AT Shelter Logs

[TwoSpirits]

What happens with the log books along the trail? Does someone "collect" them when they're filled, are they sent to the ATC? Where do they come from and where do they go?

Just one of the many mysteries of the universe that I ponder on a rainy day....

Sent from...wait, where am I again?

[TNhiker]

in the Smokies-----the smoky mountains hiking clubs put the notebooks in the shelters.......

and they "claim" ownership of them afterwards......

not sure where they exactly go though.....

[Traveler]

As I understand it in CT, the logs are replaced by the trail maintainers, usually at the end of the season before first snow and can be used to estimate trail and shelter traffic. Then they are sent down to the ATC headquarters and may be sold (at auction?) to raise money. Different member associations may do this differently though.

[Lone Wolf]

What happens with the log books along the trail? Does someone "collect" them when they're filled, are they sent to the ATC? Where do they come from and where do they go?

Just one of the many mysteries of the universe that I ponder on a rainy day....

Sent from...wait, where am I again?

i have a few

[Bronk]

Used to be people would leave a notebook in a shelter when they saw the register was getting full...and quite a few people would put a note in the front cover of the notebook saying who 'donated' it and giving instructions to mail it back to that person when it was full.

[Hikemor]

Used to be people would leave a notebook in a shelter when they saw the register was getting full...and quite a few people would put a note in the front cover of the notebook saying who 'donated' it and giving instructions to mail it back to that person when it was full.

I did this a few times and have 2 or 3 registers from the late '80s. Is this no longer common practice?

[Doc]

When I took care of a shelter in the 100 mile wilderness I brought it home when filled and replaced it with a new book. I still have several. Now MATC has an historian who collects these and maintains them. Probably I should dig mine out and pass them along to him for safe keeping. I always saw these as a contemporary narrative and communication device that outlived its usefulness when full and the season was over.

[Lauriep]

Technically shelter registers usually belong to the land-managing agency (National Park Service, U.S. Forest Service, or one of the several dozen other federal, state, and local agencies whose land the A.T. passes through--and for the record, less than 0.5 percent of the A.T. is now on private land).

However, most agencies have MOUs that give clubs responsibility for managing overnight sites within the trail corridor. Some clubs archive them as PATC did for many years (although I don't know if they still do) or as noted above. Some just review them for comments on trail conditions and other feedback at some central location when they are full. Others do not.

In practice, if a hiker leaves a register, in many cases it will be sent back to him or her by another hiker or the club. Every club has a different practice, and it may vary with the individual shelter maintainer or club leadership.

If a shelter register is full and another has started filling up, then the club or shelter overseer probably isn't too concerned with reviewing or archiving it. In that case it may be okay to take and keep or send on to an individual who may have left it, but it would be a service to the club to contact them and let you know you have it and offer to send it before keeping or passing along to the person who left it.

If a club has instructions about where to send it, by all means you should follow their request.

ATC used to keep shelters registers, but no longer does. Now, the A.T. Museum does. We sent our collection there last year.

Laurie P.
ATC

[TwoSpirits]

Thank you all. Very interesting information. If the topic of "Interesting AT Trivia" ever comes up on Jeopardy!, I'll be ready!

Sent from...wait, where am I again?

[shelterbuilder]

When I was shelters chairman for BMECC, our maintainers would forward the filled registers to me, and I would keep them (I still have a box in my attic that needs to be passed on to the club's Archives Committee). We were able to estimate shelter usage by going over the entries in the books, and when we were building Eagle's Nest Shelter and William Penn Shelter, we actually used this "raw data" to come up with a formula to tell how big the holding tanks in the composting privies needed to be. Occasionally, members of the academic community would ask to borrow the registers for "research", so some of our registers have been half-way across the country and back again! And of course, when a crime has been committed on the trail (a VERY rare occurrence), ATC has sometimes requested that the registers from that area be forwarded to Harpers Ferry, so that law enforcement can look them over.

[rickb]

On a related topic, the AMC has been keeping registers fot the Huts on site for many decades

If if you are a young hiker it might be fun to leave a special entry that you could review with your future spouse, future kids or future grandkids should you ever be back that way with them tow.

[Lauriep]

Shelterbuilder's response reflects the practices of many clubs, probably even the majority. For clarification, when he notes that ATC sometimes has requested the registers to be forwarded to Harpers Ferry so that law enforcement can review them, by "law enforcement" he is referring to the National Park Service A.T. chief ranger. ATC and the NPS A.T. office are separate entities, both headquartered in Harpers Ferry, a couple of blocks apart along the blue-blazed trail. ATC has no law enforcement authority, but assists NPS law enforcement, which often consists of a "lone ranger" who coordinates with a host of agencies up and down the A.T. At various times the NPS A.T. chief ranger has had a field ranger to assist.

[WingedMonkey]

A page from the 1992 October Mountain Shelter.

Shelter Log.jpg

[Hikemor]

On a related topic, the AMC has been keeping registers fot the Huts on site for many decades

If if you are a young hiker it might be fun to leave a special entry that you could review with your future spouse, future kids or future grandkids should you ever be back that way with them tow.

Same applies to the photo albums at ATC HQ. A couple of years ago my wife and I were in Harpers Ferry and I was able to find my photo from 1986 to show her.

[Lone Wolf]

A page from the 1992 October Mountain Shelter.

Shelter Log.jpg

pithy as always

[Pedaling Fool]

When I saw that I thought is said Love Worf...I'm somewhat of a Trekkie.

[shelterbuilder]

Thank you, Lauriep. I sometimes forget that the vast majority of trail users don't understand the relationship between NPS, ATC, the local maintaining clubs, and the various state agencies with whom we deal on a regular basis. At times, it can be a bit mind-boggling!!!

Shelterbuilder's response reflects the practices of many clubs, probably even the majority. For clarification, when he notes that ATC sometimes has requested the registers to be forwarded to Harpers Ferry so that law enforcement can review them, by "law enforcement" he is referring to the National Park Service A.T. chief ranger. ATC and the NPS A.T. office are separate entities, both headquartered in Harpers Ferry, a couple of blocks apart along the blue-blazed trail. ATC has no law enforcement authority, but assists NPS law enforcement, which often consists of a "lone ranger" who coordinates with a host of agencies up and down the A.T. At various times the NPS A.T. chief ranger has had a field ranger to assist.

[rickb]

pithy as always

But only appreciated some years later.

http://www.whiteblaze.net/forum/show...il-guide/page4

[Hikemor]

@ Lone Wolf: When was the LW nom de trail adopted?

[rickb]

My link was not to the right page. I meant to link to this page, where Jack Tarlin's vocabulary got the best of him.

image.jpg