Vandeventer Shelter

[Former Admin]

Info, questions, comments, experiences (good or bad) regarding - Vandeventer Shelter

Past/Present hikers - what can future hikers expect here? Have any good stories or memories from here?

Future hikers - any questions?

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[Jumpstart]

All I rememeber about this site is that it was a LONG haul for water, like almost a mile round trip and straight down (and therefore, straight up)..it was a typical TN shelter, no privy but pretty views behind the shelter on the rocks...the night we spent here the forest service did a controlled burn of all the surrounding forest so we had a smoky, sulfur-y smell all the next day...

[The Weasel]

FANTASTIC view, best enjoyed during dinner, of the valley below, while sitting on the rocks immediately behind the shelter. In '00, the shelter was VERY mousy, but they were the most entertaining mice of my trip: They'd jump out of their little hole, about a foot up the concrete block wall, run like hell to the other side, shinny up to see if there was any way to get into my food bag, fall off the tuna can, and then sober up, go home, and send out the next fool.

As for water, it's HORRIBLE. About a half mile (honest!) straight down and, yeah, back again. Try to carry enough from Watauga lake to get you through the night; the next water up the trail (NOBO) isn't real far in the morning, as I recall.

[stranger]

Play "Rock, Paper, Scissors" to see who gets water.

[chief]

i remember vandeventer shelter well. the climb from wautauga was THE hottest day i experienced in 2000, especially the road walk beyond the dam. the shelter seemed kinda funky to me. my partner and i tented behind it in the shadow of the rock ledge. views were great great from atop the ledge. a noisy bird kept us awake most of the night. we alternately left our tents to throw rocks at the damn thing. gave us a little breaks before he returned. i know i'll be scolded for molesting the wildlife, but the bird got off easy, i didn't have a shotgun!

btw - we missed the fetching water misery, we brought enough up with us.

[Hillbilly]

Haven't been there, yet, but, it and Iron Mountain are both on a route for me in June 04 with my son. The USGS gives me the impression that the trek along the spine of Iron Mountain is one long rail-ride on the ridge of the mountain, with very little up and down....is that a fact? thanks in advance - Hillbilly

[Bearmagnet]

It is flat and very easy to hike from Vandeventer towards Damascus. Have a great hike!

[Kozmic Zian]

Yea......Vanderventer. Great spot, view from the rocks behind. The bird that kept you up is the 'Famous Vanderventer Whipporwill'. Seems to come every night at dusk and cry out to all hours....very unrestful, but beautiful. Also, in '96, there was the resident 'Kangaroo Rat' that everyone was talking about. Probably no longer there, but at the time quite a topic of converstation.....big red thing, size of a house cat, long legs in rear like a kangaroo....biggest, damndest thing I ever saw. Came out the night I was there and snarffled around like it owned the place....it did! All to gether, quite a memorable stay.....KZ@

[abales01]

The sprint down to the water was a lot more fun than crawling back up....I think I drank most of mine before I reached the trail again.

[Berserker]

I spent the night here on 2/29 during a recent section hike. Must be something about a leap year. It was really weird weather that night. It had recently snowed, so there was anywhere from 6" - 12" of snow on the ground. It started snowing before I got there, and proceeded to snow, sleet and rain throughout the night.

At any rate, the shelter is not one of the better ones I've seen. It is a little rustic looking, and for someone my height (6'-5") the roof was a bit low. The shelter was full of snow. It appears to be west facing, which is an interesting direction to face since it would seem that most of the weather would come from that direction. The shelter is also fairly small, and not real deep (my feet would be hanging out of it if it were full of people).

I (and my buddy who was with me) tented outside the shelter. There is not a whole lot of space to set up a tent. We were literally on top of the shelter, and the surrounding area does not seem to have any space to set up a tent.

The spring location was as advertised. It is a long steep hike down the side of the ridge on a blue blazed trail. I could see this being really annoying after a hot long mileage day, but since we had an easy day and it was freezing the hike back up from the spring was kind of nice.

Mice seem to be an issue as we both had evidence of mice being near or in our tents (mouse dookie and a hole chewed in my buddy's tent).

[Jim Lemire]

Ditto on the view of the lake. A 3 ft snake came out of a hole in the shelter post and slithered upward. In the middle of the floor was a winter MRE. I had enjoyed it.

AT2000

[Time To Fly 97]

Nice view. I left at 6am and the whipporwill flew straight at my face and my headlamp made his eyes reflect bright red...and then alighted on the fire ring and looked back at me. I took that as a hello from a good spirit and proceeded to bang out 34 miles in 12 hours to (what once was) Quincy's pizza. I felt great afterwards - just awesome ever so slightly downhill trail all the way. That was my biggest milage day and I'll always have good memories of Vanderventer shelter because of that and it is a cool spot for a shelter.

Happy hiking!

TTF

[Berserker]

As others have posted I forgot to mention that there is a nice view of Lake Watauga from behind the shelter. There are some rocks there that one can sit on and eat while taking in the view. Quite nice.

[10-K]

I had lunch at this shelter last week and it was the first (and only) time I've had a mouse come out and sit beside me while I ate. Strangest thing.... stayed about 3' away from me the entire time until I stood up to leave.

[CrumbSnatcher]

if your planning on staying the night here and you were coming up from the lake(northbound)theres a decent spring right on the A.T. 1.7 miles south of the shelter.if you dont want to mess with the water source at the shelter. from vandeventer to damascus is a great hike,mostly downhill and gets easier the closer you get to damascus. they call this section the tennessee turnpike. good hiking

[Pedaling Fool]

Play "Rock, Paper, Scissors" to see who gets water.

Outstanding!

[excuses]

Stayed there last June, it was the first shelter I had stayed in. Rain all the way from Hampton and I got in at dark. Three people and 3 dogs. They made room and I was gone at dawn. The others complained about the hike to the water. I elected to wait to fill up later as I still had some. Didn't notice the mice and missed the view in the dark.

[earlyriser26]

We were going to stay there overnight a couple of years ago, but they were doing a controlled burn in the area and a 4 mile stretch of the AT was closed so we did that portion by forest service jeep (still it was the official AT at the time). I went for water and that is why I remember this place. About half a mile straight down! Worst official water on the AT in my opinion. I'm surprised no one has mention the murder that took place at this shelter. Some say it is haunted.

[Berserker]

I'm surprised no one has mention the murder that took place at this shelter. Some say it is haunted.

I didn't mention it cause I didn't know about it. Now that I do, I can say that I am happy I was ignorant of it while I was there. Having not known about it when I was there, the night was perfectly normal (other than the weather). Don't remember anything strange or wierd about it.

[Puppy]

If you are looking to get the water at about 1.7 before the shelter (heading north) - look for the pile of rocks (cairn ?) right on the trail - the water is to the right from the cairn between some boulders. As of about 4/23/08.