David Lesser Shelter

[Former Admin]

Info, questions, comments, experiences (good or bad) regarding - David Lesser Shelter

Past/Present hikers - what can future hikers expect here? Have any good stories or memories from here?

Future hikers - any questions?

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[Kerosene]

Spent a lovely evening here in October 2001. The David Lesser Memorial Shelter (there was no indication as to who David Lesser was) is a clean, beautiful shelter with a lovely porch and skylight. There was a big Adirondack chair on the porch as well as seating along 2 sides of the porch. A separate, covered dining area also had a beautiful 2-person swinging chair that I sat on while filling out my trail log as the sun went down. Here's a picture that fails to do justice to this lovely shelter: http://www.jmclum.com/spring2000hike/050100c.jpg

The only drawback is that the spring is a good quarter-mile down the mountain (knowing this ahead of time, I brought down my 4-liter water bag to avoid a morning trip).

There's an overflow camping area below the shelter that looked fairly well used.

The hike north into Harpers Ferry was easy, quick and pleasant.

[Newb]

I hiked Harpers south to David Lesser back in June of '05 with J.D. After a hard days hike my ankles didn't want to take a morning trip down to the spring for more water. MISTAKE. Just be aware that there is no water immediately available on the trail until you get to Harper's. I had only one liter for the hike and was hurting by the time I filtered some water from a cliffside spring on the heights above Harpers Ferry.

[flow]

Great shelter- clean and no mice! Stayed there 10/2/09. Did not bother going down to the spring .25 miles one way reported-Fill up at Blackburn Trail shelter. Tent pads are really nice too- benches at each one. Abundance of good trees to hang a bear bag.

[Pedaling Fool]

Great shelter- clean and no mice! Stayed there 10/2/09. Did not bother going down to the spring .25 miles one way reported-Fill up at Blackburn Trail shelter. Tent pads are really nice too- benches at each one. Abundance of good trees to hang a bear bag.

I imagine not too many thru-hikers or even long-distance hikers stop in there since it's sandwiched between Blackburn AT Center and Harper's Ferry; it's probably almost like new.

[Jack Tarlin]

Yeah, it's like new all right.

It looks like someone's summer house, another 30 grand shelter from the PATC.

Shelter overkill if you ask me.

Shelters don't need to look like holiday condos, and one would think there were more pressing things for Trail clubs to spend money on, but maybe that's just me.

[Lone Wolf]

Yeah, it's like new all right.

It looks like someone's summer house, another 30 grand shelter from the PATC.

Shelter overkill if you ask me.

Shelters don't need to look like holiday condos, and one would think there were more pressing things for Trail clubs to spend money on, but maybe that's just me.

exactly. i remember checkin' it out the first year it was built. i noted in the register after reading comments about how wonderful it was that i thought it wasway too nice for a shelter and overkill and how they tore down a buncha trees to put it there. it wasn't/isn't needed. the PATC is too rich.

[Kerosene]

Shelter overkill if you ask me.

You didn't even mention the 2-person swing!

[Newb]

It's a good overnight hike from Harpers, and you can stop and get beers at highway 9. Talk about roughing it!

[Pedaling Fool]

After reading some of the comments above, it got me thinking, so I started looking up pics (I've always passed up the shelter) http://www.whiteblaze.net/forum/vbg/...searchid=27642

And it is a nice looking shelter, but you got to wonder why they would build such a good shelter in a place that seems like it would get very little use. My 2005 Companion says it sleeps six, looks like from the pics it's bigger than that. Also says: "A shelter-engineering feat".

Just seems like this shelter sits there all by its self for long, long periods of time -- so sad.

[Blissful]

Bryant Ridge shelter is like a palace.