Do any others have positive things to say about shelters?
Sure, we walked past a few that looked good.
Do any others have positive things to say about shelters?
Sure, we walked past a few that looked good.
That man is the richest whose pleasures are the cheapest. Henry David Thoreau
Let me get this straight. Are those of you who claim to hate shelters are saying that when its pouring rain, you're tired and you are passing a shelter, you don't at least go sit there for a short while? It's my theory that a large number of people on this site say one thing but do another. I've spent a great deal of time on the AT over the years and when it's raining I see very few tents and very full shelters.
I like shelters if for nothing else a place to set up a tent under cover and then move it to where you want to sleep. Also I'm not afraid of mice or snoring or fart gas or any of the other so called horrors of shelter life.
yes, that is it. if i was hiking in the rain and saw a shelter, i would keep on hiking in the rain. the more time i waste anywhere near that miserable nasty rathole is that much more time it takes to get to where i'm going and set up my tent. i've stopped at one in the last ten years and that was because i felt the beginnings of hypothermia and to go on would have been retarded. i view them as emergency only, but then again, the more people that like them, the more awesome campsites i'll find undisturbed.
I have section hiked and never stayed at a Shelter. But when I through hike the bottom line will be I will do almost anything to make it all the way mg. So if that includes staying in some shelters, so be it.
"Something hidden. Go and find it. Go, and look behind the Ranges. Something lost behind the Ranges. Lost and waiting for you . . . Go!" (Rudyard Kipling)
From SunnyWalker, SOBO CDT hiker starting June 2014.
Please visit: SunnyWalker.Net
Getting too old for the hard planks???? I slept real good Tuesday night in LeConte shelter. Didn't know age had anything to do with it. I'm 66 (twice your age), I should have been awake all night???
i can live without the shelters, but i don't hate them! to me it was always cool to see them when i was coming around the bend or over the hill!
When I did the AT in 1992, I looked forward to each and every shelter i visited or slept in b/c I believed that they were part of the trail, its surroundings and the trail experience.
Then when I did the trail again in 2001, things had changed so much. Too many of the shelters had been replaced by the "hilton" designs that are out there even more now. I still enjoyed seeing them , but it wasn't the same from 10 years earlier.
Dissing shelters is very cool among the hard core crowd. WGAF. It's like alcohol stoves vs any other cooking system. If you're not using a home made alcohol stove you just aren't among the in crowd. Again, WGAF. I like shelters. I like knowing I have a place to sleep if I don't feel like setting up my tent. I like having a bench or table to sit at. I like having the other hikers to talk to. And I love my Pocket Rocket and refuse to waste my time with some kind of home made cat food alcolhol stove because the cool crowd says it's right.
"All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us."
i used to use shelters once in awhile,have a few favorite shelters i won't pass up. if no one or just 1-2 people show up i might stay. if it even starts to fill up i move on or go tent! usually? and i love my pocket rocket too
i love my msr superfly stove... it's a pocket rocket with the flame spread out, which helps cook pancakes and omelets more evenly
tents are cool... but in my quest for what's best, i'm going swining in a hammock for the first time very soon...
Hell i haven't seen a shelter in a long time, i wouldn't mind seeing one! the trail doesn't pass thru Nebraska.