[at-l] Re: Shelter, Skelter

[Cosmo.A.Catalano@xxxxxxxxxxxx (cosmo catalano, jr.)]

Darn I'm getting into this discussion late.  This is an important
issue with me, so forgive the late and lengthy reply.

I agree w/ Weary.  As a trail manager, personally I prefer the
"no-structure" approach of tent pads or platforms.  However my
colleagues enjoy shelter building and many hikers enjoy using
shelters also.  My colleagues don't all agree w/ me, but I view a
shelter as a maintenance headache for future generations, and an
attractant to the unprepared "user", with which we seem to be
increasingly afflicted.

And I agree Phil, the pads at Laurel Ridge (MA) are too small, I can
barely get my Nomad Lite on the larger "double" ones.  It's our first
attempt.  I hope we get a chance to try it again.  Some of the things
that we looked at in the design and choice of the site were:

--Place it on a hill side in dense brush.  Clear, cut and fill and
grade the pads level, with the center ever so slightly higher than
the edges.  This takes a lot of dirt "mined" and transported from
elsewhere in the area.   Creating distinct pads on in a hilly/brushy
area will reduce the number of bootleg sites and "camp sprawl" that
almost always happens in more open areas.

--That said, we then need to provide hardened trails (including rock
steps) to get up the hill and from pad to pad, and to privy and water
so we won't find the hillside eroding away in a maze of herd paths.
Curve the trails a bit so each pad has a sense of privacy, even
though they are only separated by 10 yards or so of dense Laurel.

--Train our ridgerunners to educate folks about staying on the trails
provided and not short cut between pads.  Brush in any short cuts
that appear.

--For groups, or more social people, provide a group site that has a
number of pads or platforms surrounding a cleared central area.

--Best of all IMHO, we don't permit fires in the area, so the area
won't be denuded by folks looking for fire wood.

The reception--based on the register--has generally been good.  A few
strongly worded comments about the closing of the nearby Bear Rock
Falls site, and complaints about the tent pad sizes.  I suspect we
could make more pads, but then we will be faced with the probable
need for another privy.  If the journey is to long, folks won't use
it.

Currently we are in the process of deciding what to do about the
Wilcox South Shelter, about 30 miles further north.  It'a an old,
small, log built shelter that will hold about 6 people.  It's
probably about 50 or 60 years old.  A number of folks on our
management committee want to replace it with a new shelter in our
regular "Massachusetts" style (an upper sleeping loft and lower level
bunks).  I'm the only one--I think--that would just replace (or
incorporate) the old shelter with a carefully designed tent site.

It's a lot of work to create a good tent site, easily as much as it
is to build a shelter.  And a shelter can provide for many more
people in a smaller area.  But I just don't want to sleep with all
those people when I'm out there.

All that said, I won't argue that after an all day hike in the cold
rain, a shelter can be a wonderful thing...

Cosmo


--

Cosmo Catalano
AMC Berkshire Chapter
Massachusetts Appalachian Trail Committee
http://friends.backcountry.net/MassAT/ATCommHome.html