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  1. #61

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    We came across the same situation with a Boy Scout group, only with a different outcome. We were on the last day of a 5 day hike and had been hiking all day in rain. Although we don't usually use shelters, we decided we would the last night because we didn't feel like packing out all wet gear. When we arrived at the shelter only to find the scouts with tents in the shelter. One of our group started ranting about it. Sensing our disgust and anger, the scoutmaster was quick to diffuse the situation and pointed out they were only pitching the tents and moving them outside the shelter. We apologized for our quick temper and waited for them to complete pitching the tents and then moved in.

    When we had settled into the shelter, the scoutmaster came over and asked if they could cook us dinner. They had two big pots of spaghetti. I have to admit that was some of the best spaghetti I have ever eaten!

    But to the point of having a tent set up in a shelter. I thought a tent was shelter??

  2. #62
    Registered User Pastor Bryon's Avatar
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    I have only been hiking on the AT for about 3 years, and I've been on WB for a couple of those years. I am immensely thankful for the knowledge I have gained, helpful advice, and guidance. I have learned better ways to do things, and have corrected habits that were not the best for trail use.

    This has come through those teaching in an encouraging way and others pontificating about what is wrong with a particular person, group, or all humans except themselves.

    Some of you I would thoroughly enjoy hiking with. Others, meh.

    Sharing an apartment with 4 other people can be a challenge for just a few weeks. Sharing 2000+ miles with a few thousand people (none of which has full ownership), no way that you can avoid conflict and strong differences of opinion.

    Whatever. I am appreciative of the OP for sharing his experience. Good word for me to learn from.

  3. #63
    Registered User ldsailor's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by tagg View Post
    It has also given me pause to consider that sometimes when somebody throws their trash in the fire pit or washes their dishes in a spring or does something else ridiculous like that, maybe they're just ignorant and not actually an a-hole? Food for thought.
    Okay, please help me out here. I thought I was attuned to hiker etiquette but maybe not. First, if there is a fire going at a shelter firepit or I build one, what is the problem with burning trash (assuming it will burn with no harmful fumes or residue)?

    Second, what's the problem with rinsing out cookware or dishes as long as it is downstream from where a hiker would fill their water bladders or bottles? This rinsing is done with no soap.

  4. #64
    Registered User ldsailor's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by tagg View Post
    I respectfully disagree. Does this also mean I have to lay in the shelter until a specified time in the morning before I can get up, so as not to risk waking anyone? Ridiculous. When you decide to sleep in a shelter, you are accepting the fact that people will wake you up by coming in late, getting up to pee in the middle of the night, snoring, getting up early, and a host of other things. I suppose if a couple of guys get to a shelter at 7pm and go to sleep, that means everyone else that shows up after them has to stay elsewhere since they are already asleep.
    I just finished a three week hike on the AT in TN and VA. I stayed in shelters exclusively. Several of those days, late night hikers came into the shelters. Yeah, they woke me up, but they were fast setting up and considerate in the amount of noise they made. Any hiker experienced enough to hike at night knows what to do and not do.

    I always said, "Hi!"

  5. #65
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    Ear plugs solve a lot of shelter problems. I carry no spare anything except spare ear plugs.

  6. #66
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    If you show up after lights out you shouldn't even approach the shelter unless you are in an emergency situation. The same goes with setting your tent up, stay clear of everyone who is already set up and sleeping, there is nothing more disrespectful than waking people because of poor planning. It just blew my mind when people would come rolling up at 10pm and set up their tent or take a spot in the shelter, cook their food, hold conversations...still gets my blood boiling just thinking about it. If you showed up at 6pm and saw tents in the shelter you can just tell them to make room, no big deal as they will probably be sitting around eating anyways. But rolling in late...even if there were just 4 people without tents, now they have to listen to you throw out your tyvek sheet, inflate an air mattress, rustle around with all of your equipment, watch your headlamp bounce around for 30 minutes, that's just inexcusable to me.

    Not picking on the OP as you weren't going to stay in the shelter anyways, but to your partner and any future hikers who may find themselves out on trail in a night hike situation, be respectful of sleeping hikers.

  7. #67

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    Quote Originally Posted by tdoczi View Post
    no one ever explains why its better than just a tent outside of the shelter without the shelter.
    You might want to re-read my post.

  8. #68

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    Quote Originally Posted by Rmcpeak View Post
    Ear plugs solve a lot of shelter problems. I carry no spare anything except spare ear plugs.
    You're forgetting the clothespin for the nose, eye blindfold, two sleeping pills, and trained Rottweiler.

  9. #69
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    Quote Originally Posted by tagg View Post

    It has also given me pause to consider that sometimes when somebody throws their trash in the fire pit or washes their dishes in a spring or does something else ridiculous like that, maybe they're just ignorant and not actually an a-hole? Food for thought.
    Wow...this is definitely something to think about - not only for A.T. stuff, but other things as well = So often, we think people should "know" things and are disrespectful, but what if their actions are based on a lack of prior knowledge - and we actually had the opportunity to instruct them and didn't?

    Thank you for this post!

  10. #70
    Registered User Oventoasted's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by ldsailor View Post
    Okay, please help me out here. I thought I was attuned to hiker etiquette but maybe not. First, if there is a fire going at a shelter firepit or I build one, what is the problem with burning trash (assuming it will burn with no harmful fumes or residue)?

    Second, what's the problem with rinsing out cookware or dishes as long as it is downstream from where a hiker would fill their water bladders or bottles? This rinsing is done with no soap.
    Yeah, this one threw me for a loop also. always burned my paper plates and dirty paper towels. also i always cleaned my dishes in the stream if one was near by.

  11. #71
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    Quote Originally Posted by Oventoasted View Post
    Yeah, this one threw me for a loop also. always burned my paper plates and dirty paper towels. also i always cleaned my dishes in the stream if one was near by.
    The problem is people who either throw things in an unlit firepit assuning that someone else won't mind burning their garbage for them or people who put things in the fire pit that don't fully burn ( in particular mountain house type bags which a lot of people don't realize are part metal)

    This is the type of jackassery we are talking about:
    Colorless green ideas sleep furiously.

  12. #72
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    Quote Originally Posted by Hangfire View Post
    If you show up after lights out you shouldn't even approach the shelter unless you are in an emergency situation. The same goes with setting your tent up, stay clear of everyone who is already set up and sleeping, there is nothing more disrespectful than waking people because of poor planning. It just blew my mind when people would come rolling up at 10pm and set up their tent or take a spot in the shelter, cook their food, hold conversations...still gets my blood boiling just thinking about it.
    Haha.. what a crock of BS. If you decide to stay at or near a shelter you SHOULD understand first and foremost that anything goes. You're not at the Hilton, and there are no "rules" out there. It sucks when people come rolling in after hours, but that's what you put up with, among other annoyances, when you choose to sleep in a shelter. If you want peace and solitude you need to stay FAR AWAY from the shelters. A lot of hikers pulling bigger mile days have the same rights as you do, and they likely won't be getting in until dark or around hiker midnight. So according to your self-absorbed viewpoint, these hikers need to move on unless it's an emergency? Absurd.
    "Though I have lost the intimacy with the seasons since my hike, I retain the sense of perfect order, of graceful succession and surrender, and of the bold brilliance of fall leaves as they yield to death." - David Brill

  13. #73
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    Exactly why I don't wanna stay in shelters ^^^^
    Hiking the AT is “pointless.” What life is not “pointless”? Is it not pointless to work paycheck to paycheck just to conform?.....I want to make my life less ordinary. AWOL

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    Quote Originally Posted by Hangfire View Post
    If you show up after lights out you shouldn't even approach the shelter unless you are in an emergency situation. The same goes with setting your tent up, stay clear of everyone who is already set up and sleeping, there is nothing more disrespectful than waking people because of poor planning. It just blew my mind when people would come rolling up at 10pm and set up their tent or take a spot in the shelter, cook their food, hold conversations...still gets my blood boiling just thinking about it. If you showed up at 6pm and saw tents in the shelter you can just tell them to make room, no big deal as they will probably be sitting around eating anyways. But rolling in late...even if there were just 4 people without tents, now they have to listen to you throw out your tyvek sheet, inflate an air mattress, rustle around with all of your equipment, watch your headlamp bounce around for 30 minutes, that's just inexcusable to me.

    Not picking on the OP as you weren't going to stay in the shelter anyways, but to your partner and any future hikers who may find themselves out on trail in a night hike situation, be respectful of sleeping hikers.

    Making up your own shelter rules?

    There arent any rules

    If it bothers you wear earplugs, youll never know they are there

    0.1 oz
    Last edited by MuddyWaters; 11-03-2016 at 06:43.

  15. #75
    ME => GA 19AT3 rickb's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by MuddyWaters View Post
    Making up your own shelter rules?

    There arent any rules

    If it bothers you wear earplugs, youll never know they are there

    0.1 oz
    While I tend to more or less agree with you and the others who see things that way, I would never dream of subjecting others to such a late interruption myself -- especially outside of the normal Nobo hiking season or at shelters away from the AT.

    Would you think twice about arriving at a shelter well after dark yourself?

  16. #76
    Registered User egilbe's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by rickb View Post
    While I tend to more or less agree with you and the others who see things that way, I would never dream of subjecting others to such a late interruption myself -- especially outside of the normal Nobo hiking season or at shelters away from the AT.

    Would you think twice about arriving at a shelter well after dark yourself?
    I was kind of lectured once by a hiker from Vermont. We had arrived at the shelter fairly early and we were the only ones there, set up our stuff leaving plenty of space for other people if they wanted to use it. This hiker rolls in and sniffs "I never set up in a shelter if its still daylight. I always leave that for people arriving after dark so they dont have to set up a tent".

    No matter what, you are going to lose, so go ahead and set up your six man tent in a shelter and enjoy yourself.

  17. #77
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    I think the problem of tents in a shelter is not tied to the AT, nor even to US.
    I've seen a tent in a very tiny shelter atop of Sinai's highest mountain. A bunch of tourists squeezing in the free space, their guide residing in the tent.

    This guy quarreled with us stating that we wouldn't be allowed to even be there.
    Later I asked him if he could point out the exact location on the horizon the sun would come up.
    He was done with us after this, believing we were complete idiots.

    Only after we had (in fact comfortabely) survived the night cowboy camping in near-freezing conditions, he became a bit less hostile the next morning.
    Met the same guy years later under circumstances showing that we were everything but stupid, and though he was too proud to apologize he clearly showed that he felt like such.

    I think the fact that here on WB you meet an overwhelming majority of good people just hides the fact that out in the outdoors there are all kinds of, good and bad ones.

  18. #78
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    if one is foolish enuf to stay in a box after strollin' through 1000s of acres of woods then one must put up with other fools doin' foolish things in that box

  19. #79

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    Quote Originally Posted by rickb View Post

    Would you think twice about arriving at a shelter well after dark yourself?
    Like someone said, arriving at 11 pm are folks that can use shelter the most.

    If anyone thinks they should give a hoot about section hikers doing 10 miles and camping in shelters at 3 pm they are a fool. And they definitrly dont. They will usually apologize though. But the idea is just make your noise and get settled as fast as can.

    Recently a sobo came into shelter where I was alone around 10 pm. By myself ill sleep there for ease of getting going in am. . Apologized, said he had 25 mile day. I said me too...I got here at 5:30.p m.

    I started at 5am, before dawn , instead of 9am and hiking late. Hour before daylight is best time of day. I dont like setting up in dark if can help it. And nope, not that concerned at a shelter. It is what it is. I wouldnt ask where the water is which is first thing out of many mouths.
    Last edited by MuddyWaters; 11-03-2016 at 09:34.

  20. #80

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    Quote Originally Posted by Oventoasted View Post
    ... also i always cleaned my dishes in the stream if one was near by.
    A big "no-no." Do not dump food scraps into a wilderness stream. Same for soapy water.

    Not to mention, but your downstream might be someone else's upstream.

    Besides, there's no reason to do that.
    [I]ye shall not pollute the land wherein ye are: ... Defile not therefore the land which ye shall inhabit....[/I]. Numbers 35

    [url]www.MeetUp.com/NashvilleBackpacker[/url]

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