[at-l] Full Shelters in the Smokies

[lwbooher@halifax.com (Leslie Booher)]

Sorry.  I'm just not big on change.  <G>  It's like my father asking me
every time I go out if I trench my tent.  I'm 56.  God knows when he was
tenting.  <G>  anklebear

----- Original Message -----
From: Orange Bug <orangebug74@yahoo.com>
To: <at-l@mailman.backcountry.net>
Sent: Tuesday, March 05, 2002 9:44 PM
Subject: Re: [at-l] Full Shelters in the Smokies


> Well, the idea of the shelters and the cages was for safety for
> flatlanders, and to help them go into the wilderness and see critters
> from a good location. Then the Law of Unforeseeable Consequences came
> into rule. Folks fed bears making more of a nuisance. Folks brought
> food into shelters, creating mouse habitats. Mice carried bugs,
> particularly hantavirus (detected but never contracted in the Smokies).
>
> Hence for the past few years there has been a bit of a retreat and
> retraining of shelter inhabitants. Bear cables - which are really mouse
> cables to get food out of shelters. Removal of the cages in many areas
> as the shelters are refurbished. Creating clearings for tenting near
> heavily used shelters. Actively reducing the use of AT shelters during
> peak hiking season - and banning dayhiker/shorttermer use of shelters
> close to NFG.
>
> Sorry it upsets you, but I've gotten the impression that the Park
> Service is learning and adjusting to the real world.
>
> Bill...
>
> --- Leslie Booher <lwbooher@halifax.com> wrote:
> > Then why in the Sam Hill did they put them there in the first place?!
> >  This is new thinking, because they used to want us all safely tucked
> > in behind the chain link fences so the bears wouldn't get us.  Lest
> > you are in any doubt, this post just got my back up.  anklebear
> >
>
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