Cooperation Renovating Shelters in Smokies

The Mountain Xpress of Asheville North Carolina carries the story about the reconstruction of the trail shelters in the Smokies under the title "Partners work to protect backpackers and bears in the Smokies" on 17 January 2012.

Call to Re-Open Smokies Shelters

The Mountain Press has published a letter to the editor from Morgan Briggs of Pigeon Forge questioning the Park Service's logic in closing -- and then refusing ever to re-open -- backwoods shelters in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park.

Under the title "Park service uses poor logic with regard to closed shelters" Briggs focuses particularly on the recent work done at the oft-crowded Icewater Spring shelter. He says some of the crowding could be alleviated were to Park Service to re-open a nearby shelter.

False Gap is a nice, stone shelter, with a fireplace, spring and an excellent location. In the mid-’60s, the park service, in their infinite wisdom, decided to close False Gap. If this shelter was reopened it would be a tremendous asset for the park. It would take a lot of pressure off Icewater.

I guess maybe the NPS logic is that more available shelters will increase the total number of users, rather than spread out the current number, and that would be a bad thing.

Pinhoti Trail Shelters in Alabama

Alabama will be using a federal grant to, among other things,

construct overnight shelters along the Pinhoti Trail, which begins near Talladega and stretches north for 240 miles to where it joins the Appalachian Trail in Georgia.

This is reported in a 7 January 2012 editorial titled "Money for trails: Alabama putting federal grants to much-needed use" in The Anniston Star.

Smoky Mountain Shelter Rehab

The Washington Post caught up with the Associated Press release about the Smoky Mountains shelters under the headline 15th and final backcountry shelter renovated in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park on 5 January 2012. (See earlier posts on this blog for details)

More on the Smoky Mountain Shelters

An article titled "Smokies’ partners renovate their final trail shelter in park" in the 4 January 2012 Smoky Mountain News describes the shelter upgrade project as a real team effort. Among the changes effected were the removal of the chain link fences, which I guess had not been in place long enough to be considered 'historic.'

"Old trail shelters used to have chain link fences around them to keep bears out of backpackers’ food. The renovations have removed the unattractive fencing from all the shelters, and instead installed bear cables, which are actually more effective at keeping bears out of food by hoisting it out of reach."

Cooperation Renovating Shelters in Smokies

The Seymour Herald from Seymour, Tennessee has a recent (3 January 2012) article titled "Smokies Partners Renovate Shelter."

It gives some wonderful details about the recently-completed project of renovating the 15 backcountry shelters in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Including:

"Joint efforts of labor and funding from Friends of the Smokies, the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, and the Smoky Mountains Hiking Club improved cooking and sleeping quarters for campers, while also reducing potential problems with black bears."

"Architect Philip Royer of Knoxville, also a member of the Appalachian Trail Maintainers Committee, drew the basic blueprint for every shelter rehab project, incorporating improved natural lighting, a cooking area to separate food odors from the sleeping space, improved bunk access, new roofs and masonry repair, the removal of chain-link fences, and drainage improvements."

Will hikers of the future have any idea of just what "the removal of chain-link fences" means?

Smoky Mountains Shelters

There's an editorial in today's 3 January 2012 "Mountain Press" out of Sevierville, TN that's titled "Happy trails to you: Many thanks to those who fixed up the backcountry trails in the Smokies."

A couple key sentences: "hikers on the Appalachian Trail can enjoy the renovation of all 15 backcountry shelters in Great Smoky Mountains National Park" and "Work at Laurel Gap, the 15th and final shelter project, began in September, but weather prevented delivery of roofing materials by helicopter. The volunteer crew returned the first week of December to finish roofing the shelter under the threat of winter snows."

Rocky Run Shelter Restoration

Susan Guynn writes in the Frederick (MD) News-Post under the headline "Trail 'magic' at Rocky Run; New and restored shelters await hikers on Appalachian Trail" on 2 November 2008. She describes the reaction of some of the first hikers to use the newly restored Rocky Run Shelter.

The bulk of the article, though, gives a nice history of the shelter and the site. Very interesting.

Kinsman Pond Shelter Replaced

In a short, un-signed piece titled "Give 'em shelter" in the 7 December 2007 "Union Leader" from Manchester, NH, we read about the replacement of the Kinsman Pond Shelter.

"The new shelter was built with weather-resistant materials and is expected to last even longer than the original structure, built in 1966, according to Hawk Metheny, backcountry management specialist for the Appalachian Mountain Club and a member of the board of directors of the Appalachian Trail Conservancy."

Flint Mountain Shelter Described as a Memorial

What a nice article this is. Laura Sperling writes a column in the Sarasota (FL) Herald Tribune on 18 August 2007 under the headline "A trail blazed with memories; Ascending to Shelter and Solace."

Sperling describes parts of a recent hike to the Flint Mountain Shelter along the NC-Tenn border a ways north of Hot Springs, NC, near Devil's Fork Gap. My Appalachian Trail Thru-Hiker's Companion says, of this shelter, that it is the

"site of one of the more unusual animal encounters in Trail history. In 1994, a sleeping thru-hiker was bitten on the hand by a fox in the middle of the night--despite the presence of other hikers and two dogs."

Well, add to that the memories from this article. Sperling says that it's pretty much a family tradition to make a day hike to this shelter whenever they are in the area. Before his death, her dad had hiked most of the Trail. And her dad had helped the local club build Flint Mountain Shelter in 1988 to honor her brother Mark, who died in 1987.

In all her visits to the shelter, Sperling says she has never met a backpacker staying there, although she enjoys reading the shelter register's comments. This visit was special in another way. Sperling was able to take her niece, her brother Mark's daughter, to the shelter that commemorates her dad for the first time.

"Her interest was piqued by a friend who took a sabbatical to hike the Appalachian Trail last year. ... I asked Emily what she thought of her first shelter visit. She called it cathartic, explaining that the physical sacrifice of the hike heightened her emotional connection to this place of solace."

That's how it should be. I think it's great to learn more about spots like this along the Trail.