Shelters, Tents, and Trail Towns

We get several questions from non-hikers, but perhaps one of the most frequent is “where do you stay” when hiking the Appalachian Trail. So let me say this about that.

Bunk house at Woods Hole Hostel, VA

Scattered along the length of the Trail about a days walking distance apart are shelters which offer weary hikers a place to bed down for the night. Most often these structures are 3-sided lean-tos without electricity or any other creature comfort. They are simply a shelter which, if you are lucky, is dry. They have been built usually by volunteers, to which we hikers are eternally grateful.

Our cabin at Rainbow Springs, NC

Gene and I, however, prefer to sleep in our own tent rather than these rodent ridden hovels. I don’t think there is a shelter along the AT that doesn’t have an infestation of mice. In Georgia on our first section hike, we saw a tally of the number of mice killed. We met a hiker in North Carolina on our third section who carried a supply of mouse traps and left one at every shelter he came to. It has always been my opinion that where there are mice, there are snakes. I’m not going to be a part of that party if I can help it. So, as heavy as they are, we carry a tent.

We stayed at Roaring Fork Shelter, NC to wait out a hurricane.  We had the place to ourselves.

We pitch our tent near the shelters, of course. The shelters, after all, are usually at a good water source. Water is essential for cooking, but is very heavy to carry for any distance at all so we want to camp as close to water as possible. The weather is not always perfect when you’re on the trail, either. The shelters offer a dry, flat place to cook. The shelter areas generally have a relatively flat space to pitch a tent. Flat spaces large enough to pitch a tent are often hard to find as you trek along the mountain side. The shelters are where most hikers spend the night, and if you want some company, that is the place to be. Since many, many hikers stay at the shelters, there is often a privy provided. I much prefer a privy to digging a hole. For these reasons, we usually pitch our tent near a shelter.

There have been times when we have stayed in the shelter. In the Smokies, for example, tenting at a shelter is prohibited. Tenting anywhere in the Smokies is prohibited except at designated backcountry campsites. I spent over a hundred and fifty miles (almost from the time I left Springer Mountain until I got to Fontana Dam) worrying about how I was going to spend the night with whatever else was living in the shelters in the Smokies. Over those many miles, I finally came up with a solution to my problem. I would create for myself a safe haven inside my tent body. It works perfectly. I (or usually Gene) use a length of rope to attach the tent to the rafters inside the shelter. Inside the tent, I am safe from any creepy crawlies that may roam the shelter at night. One of the best shelters on the trail is Partnership Shelter at Mt. Rogers Headquarters. It has a shower and there is a telephone at the headquarters building. We called for pizza delivery and had dinner at the picnic table with Tin Cup and Just Mike. Fantastic.

My safe haven when staying in a shelter

About every 4 to 6 days, the trail will come to within striking distance of a town. We have to get off the trail to buy more food so we might as well spend the night. Trail towns often have really cheap places for hikers to stay, usually hostels. I’ve stayed in a few, but greatly prefer a motel. I like having my own bathroom and the privacy a motel offers. Sometimes a hotel will have a coin laundry which makes life so much easier. Several times we have stayed in B and Bs and a couple times in cabins. Age has it’s advantages, I guess. We are not on the shoestring budgets that so many of the younger hikers are and can thus afford better accommodations while in town.

On our first AT section, when in town, we would stay two nights. Hike into town one day, take the next day off (a “0” day), then back to the trail the following morning. We found, however, that the “0” day was just too boring. We started planning our mileage so that we would arrive in town no later than early afternoon. This would give us enough time to get food bought, repackaged, and laundry done that same day. Then we were back to the trail the next morning. This has worked well for us. We still take the occasional “0” day but not every time we’re in town.

Blood Mountain Shelter, GA

That is just about all I have to say about “where do you stay”. It may be more than you ever wanted to know.