Hot Springs to Davenport Gap Camp sites

[McFrancis]

Looking for good camp sites between. Thinking Catpen on night one and somewhere near brown gap on the second night.

[Stir Fry]

Just befor max patch is nice stream and camp.

[Big Dawg]

Thinking Catpen

I'd normally say absolutely no to this location, but that would only be during hunting season.

My friend and I camped there a number of years ago, and after setting up camp, we realized the clearing just beyond the woodline was a back-country road which we later found out led to a hunters campground. We were approached by 3 "Deliverance looking" hillbillies in a truck who invited us back to camp for some venison they were cooking. We politely declined, to which they insisted. We reluctantly agreed, and once we got down there, we realized there were 8 hillbillies. All were smoking dope, cleaning their guns, and talking serious trash. A few at a time would disappear, and my friend said they were prolly doing meth, based on how they acted upon returning. Most were "good ol boys", but some gave us the creeps.

We untimately made it back to our camp unscathed after eating some venison tenderloin (which was awesome btw), and swore we were waking early to bolt. Middle of the night we heard multiple human footfall sounds around our camp, and sounds of a "painter cat" (a mountain lion), which they said may pay us a visit in the middle of the night (hence the name of the gap). Knowing they may show up in the middle of the night, we prepared a reaction. After hearing the human footfall, we loudly proclaimed how we were getting ready to jump out of our tents and shoot the big painter cat w/ our guns (no, we didn't have guns), and all of a sudden we heard multiple people scatter.

It was funny, but a little scary too. We bolted by 6am and made it to Hot Springs that day. Definitely too close for comfort. I'm just glad I didn't hear one of them say... "you got a purdy mouth boy".

[Emerson Bigills]

I hiked that section in the other direction back in January. Really enjoyed it. I stayed at Brown Gap and unless I missed the best campsite I wasn't too impressed. There is a gravel FS road running by the gap and the water source was pretty sketchy. Of course, it was January so no one else was on the trail and I didn't hear any cars on the FS road that night. No problems, just not the best I have seen.

I would look for something on either side of Brown Gap. There is a decent shelter just north of Max Patch and another one just south of Brown Gap. Have fun.

[waasj]

Hiked through there 2 years ago and agree with the Max patch site. This would be trail north of Max Patch. Seems there were several nce sites all along that stretch. The shelters didn't look too bad either.