Cold Spring Shelter Closed??
I heard that the Cold Spring Shelter in NC is closed due to construction. Is that true? Are there good tent sites near it?
Thanks
Hotel
I don't know.
I do know that it was renovated last year, and open at this time, and the ATC site was still saying it was closed.
There are plenty of tent sites past it and on ridge above it.
If you ask me, its a nasty little shelter, literally in the middle of trail, the trail goes around it. Ridiculous 2 person table in front, and always muddy because spring is 10 ft in front of shelter
Camp on ridge above it.
Last edited by MuddyWaters; 09-28-2014 at 19:56.
Took a break there this past Memorial Day weekend while hiking into the NOC. It was rebuilt about two years ago. Don't know what other construction would be needed? Spent the night there shortly after the re-build in May of 2013. Muddy Waters is correct about the table. It was very damp and buggy but listening to the bubbling spring in front puts you right to sleep.
Six of us stayed at Cold Spring Shelter back in late July. I don't think we intended to stay there but after hiking in the rain for several hours and being soaked, none of us felt like tenting. Not the best of shelters but we didn't have to walk off the trail to get to it, there was water right there, and it kept us dry for the night. Another backpacker came in after we had already had our gear explosion and decided to camp up on the ridge to the right just after the shelter. There were some sites to the left but they didn't look too flat. I also recall that there were some cleared areas where you could put up a tent once you got up near Copper Ridge Bald about a mile or so up the trail from the shelter.
Two of us stayed in the old one in 2008. We didn't realize that there was a tent site just a little farther on. It was bug ridden, very muddy, and since we figured we were alone we put our tents up inside the shelter - and then watched as the outside of our tents were overrun with mice. There was only a log to sit on, just enough to keep you out of the mud. And the privy was full of bags of garbage. In the morning people from the tent site started coming down to the spring (and that's when we found out about the tent site).
"All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us."
Tents inside the shelter? That's pretty rude.Originally Posted by Mrs Baggins
don't like logging? try wiping with a pine cone.
It was open two weeks ago
"Difficulties are just things to overcome, after all" Ernest Shackleton
I just stayed there last Sunday night. There's a nice tenting/hammocking area just north of the shelter. Piped water right in front of the shelter.
Best thing about Cold Spring Shelter is it's water source, Water up and hike on.
There was NO one else there and no one else ever came down the trail. The people at the tent sites had gotten there ahead of us. We came in late. The condition of the shelter was so bad that sleeping in our tents, we thought (because we DIDN'T know about the tent area) was our only alternative to being run over by literally 100's of mice and lord knows what else. And to stay out of the mud and crud that was IN the shelter as well as outside of it. Never did it before and never have since.
"All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us."
Does anyone know if it's open now? The ATC website has that it's still closed.
I passed by it a few weeks ago and it was open and very well used. It's pretty dumpy though ... I'd get water and move along to the camping area slightly north the shelter.
Remote for detachment, narrow for chosen company, winding for leisure, lonely for contemplation, the Trail beckons not merely north and south, but upward to the body, mind, and soul of man.
It is not closed yet. Great spot for mice, too!
"Just trying to keep life simple."
It is not closed. Great spot for mice, too.
"Just trying to keep life simple."
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