If there is a broom in the shelter do you sweep the floor?

[Jack Tarlin]

I've always thought that all that sweeping accomplished was to churn up dust, turds, and other crud into the air where you would then be likelier to breathe them in.

It's kind of a non-issue for me as I generally don't stay in shelters anyway, but the way I see it, if a shelter is so dirty that I don't feel good about putting my groundcloth down on the floor and sleeping on it....well if the place is filthy enough that I'm concerned about it, well I probably wouldn't stay there anyway.

Shelters don't need to be swept before use.

[Lone Wolf]

If there is a broom in the shelter do you sweep the floor?

No. I don't pack out trash either. Did I ever mention that shelters suck?

[RAT]

Most shelter brooms end up being burned so its a waste of time to put them there. I think only the maintainers should sweep up occasionally while wearing a mask. Its dangerous sweeping and breathing all that "mice-crapp and godknowswhat else that's there. So I say not a good idea for the avg. hiker trash. That's what ground cloths are for. I personally try to avoid sleeping in shelters anyway.

Wolf, not packing out trash is ok long as ya aint leavin' any

RAT

[Lone Wolf]

Wolf, not packing out trash is ok long as ya aint leavin' any

RAT

back in the day i would pack out bits of trash from shelters. no more. waste of time. shelters are for vermin. 2 and 4 legged.

[Bravo]

Did I ever mention that shelters suck?

I don't recall L. Wolf ever saying that before. LOL!

[Brrrb Oregon]

Most shelter brooms end up being burned so its a waste of time to put them there. I think only the maintainers should sweep up occasionally while wearing a mask. Its dangerous sweeping and breathing all that "mice-crapp and godknowswhat else that's there. So I say not a good idea for the avg. hiker trash. That's what ground cloths are for. I personally try to avoid sleeping in shelters anyway.

Wolf, not packing out trash is ok long as ya aint leavin' any

RAT

Yeah, I sweep where there is a broom provided, but there's always hanta virus in the back of my mind.

OTOH, what's the alternative? Letting the crumbs and the crap stay there? It just attracts the mice more. Yeah, that stuff makes the tent more attractive. Nevertheless, if I'm going to use some place for free, leaving it the way I'd like to find it is the least I can do.

If you read up at the CDC website about cleaning up mouse droppings, it would make you want to put on a Hazmat suit before you walked into a shelter, though. Well, I guess that which doesn't kill me just gives me a little more immune system. I'm from farm-grade European stock on all sides, so I just cross my fingers and hope that I'm bred to live in a house attached to a barn...never mind that I may be the one in my generation who needs weeding out. People who think they're from a neatnik gene pool maybe should think twice about it, though. The point is to get sleep, after all.

[Jaybird]

Frampton came and played in one of the bars adjacent to campus in summer '74 Good Times!

Yes, i sweep the shelter...when broom is provided....

Yea, got to see FRAMPTON a few months back when he was still living in Nashville...we did a pre-taping here @ the studios...almost didnt recognize him....white hair & specs...but, ...."he still sho' can play!"

[Furlough]

I do not as a rule spend much time in shelters. But, I do like to stop by and read the registers and maybe prepare a meal - particularly if it is raining. If there is a broom, even though I won't stay there I will sweep out the shelter. I guess it is just good home training - when you can, leave a place a bit better than how you found it.

Furlough

[copythat]

LMAO ........ while im listening to some Steve Marriot blues ---- your old enough to remember him im sure

if i didn't remember him, i'd be eating some humble pie.

[rainmaker]

If a broom is there we sweep before we put our sleeping bags down and after we pack up to leave, provided no one is still in the shelter. I was also taught many years ago by a mother who didn't like dust, there is a right way and a wrong way to sweep.

[gsingjane]

Yes, we always sweep on leaving, even if we didn't sleep there (we usually don't). It is that Scouting, "leave a place better than you found it" thingie, plus it gives the kids another chore to do.

Jane in CT

[LIhikers]

When we arrive we'll sweep if it looks to need it. We'll sweep when we leave if we're the last ones out.

[saimyoji]

I sweep out MY shelter every time.

[the_iceman]

If it is a mess I sweep when I arrive and I always sweep when I leave. Unless of course it is full of sleeping hikers.

Do unto others......

If you use the dry wood replace it as well. If you gather wood try to leave some dry for the next guy you might save a life or make one better for a few minutes.

[joedannajr]

It seems that cleaning a shelter should be a natural thing to do. It is such a small thing to do but it makes such a big difference. When I arrive at a shelter the state of the sleeping platform is what first strikes me.

[mweinstone]

there are no floors. there are no brooms. there are no swept. free your mind and come with matthewski. to a place where its all one continuos floor and its all broomy and everyones sweeping and polishing and buffshinning and picking up. now . rest. your work is done. the world smells freash. welcome......








your a trasher. today,............ i will have sex. opps, wrong thread.........

[Jester2000]

There were 2 guys who, I think, died from contracting a Hanta virus. It is thought that they got it from dust from mouse doots while sweeping out their shelter.

In 2000 there was some concern on the part of the CDC regarding hanta in the mice in the Smokies. Subsequently they decided that their concern was unfounded.

No one has ever died from sweeping out an AT shelter.

[icemanat95]

I swept out shelters, I tried to keep the action low and slow to keep the dust down, and never did it if I wasn't the first one there.

[NINpigNIN]

I'll sweep if no one else (or their gear) is laid out in the shelter. But i also waste time doing silly things like tryng to put the shelter register back in order after its has fallen apart (which happens often when the notebook isn't spiral bound) - eightiesguy and I spent some time in June doing this at Double Spring, Silers and I think Derricks. None of the rest of the shelters further sw (Spence, Russell & Mollies) had registers, else I'd probably have done it there as well.

[Wildwood]

If it falls and there's no one there to hear it, does it make a sound?