Icewater shelter

[chris]

Gorgeous setting with great ammenities, but unfortunately it is less than 3 miles from Newfound Gap, which means it is usually packed. Great views right from the shelter of the mountains. Bear cables, but no bear fencing. Privy of uncertain quality. Water is a piped spring just north on the AT, about 30 yards from the shelter. While this is a very pretty place, I'd stop for lunch and keep pushing north to Pecks or south to Double Spring.

[smokymtnsteve]

I love Ice h20 shelter and spent two weeks there as caretaker in late may of 2000...as a matter of fact The WEASEL stayed with me there the first night he got back on the trail ...after his daughters graduation(?)..picked him up as he was hitching out of gatlinburg and dropped him at the top of ole smoky.. clingman's dome parking lot..offered to slack pack him down to newfound gap where I was leaving my truck ..was even going to give him a spare key so that he lock his gear in the truck and pick it up on his way thru..but he explanied to me that he was no slacker...WALKING AND PURE AND NEVER SLACK..WATCH OUT MAINE THE WEASEL'S BACK...

in mid may the mrytle blooms just down the trail at charlies bunion...fabulous..spent a lot of time out on the bunion...I once saw a peregrine falcon there..

loved my experience as caretaker that season,,,would love to hear from any hikers that came thru..

[Jumpstart]

If memory recalls, wasn't this the shelter that had the pieces of the airplane all over the ground this year?

[PushingDaisies]

I don't know if Icewater did or not as I didn't go into the shelter area, but I saw pieces of a plane at Cosby Knob Shelter.

Maybe it was spread out over a large area.

[chris]

There isn't a plane wreck at Icewater. Parts of a plane are located at Cosby Knob shelter, though.

[halibut15]

I was through this summer on a section hike of the smokies. Noticed airplane parts @ cosby knob but also several hundred feet off the trail in the woods a ways before cosby

[Mountain climber]

I was there in April 2003 when they picked up the airplane and dropped it off via helicopter onto a truck in the Clingman’s Dome Parking lot.
Quite a site to see

[onetake]

I also saw pieces of the plane before in the woods before Cosby Knob and a big hunk at the Cosby Knob shelter This was in Oct. 2002.

Onetake

[manzana]

The piece at Cosby Knob has shrunk consderably in the last year. I dont know if people are burning it or taking pieces as souvenirs. I bet it will be gone in 04. No big deal I guess...

[sleepy]

Gorgeous setting with great ammenities, but unfortunately it is less than 3 miles from Newfound Gap, which means it is usually packed. Great views right from the shelter of the mountains. Bear cables, but no bear fencing. Privy of uncertain quality. Water is a piped spring just north on the AT, about 30 yards from the shelter. While this is a very pretty place, I'd stop for lunch and keep pushing north to Pecks or south to Double Spring.

I haven't hiked in the Smokies since 1990 and at the time I believe all shelters had bear-fencing. I know Ice Water Springs did. I also don't recall that any of them had bear cables, at least if they did, I didn't use them, just stored my pack in the shelter behind the fencing like most did. I may be mistaken, but that had been my experience since I first hiked the Smokies in 1969.

I understand that no bear fencing = bear cables, but why no fencing? Were bears ripping it out?

[steve hiker]

why no fencing? Were bears ripping it out?

Rangers took the fencing out in low mast years.

[deeddawg]

I understand that no bear fencing = bear cables, but why no fencing? Were bears ripping it out?

My understanding, based on something I read somewhere but can't put my finger on it right now, was that since people felt safe behind the fences, there was a tendency to feed/taunt the bears through the fence. Removing the fences is supposed helps encourage proper food practices and reduce the instances of habituating bears to human food.

[sleepy]

Thanks for your replies.

I suppose the reasons make sense. In the early 70's I was at a shelter somewhere in the south part of GSMNP--Russell Field?--with two experienced hikers who were there two days nursing blisters. They had spent the previous night with a group of kids who had been taunting a bear from behind the fence, feeding it and then poking it. According to them, the bear ended up slamming itself against the fence for a good part of the night. Way to go, kids!

I guess now, it's "you play, you pay"!

[bigcat2]

I have to agree w/ deeddawg about the cages. I had also read that they (GSMNP) were starting to take down the bear fences in order to promote proper storage for food at night. I suppose the thinking was, smarter ppl = less bears therefore no need for the fences. Just my opinion though. That was interesting though to hear about the kids. I hope they didn't get much sleep that night.

[Grampie]

During my 2001 thru I spent my coldest night at Icewater Shelter. The temp. went down to 8 degrees that night of April 18, 2001. It had snowed 5" the previous day. I froze in my 20 degree bag.
Grampie-N->2001

[Baldy]

When I was there in '97 there were no bear cables, just ropes inside the shelter with tin cans on them to hang our packs on. The spring was nice, though there isn't much of a pool to put your filter in (at least there wasn't in '97) so we used a collapsible bucket that our scoutmaster had and carried the water back to the shelter and filtered our water in the shade.

[TakeABreak]

While living in the area before and after my hike (99 - 02) I visited Icewater Spring on various occasions training and just hiking. I still the area sometimes for a hike while visiting friends in the area.

I talked to a couple of rangers about the fences and they said they wanted to remove all of the fences in the park eventually. They said the fence idea good when it came, but there to many stupid people who think that by the fence being there they do not have to use the cables.

And a lot of the stupid people leave the gates open at night or during the day while out exploring the area and bear and other critters wander in eat their and tare up the packs and then they rangers have to go and clean the mess and file a antoher (stupid person) report.

50 5 of the time when I hiked into Icewater, I could smell 100 feet away, if I could smell that far away, I am sure the bears cold to and were waiting to into the shelter.

No lie, I was there last december visiting and hiked out there and my friend is bacon I smell before we see the shelter, we got there was 5lb slab of bacon hanging the shelter, backpack laying around and no one to be seen. When someone appeared I suggested he hang the bacon and other food item from the cable and looked at me stupidly and said what cables?

I had to spend 20 minutes explaining to him the problems he was causing for himself and others. I don't think i liked me very well when I left.

[B Thrash]

If memory recalls, wasn't this the shelter that had the pieces of the airplane all over the ground this year?

I backpacked through this area in 1993 and and found parts & fragments of a military airplane that had crashed years before. The parts and fragments looked new when I saw them.

[Brushy Sage]

I hiked past there in March of 2002. Ice covered the trail and the front yard of the shelter, and I thought to myself that the shelter was appropriately named.

[Ewker]

I was up here this past weekend. Someone had put up a tarp to keep the wind out. It was cold, windy and some rain. The trees and bushes around the shelter were coated in ice.