll receive.
I once assumed a shelter on Bigelow in Maine surely would be empty on a blustery November 15. When we arrived 15 people were crowded into the shelter. Three of us had to crowd into what I had always considered a one man, one pound tarp tent. PS it snowed that night and I was sure glad I had brought that backup protection.
Wise Old Owl
05-09-2012, 21:57
And he thought this was a stupid question,,,, from the rhetoric - possibly the best psychological question on WB.
My way of saying a good read.... oh Tipi - nice.....
Lone Wolf
05-09-2012, 22:16
This may be kind of a dumb question, but is it possible to/do people go through the trail sans tent or hammock and rely on the shelters and hostels the whole way. I ask because I'm strongly considering dropping my tent for my section hike from Springer to Fontana. It looks as if there's ample shelters, but I'm wondering if something were to happen and I couldn't make it to a shelter exactly how screwed I'd be.
possible but unlikely. carry shelter
Biggie Master
05-09-2012, 22:28
I try to always carry my own food, my own water, and my own shelter -- or else to hiking with a friend who's carring it for me. ;)
stranger
05-09-2012, 22:38
I know people who have hiked the entire AT with no personal shelter. Their attitude was that they would simply hike to the next shelter if one was full, and if that one was full they would again hike to the next shetler or cowboy camp.
While nice in theory that's not what happened. What happened in practice was that they would eventually arrive at a full shelter and not want ot hike anymore, they would become frustrated there was no space and more so because they had already hiked a far greater distance than they wanted to as the last shelter was full. Then came the accouncement: "I don't have any shelter, can someone please make some room". I saw it another night at a hostel, the bunkhouse was full and the woman said he could tent, he saying "Well I don't have a tent so I'm at your mercy, what are you going to do with me?". Now it was the hostel operators problem!
This is what always happens. It's complete BS in my view. You want to hike the AT, carry a personal shelter. A 7x9 silnylon tarp weighs 12-13 ounces and costs like $80-100...this would get you through most situations.
You can get tents that clock in at 23 ounces, with a floor and complete mosquito protection. There is no excuse.
Not carrying a shelter, at any time on the AT, is similar to driving around with bad brakes on your car. Yeah, you could risk it but then again, why be so utterly foolish to think that someone else is going to stop your car for you if a night comes when you really need your brakes?
I mean, what's a tarp cost down at Wal-mart? Or a piece of Visqueen at Home Depot if you're really hard up for money.
Heck, why not cross Mt. Washington on a winter night wearing only a sweater? The rangers there will come bail you out if you get too cold, right?
Datto
"Your lack of planning is not my emergency."
You're just in time for my latest shelter micro-rant---penned during a recent 20 day April trip to Mt Rogers and the Crest Zone.
BIG WILSON CREEK CAMP
I'm at my usual spot by the creek but in a more level area and away from the scorched earth war zone of a prescribed burn the forest service so loves to do. It's level and decent and close enough to Wise shelter for a dayhike visit but far enough to avoid the chortling testicle grabbing shouts and guffaws and inebriated bonobo howlings which erupt when two or more are gathered near the dank rat nest carport shelters hikers so love.
Like pus to a red wound, AT backpackers swarm the rodent boxes as if the boxes were built just for them to assuage their indoor affliction and their wont to carry no form of shelter so as to avoid squirming under load. These hikers base their routes according to the next shelter and so a man made edifice becomes their needed pacifier. Their whole trip is a protected bouncing from shed to shed, from building to building, from their mom's house to their sister's house to their friend's house to their dorm rooms to their interstate toilets and hepatitis drenched flop houses.
Okay, maybe not hepatitis drenched but filthy nonetheless. Life long homophobes suddenly have no qualms sleeping jowl to jowl and hip to bung with other adult strange men and chalk it up to a grand wilderness adventure as if they're in a cramped Stalingrad bunker during the Wehrmacht invasion. "It's survival!!" they scream and so it is for those carrying tissue thin sleeping bags and accordion pads and condom shaped tarps. "Hiking the AT with a 12 lb pack" becomes their manifesto but only when hiking the shelter-strewn Appalachian Trail. Unconsciously they plan it this way so they'll be awakened at two in the morning by a late arrival sitting on their faces. Cheek to Jowl becomes their new found interest as they sociologically delve into the curiously arousing field of mano a mano---man with man---one on one slumber---along with the frequent indecipherable bung ticklings from the shelter mice.
The newbs assume these shelters to be a permanent fixture of the quasi wilderness and act accordingly as they become entitlement junkies. The AT mystique would disintegrate if the shelters disappeared.
SOLUTION?
Remove all the shelters, tear them down and let the eventual boy scout troops burn the leftover piles.
This is my final and probably most mature opinion of the AT shelter system.
I agree that you should not rely on shelters and should be self sufficient enough to take your own but AT Shelters do serve a purpose - - there are already way too many camped-out, bare and eroded spots caused by heavy handed tenting at nearly every flat spot near a stream - having the shelters actually reduces (or at least focuses) impact in one spot. I do agree with Tipi that they are often crowded, sort of gross little sheds and often full of mice and ick so, I almost always prefer to tent. I do occasionally jump into a shelter though -- especially in bad weather if it is mostly un-occupied. The AT has a long history of shelters and I don't see a problem with the existing system (more or less) - - relying on them as your sole means of protection however truly takes something away from what should be at least a quasi-wilderness experience.
Gray Blazer
05-10-2012, 07:58
You're just in time for my latest shelter micro-rant---penned during a recent 20 day April trip to Mt Rogers and the Crest Zone.
BIG WILSON CREEK CAMP
I'm at my usual spot by the creek but in a more level area and away from the scorched earth war zone of a prescribed burn the forest service so loves to do. It's level and decent and close enough to Wise shelter for a dayhike visit but far enough to avoid the chortling testicle grabbing shouts and guffaws and inebriated bonobo howlings which erupt when two or more are gathered near the dank rat nest carport shelters hikers so love.
Like pus to a red wound, AT backpackers swarm the rodent boxes as if the boxes were built just for them to assuage their indoor affliction and their wont to carry no form of shelter so as to avoid squirming under load. These hikers base their routes according to the next shelter and so a man made edifice becomes their needed pacifier. Their whole trip is a protected bouncing from shed to shed, from building to building, from their mom's house to their sister's house to their friend's house to their dorm rooms to their interstate toilets and hepatitis drenched flop houses.
Okay, maybe not hepatitis drenched but filthy nonetheless. Life long homophobes suddenly have no qualms sleeping jowl to jowl and hip to bung with other adult strange men and chalk it up to a grand wilderness adventure as if they're in a cramped Stalingrad bunker during the Wehrmacht invasion. "It's survival!!" they scream and so it is for those carrying tissue thin sleeping bags and accordion pads and condom shaped tarps. "Hiking the AT with a 12 lb pack" becomes their manifesto but only when hiking the shelter-strewn Appalachian Trail. Unconsciously they plan it this way so they'll be awakened at two in the morning by a late arrival sitting on their faces. Cheek to Jowl becomes their new found interest as they sociologically delve into the curiously arousing field of mano a mano---man with man---one on one slumber---along with the frequent indecipherable bung ticklings from the shelter mice.
The newbs assume these shelters to be a permanent fixture of the quasi wilderness and act accordingly as they become entitlement junkies. The AT mystique would disintegrate if the shelters disappeared.
SOLUTION?
Remove all the shelters, tear them down and let the eventual boy scout troops burn the leftover piles.
This is my final and probably most mature opinion of the AT shelter system.
So, that's a no ... right?
When I was in the army I'd rigged a poncho as a tarp and it was adequate. I always thought about how I could design (design; a lack of sewing skills precludes actually building) a better poncho tent and then along came the Gatewood Cape (http://www.sixmoondesigns.com/tarps/GatewoodCape.html). I've not actually seen one but the reviews aren't horrible. I think there's room for improvement in the design (isn't there always?) but it might be just the ticket for what the OP is after.
Oh yeah, the Gatewood is only 11 ounces. Carry a dedicated pole and we're talking a pound for emergency shelter. Or use a hiking pole.
Tipi Walter
05-10-2012, 08:55
I agree that you should not rely on shelters and should be self sufficient enough to take your own but AT Shelters do serve a purpose - - there are already way too many camped-out, bare and eroded spots caused by heavy handed tenting at nearly every flat spot near a stream - having the shelters actually reduces (or at least focuses) impact in one spot. I do agree with Tipi that they are often crowded, sort of gross little sheds and often full of mice and ick so, I almost always prefer to tent. I do occasionally jump into a shelter though -- especially in bad weather if it is mostly un-occupied. The AT has a long history of shelters and I don't see a problem with the existing system (more or less) - - relying on them as your sole means of protection however truly takes something away from what should be at least a quasi-wilderness experience.
You're right on the one hand when you say shelters congregate the crowds---and for this I am thankful as it leaves fantastic sites between the shelters for me. But here's the thing: There are MILLIONS of campsites along the AT that are never used and as far as I can tell, never have been used in the last 75 years. AT section and thru hikers rarely if ever camp between shelters and instead, if they do set up, do so in and around the shelters. One big reason is there's usually water at the shelters, but there's no reason a backpacker couldn't get his water at a shelter and hump it a mile further up the trail to a ridge camp or creek camp.
I carry a big-butt tent and even I can find scores of level campsites on the AT in NC, TN and VA. Now imagine how easy it is for people carrying Seedhouses and Hubbas and poncho tents and Tarptents---with tiny footprints. Sites are everywhere.
vamelungeon
05-10-2012, 09:08
If you're three years old and hiking with your mommy you don't need to carry your own shelter, or food or water but as an adult you need to take care of yourself. If there's no room in one of those dirty stinking boxes, if you just don't make it to one or worse yet, if you are injured and can't go on, you need your own shelter. Imagine it's raining a cold rain, the ground is slick, it's late in the day and you're a couple of miles from a shelter and you slip and fall and break your leg or hip and can't walk. You need shelter until you're found, and this isn't a far fetched scenario.
I've been in a full shelter during a rain storm when a hiker without a tent showed up and demanded that room be made for him because it was raining and he didn't have a tent. It did not go over well. Basically, everyone told him he was s#!t out of luck, and to piss off. He ended up having to hike on to the next shelter. No idea if that next shelter was full as well, but given the weather I suspect it probably was.
So, always bring a tent/tarp or the like. Always. 100% of the time.
Cookerhiker
05-10-2012, 10:52
Last year section-hiking SOBO Duncannon-to-Harpers Ferry, I came to the Toms Run shelters - 2 small shelters - which were both fully occupied. That is, the inhabitants set their stuff up in a way that no one else could squeeze in. One shelter even had a tarp rigged across the front to provide privacy.
Not that it mattered to me - I was tenting in any case which I did a short distance away. But I wondered how the shelter people would have responded if more hikers had shown up expecting to use the shelter and finding 2 people hogging up a 4-5 person shelter with their "door."
It was a Saturday night so I saw more people that night than all the others combined.
Moose2001
05-10-2012, 11:09
I've been in a full shelter during a rain storm when a hiker without a tent showed up and demanded that room be made for him because it was raining and he didn't have a tent. It did not go over well. Basically, everyone told him he was s#!t out of luck, and to piss off. He ended up having to hike on to the next shelter. No idea if that next shelter was full as well, but given the weather I suspect it probably was.
So, always bring a tent/tarp or the like. Always. 100% of the time.
The perfect respone! Thank you for doing that.
Moose2001
05-10-2012, 11:11
Last year section-hiking SOBO Duncannon-to-Harpers Ferry, I came to the Toms Run shelters - 2 small shelters - which were both fully occupied. That is, the inhabitants set their stuff up in a way that no one else could squeeze in. One shelter even had a tarp rigged across the front to provide privacy.
Not that it mattered to me - I was tenting in any case which I did a short distance away. But I wondered how the shelter people would have responded if more hikers had shown up expecting to use the shelter and finding 2 people hogging up a 4-5 person shelter with their "door."
It was a Saturday night so I saw more people that night than all the others combined.
I would have politely asked them to move their belongings so I could also have a space. If that didn't work, I would have more forcefully insisted and told them they don't have the right to occupy an entire shelter. If that didn't work, I would have moved their stuff myself and taken a spot.
ATSeamstress
05-10-2012, 11:50
A few years ago, an unexpected change in my work schedule gave me five days off in early March. Itching to get out on the trail, I decided to complete a 41-mile stretch in northern Pennsylvania. The weather forecast called for lows in the 20's, which for me is too cold to camp. A B&B was available for my first night out, and a motel was available for my second. After my third day I reached my car. So, I wasn't planning on using my tent OR my sleeping gear. However, I still carried a tarp, sleeping bag, and mylar blanket for a ground cloth. This added about 2 lbs for what was essentially day-hiking, however the peace of mind was worth it. If I had gotten injured, I could have made camp and been safe.
It is prudent to carry a shelter.
FlyPaper
05-10-2012, 12:31
This may be kind of a dumb question, but is it possible to/do people go through the trail sans tent or hammock and rely on the shelters and hostels the whole way. I ask because I'm strongly considering dropping my tent for my section hike from Springer to Fontana. It looks as if there's ample shelters, but I'm wondering if something were to happen and I couldn't make it to a shelter exactly how screwed I'd be.
I have seen an instance where a hiker came in late with no tent to a full shelter. He hemmed and hawed about "well I'll just walk back to the road and go somewhere else" making those in the shelter who lugged their tents feel guilty. Finally, someone out of kindness or guilt (I don't really know) gave up her spot for him.
In addition to risky, I consider it selfish to not be prepared to "cheerfully" setup a tent, bivy sack, hammock, or something when coming to a full shelter. If you carry just a tarp or poncho and then act the victim because there's no room at the shelter (e.g. "We'll I have a poncho that'll keep me alive, but I probably won't sleep much"), making everyone feel sorry for you or guilty, then in my opinion you're being selfish. Whatever you bring to sleep in, however minimalist, you should be prepared to walk up to a full shelter and without self pity accept the fact you're not sleeping in the shelter.
If you're hiking with a group, and they're all carrying tents and you're not, the message you send is "I have priority in the shelter". That too is selfish.
My viewpoint, with the newer gear, we are talking 30 ounces or less for a tent, a home, freedom, the ability to camp anwhere..............how many amazing tenting spots have you passed en route to the next shelter?
Shelters have their place but to me they are great break spots, hang in through a storm............occasional stays.
I would NEVER just depend on shelters
kayak karl
05-10-2012, 20:21
do it in January and you'll be fine.
You're just in time for my latest shelter micro-rant---.
lol.... I love your writing style!
You're just in time for my latest shelter micro-rant---.
lol.... I love your writing style!
Gray Blazer
05-11-2012, 07:30
lol.... I love your writing style!
It was a dark and stormy night ...
...there was no room at the shelter.
Gray Blazer
05-11-2012, 07:32
lol.... I love your writing style!
A cross between Jack Keroak and Edward Abbey.
WIAPilot
05-12-2012, 07:32
So when the rains are pouring and the heavens have opened up and it's difficult even if you have a tent, are the inhabitants of the shelter inclined to include as many as possible or only cute co-eds?
bigcranky
05-12-2012, 08:04
So when the rains are pouring and the heavens have opened up and it's difficult even if you have a tent, are the inhabitants of the shelter inclined to include as many as possible or only cute co-eds?
As many as possible, but there are limits. You can cram 10 or 12 into a shelter built for 6 (use the overhang, sleep on the table, under the shelter, whatever), but once you've reached that point, there's not much else to be done.
There are cute co-eds on the trail?
Cherokee Bill
05-12-2012, 10:33
Read this: http://www.whiteblaze.net/forum/showthread.php?84051-Vomiting-and-Diarrhea
Avoid shelters, tent out and stay well.
Shelters fill fast, are crowded, some hikers bring their damn dogs in,once full there is usually a smell that would kill a buzzard, snoring, etc, etc.
Tent out and ENJOY your hike (spend a few $$ and get a GOOD, LIGHT weight tent and seal the seams)