Shenandoah camping

[toonnee]

I was wondering if anyone knew if there is a place to camp between calf mountain shelter and black rock hut? We will be getting a late start (around noon) when we start our hike. I think calf mountain will be a bit close and black rock will be bit far for the late start. I was looking to do a little stealth camping approximately 12-13 miles in. Any help is appreciated.

[johnnybgood]

By the word "stealth" I assume you mean unseen from the trail. There are numerous places to pitch a tent within 40 yds of the trail, but the designated campsites I know of are seen from the trail.
With that being said, there is an unused service road that sits between the AT and the Skyline Drive at Wildcat Ridge that is out of sight for tent camping. This is around 13 miles north of Calf Mountain Shelter and is after the road crossing on the right. No fire rings exist obviously.

There are campsites further north of Wildcat that will fit the bill mileage wise but these sites are not out of sight from the trail.

[Wise Old Owl]

JohnnyBgood after a careful examination of the details - I could only find a few such places in between the two locations. A few good places for hammocks The two shelters are 9 miles apart by direct method or 13.4 apart with walking the trail.In the middle of the two huts is a strange flat clearing 230 feet long and below the road and above 200 feet above the trail. its 1000 feet from a small valley. At the bottom of this picture is the gps of the clearing you will need to edit/convert the numbers a little to put it in a Garmin.

[GoldenBear]

The regulations on back-country camping in Shenandoah are pretty loose, actually.

http://www.nps.gov/shen/planyourvisit/campbc_regs.htm

You'll be nowhere near the "No camping, period" sections of the Park, so all you'll need to do is stay a quarter mile from Skyline Drive, twenty yards from a trail or un-paved road, and ten yards from a stream. All of those rules should be pretty easy to manage.

[toonnee]

I guess stealth wasn't exactly what I meant. Was just more or less wondering about descent spots to camp between the two as there is nothing listed in my guild book.

[johnnybgood]

That is right woo. 13 miles from Rockfish Gap apparantly is what I meant , around 6 miles north of Calf. The coordinates look right for the abandoned service road.

Toonne- Just north of Wildcat Ridge parking is a campsite on the right that will accomadate 4 tents.

[toonnee]

Thanks for the quick replies. We are looking at hiking the whole length of the park the first week of October.