Shelters are good for resting, cooking, and meeting other hikers and chatting a bit. They also usually have reliable water.
They are pretty bad for sleeping, even w/o the micecapades. There is not much worse for a nights than a crowded shelter.
Shelters are good for resting, cooking, and meeting other hikers and chatting a bit. They also usually have reliable water.
They are pretty bad for sleeping, even w/o the micecapades. There is not much worse for a nights than a crowded shelter.
What if I said to minimize ecological impact?
yeah its BS for me....its just easier. (But it does make me feel better about myself!)
AT (LASH) '04-'14
Since this is a 7 year-old thread, I'm sure that I won't be stirring the pot much by adding my $0.02's worth. (I know why I've built so many of them, but that's another thread.) I don't always stay in the shelters, especially if I'm on a longer section hike and the shelter is in the wrong location in relation to my hike schedule. Bad weather? Yep, I stay. Right place, right time? Ditto. The social aspect? Not so much. However, for me PERSONALLY, there's another aspect to shelters. As a shelterbuilder, I enjoy seeing HOW the shelter fits into the environment and I try to imagine what the original designers/builders were trying to accomplish WITHIN THE TIME-FRAME OF WHEN THE SHELTER WAS BUILT. Nothing exists in a vacuum, everything is connected, and if you look at a particular site with the eye of an historian, you can sometimes get an insight into what people were thinking when they built the place. This isn't as practical of an answer as the weather, but it's just as important to me. HYOH.
Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass - it's about learning how to dance in the rain!
I'm fully in agreement with you on this! I think that the only part I'd quibble with is that I don't think you need actually to sleep in the things in order to gain the appreciation of why they're there and what people were trying to accomplish. And I tip my hat to the builders as I use a shelter to cook a meal, socialize, visit the privy, read/sign the register, ... before hiking on to my tent site.
I always know where I am. I'm right here.
They are what they are. when it is pouring rain or snowing like crazy they rock.
I will use them in the summer as well when I'm running out of tent options.
Floyd
I agree with folks who posted about shelters being noisy... the last time I stayed in a shelter, it was packed, and the two hikers on either side of me were snoring up a storm, but it poured that night and was very thankful they made room for me and I didn't have to start the day off packing up a wet tent. Dryer pack for a little less sleep; I'll take the trade off every once in a while.