Use shelters on the AT or not?

[Dzarn]

Just been a passive reader of this great AT forum. Wealth of information here... would like to attempt a thru hike of the AT; but that most likely won't happen due to work and regular life. Have a couple of questions though concerning AT shelters.

It is possible or has anyone ever completed an AT thru hike without using the shelters... just by tent only? I would sleep better alone then hearing everyone snore in a shelter, so I would be likely to use a tent all the time rather then using a shelter from time to time.

Your thoughts?

[rafe]

I'll bet a few thru-hikes have been completed without sleeping in the woods at all. There are a couple of areas where you're nominally required to stay in the shelters -- the Smokies, and the Whites. Crafty folks find ways around the rules in both cases. Here and there are short no-camping sections, usually state parks and such. There's a fifteen mile stretch in PA like that -- where the trail corridor is just too narrow and too close to roads and private property.

Aside from that, and in general -- nobody's forced to stay in an AT shelter.

[Starchild]

Just been a passive reader of this great AT forum. Wealth of information here... would like to attempt a thru hike of the AT; but that most likely won't happen due to work and regular life. Have a couple of questions though concerning AT shelters.

It is possible or has anyone ever completed an AT thru hike without using the shelters... just by tent only? I would sleep better alone then hearing everyone snore in a shelter, so I would be likely to use a tent all the time rather then using a shelter from time to time.

Your thoughts?

In the AT thru hike you can sleep most of the time in tents, but there is normally the requirement of sheltering specifically in the Smokies.

I don't recall that the whites had this requirement and I do believe they do not (you can tent below treeline with respect to a certain distance from trail, huts, roads and water), and there are several established camping sites along the AT or a short side hike to them. The hut 'croo' if work for stay is not available will usually direct the thru hiker as to where to camp nearby which is just usually right outside the hut perimeter zone.

OTOH AMC (which manages the whites) is very big on the 'leave no trace' principals and will often discourage it, but I believe it is legal regardless.

Also even though the privacy of a tent is nice, and usually better then a shelter sleep, there are times, such as heavy rains where one appreciates the covered structure over setting up a tent.

[Slo-go'en]

Staying in shelters isn't nearly as bad as some people make it out to be - most of the time. Shelters do make life easier and many, if not most, thru hikers will opt for staying in the shelter when ever possible. This is especially true later in the hike when competion for shelter space isn't as great as it was early on as people spread out and others go home.

[Starchild]

Staying in shelters isn't nearly as bad as some people make it out to be - most of the time. Shelters do make life easier and many, if not most, thru hikers will opt for staying in the shelter when ever possible. This is especially true later in the hike when competion for shelter space isn't as great as it was early on as people spread out and others go home.

Later in the hike you are more likely to know everyone in your bubble, and everyone is pretty much trail hardened and going to make it, that does change the social dynamics a bit and one may be more willing to shelter then near the beginning.

[ChinMusic]

Staying in shelters isn't nearly as bad as some people make it out to be - most of the time. Shelters do make life easier and many, if not most, thru hikers will opt for staying in the shelter when ever possible. This is especially true later in the hike when competion for shelter space isn't as great as it was early on as people spread out and others go home.

I staying in like two shelters outside of the Smokies and that was because I got to the shelter late and couldn't find a flat spot. I would almost always tent even if I showed up at a shelter area and I was the only one there.

I loved the sound of rain beating on my tent while sleeping. Packing up a wet cuben tent in the morning was no different than packing a dry cuben tent. The wet-tent issue in a non-factor.

[Starchild]

I staying in like two shelters outside of the Smokies and that was because I got to the shelter late and couldn't find a flat spot. I would almost always tent even if I showed up at a shelter area and I was the only one there.

I loved the sound of rain beating on my tent while sleeping. Packing up a wet cuben tent in the morning was no different than packing a dry cuben tent. The wet-tent issue in a non-factor.

I too had a cuban tent, what I found is that setting it up while it rains gets me wet, and packing it up while it rains gets me wet, as well as even though cuban is less water holding then Sil-nylon, it's still packing a wet tent.

Yes there is a certain nicety about being in a dry place hearing the pouring rain, but that is also shelter related.

So like anything else YMMV

[1234]

I staying in like two shelters outside of the Smokies and that was because I got to the shelter late and couldn't find a flat spot. I would almost always tent even if I showed up at a shelter area and I was the only one there.

I loved the sound of rain beating on my tent while sleeping. Packing up a wet cuben tent in the morning was no different than packing a dry cuben tent. The wet-tent issue in a non-factor.

I agree with it all except the noise, cuben pulled tight is LOUD almost as loud as a tin roof. I carry a 10X10 inch piece of the orange water soak em up type cloth to remove the last of the drops but if windy the trees rain for hours. It can trick you into thinking it is still raining!

[DavidNH]

I'm sure some one somewhere has hiked the AT without ever using shelters. However, I would add.. that if it has been raining all day.. and the rain doesn't stop, it's a heck of a lot more pleasant to have a shelter to hole up in then to confine yourself to a small tent. You can stand up in shelters.
Also.. shelters get less crowded when you go north. Or if you sleep in a shelter 3-4 miles from town.. no one will be there.. they all went right into town to hit the bars.

[HikerMom58]

I'm sure some one somewhere has hiked the AT without ever using shelters. However, I would add.. that if it has been raining all day.. and the rain doesn't stop, it's a heck of a lot more pleasant to have a shelter to hole up in then to confine yourself to a small tent. You can stand up in shelters.
Also.. shelters get less crowded when you go north. Or if you sleep in a shelter 3-4 miles from town.. no one will be there.. they all went right into town to hit the bars.

Rolling into a shelter, no one there, on a rainy night & setting up a msr hubba tent, in the shelter = a beautiful thing! It's called the "hubba trick".

[johnnybgood]

I can see the allure of possibly wanting to stay in a shelter in lieu of tenting during inclement weather. Packing away a wet tent always sucks.

[Wise Old Owl]

I can see the allure of possibly wanting to stay in a shelter in lieu of tenting during inclement weather. Packing away a wet tent always sucks.

Good for lightening storms.... bout it...

[full conditions]

Good for lightening storms.... bout it...

Back in the early 80's (maybe 1983) two hikers were killed by lightening in the Mount Collins Shelter in the Smokies. Apparently they were both sitting on the bottom bunk when they were killed.

[Blue Mountain Edward]

I talked to a guy who would not use shelters or use a privy because he was scared of spiders. Maybe he disliked crowds.

[Teacher & Snacktime]

I talked to a guy who would not use shelters or use a privy because he was scared of spiders. Maybe he disliked crowds.

Crowds of spiders? I don't blame him! Snacktime and I stayed in our first shelter last January, and it was rather nice. We might have been warmer in a tent, but we wanted to experience a shelter stay. The advantage in winter was no bugs or mice, and waking at 1am to a silent, snowy world. It was SO beautiful, and something I would have missed had we set up the tent. I can think of a few locations where I'd like to shelter for the sunset, sunrise views....Thomas Know, balds, anything that offers panorama.

[rafe]

I talked to a guy who would not use shelters or use a privy because he was scared of spiders. Maybe he disliked crowds.

Met a hiker in VT who had to end a thru-hike on account of being bit by a brown recluse spider, in VT.

[Sarcasm the elf]

Met a hiker in VT who had to end a thru-hike on account of being bit by a brown recluse spider, in VT.

I'm skeptical that the spider in question was a brown recluse given that VT isn't part of their natural range. Not saying it isnt possible, just unlikely.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_r...r#Distribution

[Starchild]

I'm skeptical that the spider in question was a brown recluse given that VT isn't part of their natural range. Not saying it isnt possible, just unlikely.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_r...r#Distribution

Wikipedia.. OK yes I can change that for you... see now that the Brown Recuse Spider is ever helpful to AT thru hikers (no need to check, I didn't edit it, and also think that Wikipedia is the modern day library of Alexandria and so much more).

[imscotty]

My brother-in-law was bitten by a Spider while delivering mail on his mail-route in Southern Vermont. He did not save the spider for identification but it was a life threatening bite, there was serious flesh necrosis, and he was laid up for months. The doctors all agreed based on the symptoms and type of damage done that it must have been a Brown Recluse. Of course, this one may have hitched a ride on the mail.

[rafe]

I'm skeptical that the spider in question was a brown recluse given that VT isn't part of their natural range. Not saying it isnt possible, just unlikely.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_r...r#Distribution

You know, I never bothered to verify the dude's claim. It was a casual conversation with an AT hiker going the other way. Maybe there's another spider species native to VT that can leave necrotic bites?

What struck me at the time was that the guy's (first) thru-hike ended in VT. Rather than pick up from VT, he started another thru-hike the following year.