I am not sure if this is exactly the right place, but I'm posting here because we experienced something on Saturday evening, at the Ed Garvey Shelter, that was a little frustrating...so if its in the wrong place, I'm sorry--it could certainly be any shelter on the AT I'm asking this about.
My husband and I were planning on doing a 3.5 day leisurely trip from Snicker's Gap into Penn Mar, to sew up a little section we'd hadn't done yet. We originally planned to start Friday, but the weather was crummy--so we holed up in the Battletown Inn (nice place, Berryvale VA) for a night, and started on Saturday. Beautiful day, but to make up some time, we hiked a little further than originally planned, doing about 25 or 26 miles into the Ed Garvey. Not bad terrain, beautiful day, no complaints--but we were tired and looking forward to crashing after a quick bite. Unfortunately, when we arrived, the shelter was FULL, and I mean FULL.
The boys scouts were there, which wasn't actually a big deal, except that they had spread out tents everywhere and I think we had gotten the very last site you could squeeze into...but we were hoping to just crash in the shelter. Now, this is a pretty big shelter, but there were a ton of people there, most of whom had apparently hiked a couple of miles in from a nearby parking lot to spend the night, and were then hiking out back to their vehicles in the AM. I think there were probably 3 or 4 thru-hikers that we could discern out of the whole lot (two of them relegated to hammocks), and when asked if there was room at all in the shelter, we were told it was full.
I know it doesn't do any good to complain or write letters--but for my own sanity here--is this really supposed to happen? I know, shelters are first come, first serve...and we did have tents...but is this a frequent occurence for folks? We have only been sectioning for probably the past 5 or 6 years, I don't think we've ever had someone tell us there wasn't any more room in a shelter.
As a contrast, we spent the next evening in Ensign Cowall, completely alone! It was very peaceful.
Thanks for listening, in retrospect not a big deal I guess...just needed to vent. I guess everyone has the same right to the shelters.
gum