RE: [at-l] what is a standard shelter?

["cosmo catalano, jr." <Cosmo.A.Catalano@williams.edu>]

I don't think there is a standard shelter trailwide.  Here in Mass, 
the Appalachian Trail Committee of the AMC (Appalachian Mountain 
Club), coordinates administration of the Mass AT with the ATC 
(Appalachian Trail Conference, the body given the responsibility for 
the whole AT by the NPS--National Park Service).  I despise the 
alphabet soup, but this arrangement means that LOCAL people 
administer the trail, not somebody in Washington or--heaven 
forbid--Boston.

Anyway...we design our own shelters.  The Committee has a Regional 
(Lyme, New Hampshire) administrator of the ATC on it, so the plans 
are presumably reviewed by the ATC in some way.  We have developed 
over the years a standard shelter for our "jurisdiction".  It suits 
what we feel are the needs of the trail in Mass, and is of a size and 
type of construction that our volunteers can build.

It costs around $5000 in materials, though lately we have been 
harvesting local hemlock trees from the property of a trail friend, 
and have been milling the logs into the beams and planks that 
comprise most of the shelter.  Foundations, flooring and roofing are 
made from commercially available building materials.  While not as 
"rustic" a some of the log-build shelters I've seen, they are quite 
attractive and fit well with their surroundings.

Several other maintaining clubs--most recently, I think the DOC 
(Dartmouth Outing Club)--have built shelters of materials on site and 
entirely with hand tools and "old fashioned" techniques such as 
mortise and tenon joints and doweled planks for flooring.  This would 
be great fun, but well beyond the skills and time resources of our 
local volunteers.

Now, the draft Access Report regarding the degree of handicapped 
accessibility of facilities and trails is due out shortly and may 
affect our design.  [PLEASE, let's not get into that thread yet!]. 
Most, (actually all of them, I think) of our shelters in Mass are 
build on land owned by the State, the Feds own only portions of the 
trail corridor around here, and get an easement when the Trail passes 
thru state-owned land.  For example in Mt Greylock Reservation, or in 
October Mtn State Forest, the actual trail corridor is about 50 ft 
wide.  This siting may get us out of the way of regulations being 
felt already in the Whites (a National Forest) where newly renovated 
AMC huts are being required to be designed with accessible features 
(ramps, wider doorways, etc).

More than you wanted to know, I bet,

Cosmo
"There are three great times for thinking --
  On the john, in the shower, and while hiking.
  And the best of these is while hiking."
         --Colin Fletcher.
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