Missing shelter registers

[steve hiker]

How often do you find shelter registers missing, or pages torn out? Maybe it's more of a winter problem when weekenders use the paper to start fires. These past couple months I've found most of the pages torn from the Cosby Knob register, and no register at all at Icewater. Of course, these areas are heavily used by weekenders, so maybe it's not a real problem outside of national parks.

Also, who collects and replaces the registers?

[Bankrobber]

Trail maintenance clubs usually. Thru-hikers often leave registers with return addresses.

[poison_ivy]

It's possible that they were just full and someone took them to send back to the thrus that left them. But I think there is something to registers going missing during the winter (purposely or not.) When I started hiking early last spring in Connecticut, none of the shelters had registers in them. By late spring/early summer (and heading into Mass.) I never encountered a shelter without one and they were often fairly new notebooks too.

- Ivy

[Alligator]

Lots of different people leave blank registers, not always thrus. When the register is full, someone probably mails it out, because often the person who left it promises goodies. By fall, the registers are often full, but fewer hikers means fewer blanks. Since few people carry blanks, the shelters may not get a new one until traffic increases. I passed three shelters in a row in November without one! I've seen pages torn out, but typically just the blank pages.

[A-Train]

Most shelters did have registers. I was early enough in the year where many entries were still there from the tail end of the 02' class, which made for some fun reading, especially in Maine.
I loved reading the registers. It was usually the first thing i did when i got to a shelter. It was a bit of a letdown when i'd arrive and find no register. I felt kinda lost, like i didn't know where anyone was.
I would recommend anyone hiking a considerable distance to pack in a register. Some folks I walked with did this and were able to leave a brand new book in a shelter which brought them satisfaction. I wish I had done the same.

[Lone Wolf]

Also, who collects and replaces the registers?

me. i have stacks of them

[mweinstone]

wolfs kidding

[Lone Wolf]

wolfs kidding

:::wolf seen nibbling mattie's toes:::

[stumpknocker]

:::wolf seen nibbling mattie's toes:::

Dino must have Lone Wolf's password.

[Tin Man]

collecting registers? i just collect the pages signed by warren, he's the man

[warraghiyagey]

I like to leave a new one at the first shelter and then move each subsequent one to the next shelter south just to watch the nobo's confused looks. . .

[shelterbuilder]

I know that here in Pa., the we (the maintaining club) collect them, and replace them with fresh ones. Sometimes this is done by the shelter maintainer, sometimes by the shelters chairman during annual inspection time (January through March). (In the past, we've used the information in the registers to estimate shelter usage when trying to judge how big to make the privies.) Entries are also helpful if we're trying to locate a "missing" hiker - assuming that they've signed in on a regular basis.

I think that you're right about hikers using the pages for firestarter - we mostly find pages missing from late Fall through Spring.