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View Full Version : Manassas Gap Shelter trashed by partiers



Newb
04-11-2005, 10:15
This weekend I hiked from Dicks Dome south to the Jim and Molly Denton Shelter and then back up the next day. On my way I stopped at Manassas Gap shelter and was dumbstruck by what some idiots had done.

Let me backpedal a second. As I was coming down the hill North of Manassas gap shelter I ran into a day-hiking couple (mid-sixties?) who were out looking at wildflowers. They were concerned because they had come across an abandoned, blown over tent on the side of the trail and had found a wallet in the ashes of the fire ring at that site. (the wallet was not burned, just abandoned). The had the wallet and wanted me to call the police. I turned on my cell phone but couldn't get a signal. Besides, based upon what they told my I thought it sounded like some folks got drunk and wandered off without cleaning up. * Note, the name of the guy who owned the wallet is Michael Scott Fitzgerald. He'll be getting his wallet back via the Front Royal area police department.

Anyways, I got down to the site and found what they described. An abandoned, blown over tent and several discared beer and liquor bottles. Also, someone had defecated right on the trail. I wrote an entry in the shelter log about it and moved on. Unfortunately I didn't have a trashbag on me or I would have at least picked up the garbage for removal on my way back through the next day.

That night at the Jim and Molly Denton shelter I met a couple who had been at Manassas Gap shelter the previous evening and they confirmed my suspicions. While they were bedded down in the shelter some teenagers showed up and were bummed that the shelter was occupied. The kids proceeded to get loudly drunk and raucous up on the trail. (they counted 4 boys and two girls).

So, the older couples fear of death and murder were probably unfounded. However, I don't remember ever trashing a place even in my wildest days of youthful abandon....and I had quite a few.

Jack Tarlin
04-11-2005, 11:04
Manassas Gap Shelter is also pretty well infested with copperheads.

What a pity these guys didn't get bitten. Repeatedly.

Footslogger
04-11-2005, 11:25
Manassas Gap Shelter is also pretty well infested with copperheads.

What a pity these guys didn't get bitten. Repeatedly.======================================= ======
Probably still a tad too chilly for the copperheads ...but maybe this group will come back for an ecore performance and get their just due.

'Slogger

Newb
04-11-2005, 11:28
The only snake sighting was a 5 foot long black snake (rat snake). The stone retaining wall that used to house the copperheads has been upgraded with hardware cloth to discourage nesting at the shelter. Also, the entire shelter has been jacked up off the ground. It's very nice.

neo
04-12-2005, 09:50
vandals,thiefs,and litterbuggs piss me off:cool: neo

MOWGLI
04-12-2005, 09:58
vandals,thiefs,and litterbuggs piss me off:cool: neo

When I lived in NY, I used to look after an area just north of Wildcat Shelter known as Fitzgerald Falls. It is a local party place, and can get pretty trashed on weekends.

I had been picking up bags & bags of garbage on a regular basis as I was working nights and passed bythe trail on my way home in the morning. About three days after picking 3-4 LARGE bags of trash out of the stream and the woods, I stopped - only to find the place trashed again. This time there was a tent setup near a smoldering fire.

I walked over to the tent - mind you, it's about 7 AM - and made my woke the folks up. I gave them a serious dressing down. Of course, they denied knowledge of EVERYTHING. Of course, they didn't do it.

Freakin slobs. Used condoms, beer cans & bottles, smashed watermelon, the remnants of a fireworks display (brilliant! In the woods no less!) and on & on.

I told the guy that I was leaving to call the cops, and thay they had better cleanup their mess, and tell their friends to stop trashing the place. Days later the Greenwood Lake police agreed to enforce the no overnight parking regulations at the trailhead.

The ONLY way to stop this kind of stuff is to patrol the area regularly, and get the local police to join the effort. Even then, folks are gonna trash the trail from time to time.

Sad but true.

MOWGLI
04-12-2005, 10:09
The ONLY way to stop this kind of stuff is to patrol the area regularly, and get the local police to join the effort. Even then, folks are gonna trash the trail from time to time.

Sad but true.

Actually, I misspoke. The bestway to stop this kind of thing is to get the local folks to embrace the trail, and take pride in the fact that it exists in their community.

Last week I worked on a project with the Cumberland Trail Conference. The locals were skeptical of the trail, and some were not happy about the parking lot & trailhead that was recently built in an area that has served as a community swimming hole for generations.

By the time the event was through, the local folks had adopted the trailhead, and agreed to look after the plants that had been installed by students from the area.

Remember, like it or not, y'all are Ambassadors for the trail. Doing something DUMB in one of the communities where the trail passes can had wide ranging implications. Please carry yourself accordingly. If locals see thru-hikers gettting drunk & disorderly, where is the incentive for them to behave?

RockyTrail
04-12-2005, 11:43
We hiked and camped the Tray Mountain Georgia area this past weekend. Sunday morning, on the way back down on FS 698 there are some pretty stream campsites along Corbin Creek. We stopped just to walk the stream a bit in the cool morning air. Nobody there, trash everywhere, we picked up some of it- but then to my amazement I found a rather large campfire still lit and burning brightly. Hauled water from the stream and stirred it in until it was out. Idiots.:(

Nightwalker
04-12-2005, 12:59
We hiked and camped the Tray Mountain Georgia area this past weekend. Sunday morning, on the way back down on FS 698 there are some pretty stream campsites along Corbin Creek. We stopped just to walk the stream a bit in the cool morning air. Nobody there, trash everywhere, we picked up some of it- but then to my amazement I found a rather large campfire still lit and burning brightly. Hauled water from the stream and stirred it in until it was out. Idiots.:(
When I got to Deep Gap shelter, someone had apparently bailed from there and lefft a BUNCH of food, fuel and other stuff.

I took the home-packaged dehydrated food and the GORP a hundred or so feet out into the woods and strewed it widely for the squirrels to find. I keep packaged food, but this was all in zip-locs. I kept the still-full 12-ounce MSR IsoPro canister and will gladly use it. I compacted around 10 liters of trash to a carryable size and took it out. And the almost-new Lowa Rnegade II GTX mid-height boots made it worth my while. They were about a half size too small, but an outfitter easily stretched the toe-box area and they fit like a champ. I looked them up on the net and they cost $170 USD new. I couldn't have afforded them, but I'll sure take the freebie. Especially since the current season is so wet, and I will gladly wait a month or so before I go back to my beloved trail-runners.

Getting goodies in return is rare, but we can all help clean up what anti-outdoors non-thinkers have left behind. Do you have any idea how little trail runners get paid? Ask Gizmo next time you see him at Springer. They can surely use our help on a job done mostly for the love of the trail.

Advocacy comes in many sizes and flavors. We can all do our little part, no matter whether some folks feel like belittling us hiker-trash types or not. My part is small, but it counts. Heck, it counts to me, at least, and that helps me feel good about MY trail. (Your trail too, if you want it!)

Newb
04-12-2005, 14:20
Dammit Frank! I was in the Privvy! You're the bastage that stole my stuff! I nearly died out there because of you!

j.k.

Mother Nature
04-12-2005, 17:56
Smokestack and I had planned to stay at the Manassas Gap Shelter on our hike last summer. We abruptly left the shelter and camped in a nearby campsite when we encountered four copperheads sunning in front of the shelter.

Have the repairs mentioned been done since last summer?

As a side note, my husband and I are forever picking up beer bottles and clothing from the Tray Mtn area campsites...usually within eye sight of a garbage can. Sad.

Mother Nature

Nightwalker
04-12-2005, 18:32
Dammit Frank! I was in the Privvy! You're the bastage that stole my stuff! I nearly died out there because of you!

j.k.
You were sure in there a long time!

OK, how much for the Lowas? I like 'em pretty good now, and they wouldn't fit you anymore anyway. :D

Nightwalker
04-12-2005, 18:34
Smokestack and I had planned to stay at the Manassas Gap Shelter on our hike last summer. We abruptly left the shelter and camped in a nearby campsite when we encountered four copperheads sunning in front of the shelter.
Copperheads aren't aggressive. Don't let 'em sweat you, but it'd probably be a bad idea to smack one around with a bare hand. (Hey y'all, check this out!)

FFTorched
04-12-2005, 20:39
Last year I was hiking northbound from PA 233 to Pine Grove Furnace and I for a good while I was following a group or person that ate about 2 boxes of fruit rollups and left the wrappers on the trail. As my friends and I picked each one up, we got angrier and angrier and it's a good thing we never caught up with the people because I'd probably have some assualt charges on my record now. It just isn't called for. What do these people think? Forest evles come and sweep up the forest every night?

saimyoji
04-12-2005, 20:49
You did!! Good job elf! :clap

Teatime
04-13-2005, 04:14
I stayed at the Manassas Gap Shelter last in April 2004. It was very nice. The only snake I saw was a Black Snake, coiled up in the corner where the roof attaches to the wall. It seemed to be very sedate and perhaps had just feasted on mouse. Anyway, he didn't bother me. I didn't see any Copperheads or mice.:clap
Thankfully, I didn't see any partiers either. Back in October of 2003, when I was on top of Springer, there was a bunch of guys partying in the shelter like they owned it. What's worse, these guys seemed to be section hikers. I saw them the next day at Hawk Mtn. Shelter, where they showed up quite late (must have been the hangover from all those cases of Budweiser they consumed!). The shelter was pretty full already and they seemed agitated by this fact. I even got the feeling they would have liked us to vacate the shelter so they could have it to themselves. We did not oblige them and they moved on, refusing to camp in the area adjacent to the shelter.

MedicineMan
04-13-2005, 05:00
I think Jack mentioned sometime ago that there might be plans to move Mannassas Shelter due to it being placed on top of a copperhead midden????

Newb
04-13-2005, 08:57
I'll post a photo tonight when I get home. The shelter has been jacked up a couple of feet from the ground. The rocks where the copperheads were nesting are now resting on wire-mesh hardware cloth. The big black snake of yore is still there, but he lives in a hole in a tree on the approach path now. The most dangerous spot there now, imo, is the spring where you get your water. You're more likely to fall and hit your head on a rock than you are to be bitten by a snake at Manassas Gap shelter.

Oh, when I was there I noticed a Finch constructing a condominium in the rafters.