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  1. #1
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    Default Mark Noepel Lean-to

    Info, questions, comments, experiences (good or bad) regarding - Mark Noepel Lean-to

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

    Future hikers - any questions?

  2. #2
    Section Hiker 350 miles DebW's Avatar
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    Very nice shelter. A friend and I spend the night of September 11, 2001 there at the start of a 5 day trip, oblivious to world events. Guess we wouldn't have enjoyed it so much if we had known. Shelter has bunks and a loft. Picnic table there also.

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    Smile

    This shelter area is another nice spot for tenting out.You might have to go a long way for your water but it's there.Lots of times the first water source is dry and if you follow the water bed down stream you will come to good running water.Watch out for prokepines here.
    EZ-DOES-IT
    It's mind over matter
    If you don't mind it doesn't matter

  4. #4

    Default Porkies

    Big time Porcupine problem. Capital P. He moved from the shelter edge to the picnic table to the privy as the night wore on and our sleeping suffered. I couldn't believe how bold this porky was.
    AT02, LT 03-04, BMT05, NPT06, Haute Route07, Abol Ridgerunner 07/08, EBC Nepal trek 10

  5. #5

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    I know this is off subject and I'll move this somewhere else, like the porcupine forum. But, what is it about these animals. Don't they just run away if you clap your hands or something. You make it sound like these things will chase you to the end of the world and bite your leg off.

    As you can tell I've seen one except in a zoo.

  6. #6
    Registered User Peaks's Avatar
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    This is a little off topic, but porkies are bold. After all, they have their natural protection that no one is going to mess with.

    Two stories about my encounters with them.

    The first was decades ago at the old Peru Peak shelter. That place was infested with them. Back in those days, I carried a bar of ivory soap. The porkies even ate that.

    The second was up on the northern end of the Long Trail near Jay Peak at a cabin along the trail. It was evident that porkies were abundant there also. So, at night, we closed the door (or what was left of it), and plugged the holes with fire wood. The porkies scrambled up the side of the cabin and in through crevaces in the shutters over the windows. Then the rummaged around inside all night, and whinned and whinned. I never new porkies to whine, but they sure did that night.

    If you want to kill this pest, club him in the nose. They are slow moving, so you can easily out run them.

  7. #7

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    Sure hope Peaks was kidding in his last post. Scare the animal off? Sure, if he's becoming a real annoyance or threat to your person or property. But suggestions and advice on how to kill him? Sorry. That's a bit much. Let's remember that a campsite, a shelter, and for that matter, the hiker and the Trail----all are unnatural intrusions into the land where this animal and others like him have lived for time out of mind. WE are the visitors here, WE are the intruders and interlopers in his home, WE are merely privileged guests passing thru. Whether porcupine, rattlesnake, or anything else, (except maybe the odd mosquito!) we shouldn't be thinking about killing the wild animals we're lucky enough to encounter out there, and nor should we be instructing others on how best to do so.

  8. #8
    Registered User Peaks's Avatar
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    As always, Jack, you have a valid point. My references are undoubtedly a carryover for days gone past when "civilization" did that to unwanted creatures, including rattle snakes, wolfs, etc.

  9. #9
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    Hey those are valid points, all right. Mice too. They're part of the environment. Mouse want to run across your face and poop in your mouth? OPEN WIDE!

  10. #10
    Section Hiker, 625 miles & counting mooseboy's Avatar
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    After finding the mice that lived in the register box (not cute little mice but big country-sized critters), which basically gave me a heart attack when I opened the panel, I sympathize with Peaks. I'm generally against killing wildlife, but mice are another story.

    I lunched here July 2005. It looked like a clean, comfy lean-to with the exception of the rodents.

    While it's true that WE are the visitors to the wilderness, aren't our shelters meant to be "our little place"? Don't the rodents get the ENTIRE mountain to roam around and live on? I don't think it's too much to ask for a pest-free environment in the 0.001% of the land that we're occupying with our campsites and shelters.

  11. #11
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    Quote Originally Posted by mooseboy
    While it's true that WE are the visitors to the wilderness, aren't our shelters meant to be "our little place"?
    No! That's why they don't have doors. They remain open to the environment and its ordinary residents--we are just transients passing thro' their habitat, trying to minimize our impact on it. That includes not killing the local fauna!

    Quote Originally Posted by mooseboy
    Don't the rodents get the ENTIRE mountain to roam around and live on? I don't think it's too much to ask for a pest-free environment in the 0.001% of the land that we're occupying with our campsites and shelters.
    In the lower 48 states, and esp. in the East, just what percentage of the environment have we left its orginal non-human inhabitants to roam around and live on? Habitat loss is a major issue--one of the major environmental issues of our time. We have this narrow corridor (broken in many places) around the AT for endangered species to migrate up and down on--we claim most everything else for our own human uses. It's up to us to keep shelters clean, not leave food scraps around campsites, hang food well, do whatever we can not to encourage the wildlife to hang out in shelters. If they do hang out in shelters, we co-exist, convenient or not--that's part of what "leave no trace" means.

  12. #12
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    I killed a whole day last August at Mark Noepal lean to, and found that it ( and I reckon any leanto ) is a perfect bird blind. I saw my first Scarlet Tanager there. Just sit in the shelter quietly, and you see plenty of avian action.

  13. #13
    Registered User canoehead's Avatar
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    don't forget the PORQYS

  14. #14
    Registered User JJB's Avatar
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    Talking

    I was at the shelter last monday the 9th. It's one of the best in the area. I usualy use it as my jumping off spot for that area. I take the train to Pittsfield and then it's a short bus ride to Cheshire. I thought that I was going to be the first to one there for the new year, but somebody beat me there on skis. Snow was manageable with out snow shoes. Always enjoy my stay there. But in the winter there is no critters so even better.

  15. #15

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    I'm thinking about staying in this shelter next weekend. Any one got any more up to date info? Looking forward to meeting the resident porcupine!

  16. #16

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    Quote Originally Posted by Lucyh View Post
    I'm thinking about staying in this shelter next weekend. Any one got any more up to date info? Looking forward to meeting the resident porcupine!
    Haven't seen the porky in a while. Water is still good, but you'll need to walk downstream to find a reasonable pool to dip from.

    Cosmo

  17. #17
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    I stayed overnight there in mid September, wasn't bothered by any critters. It was a typical Massachusetts style shelter with a loft. Water was good, but a bit of a walk. Met a couple of south bound thru hikers. Good times.

  18. #18

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    Thanks for the messages Just Tom and Cosmo. I went to the shelter a couple of weeks ago and got TOTALLY FREAKED OUT by a big old grizzly porcupine, which I originally mistook for a young bear cub and got very freaked out until it came closer and I realised it obviously wasn't! He/she was very much not scared of humans, and enjoyed nosing about near my tent!

  19. #19

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    Quote Originally Posted by Lucyh View Post
    Thanks for the messages Just Tom and Cosmo. I went to the shelter a couple of weeks ago and got TOTALLY FREAKED OUT by a big old grizzly porcupine, which I originally mistook for a young bear cub and got very freaked out until it came closer and I realised it obviously wasn't! He/she was very much not scared of humans, and enjoyed nosing about near my tent!
    That will get your blood moving! The porky's been an off and on visitor for several years. Hopefully he did not spend the evening munching on the shelter.

    Cosmo

  20. #20

    Default Mark Noepel Lean-to

    This was at Bake Oven Knob shelter last June.....

    Last edited by Deacon; 11-07-2016 at 12:25.

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