Tents IN shelters

imported
#1

I’ve read several journals recently that talk about folks putting up their tent IN shelters, especially when it is bad weather. Doesn’t this take up space for others to get out of the weather?

Stick Chick

stick chick

#2

Yes.

Unless it’s a bivvy sac or something. I’ve done it after dark when it’s unlikely anyone else will show up to keep the bugs off me. Still, looking back on it if i was going to set up my tent it may as well have been outside.

Oh, and i did set up inside Roaring fork shelter because it was bloody cold and snowing, but myself and a buddy were the only ones dumb enough to be out in it that night. :slight_smile:

Cheers

Cheers

#3

here’s another good reason for carrying a tarp!..if the weather really is too rough to be OUTSIDE the shelter, you can hang your tarp over the front of a shelter and EVERYONE benefits (without taking up space)…also, paw-ee and i carried a net during bug season…great under our tarp, but again, if we needed to be in a shelter, we could rig the net on a line so that the net only covered our bodies and didn’t take up any extra shelter space…

maw-ee

#4

yeah, no problem. might be a ton harder if the tent isn’t freestanding, though. but great if the shelter’s not full of people and it’s muddy on the ground and buggy outside.

0101

#5

I have slept in my tent inside a shelter many times. But never if someone else came to the shelter. I have only put my tent up when there is no one around and it is already dark. It keeps the mice at bay.

Bilko

#6

No tents inside shelters! Bivi sacs or bug nets OK, as long as they only take up one spot. While all those who say it is alright and that they would take the tent down if other people arrived at the shelter, I’ve never seen anyone take a tent down from inside a shelter in ten years of hiking, including a 2004 thru hike.

Bear Bag Hanger

#7

Did it 5 times last year on through hike in bug country. Set up after dark. 3 nights others were with me doing the same. Always said I’d dismantle if people arrived after dark, but never had to. sandman

sandman

#8

I guess I have never understood the benefit of a shelter in the first place so the idea of setting a tent, bivy or anything else up in a shelter eludes me. I do understand the social aspects of eating meals at a shelter then pushing on another mile or two.

I think for someone to set up a tent in a shelter is kind of rude. The very few times I stayed at shelters I have seen people show up after dark. So at that point are you goping to dismantle your tent and allow for others to come into the space? That seems like it defeats the point of shelters. A tent is a shelter.

I tarp. There is nothing finer than sleeping in the open air on the ground. The ground is FAR morer comfortable than a wooden shelter floor. I have never had a mouse or other creature crawl thru, over and inside my stuff when tenting/tarping away from shelters.

In my humbled opinion I say be respectful in communal spots. Shelters are communal spots. You never know when people show up needing shelter.

Peace ASWAH

aswah

#9

I have on a very few occasions set up a tent inside a shelter or cabin. Always for warmth, tent is warmer than shelter, and if you can get the tent out of the wind, it is warmer still.

Two times come to mind in particular, both during unseasonable blizzards on the AT. Freezing rain had all the trees covered in a THICK layor of ice, and limbs and trees were falling all around us. Felt much safer within the solid walls and roof of the shelter (Gravel Springs).

No one else around except my buddy and I and for sure would have found a way to accomodate anyone whe did show up.

Lyle

Lyle

#10

I always kind of felt the same as ASWAH as far as it being rude to set up a tent in a communal place. I was just wondering if anyone else felt the same.
As far as those who have said that they would take down a tent if some one came in after dark well, how would you know? I know I sure wouldn’t go up to some one that had tented in a shelter and say “hey dude I’m here now so you have to take your tent down.” I would just have to tent on down the trail. But for me this would be an inconvience because I always plan on staying in a shelter whenever possible.
I suppose that I should add that I have never come across anyone that had tented in a shelter but since I have read in several journals that this does happen I thought I would pose the Question. Do you ask the tenter to take down or are you stuck hiking on up the trail?

stick chick

#11

In 1999 when I hiked the AT, I was using a tarp all the way and I was always planing to sleep in the shelters. I have done a lot of night hiking too. So I don’t think that I would appreciate to get the shelter when somebody’s camped inside the shelter with is tent.

Stomp

#12

Last winter I arrived at October Mountain shelter and there was a kid with a tent set up inside. Those solo tents are so small, who cares? We were the only two people there and it’s a big shelter. He slept a lot warmer than I did for sure.

Ted

#13

Did it once over Labor Day at Overmountain during a rainy, windy night. Set it up only after trying to stay warm with the wind coming through the cracks in that old barn. There were about 15 other folks there but nobody had any issues since we set up well away in a far corner.

Overmountain is certainly an exception. Never would consider in any other. Then again, I usually don’t stay in shelters.

Tim

#14

I too have set up a tent in a shelter after sundown in clear weather. I was deep in bug country in New England when I was seeing at most a handful of hikers each day. One time, I decided to set up my solo tent alongside another one already erected—there were over six bunks left open. Other times, hikers who had arrived earlier staked out the flat areas suitable for tenting, leaving an empty shelter. Even when I did decide to tent inside there was still space available for numerous late comers.

However, I can also dredge up memories of a sopping wet night right before Damascus when only five were sleeping in a shelter for six. It was too late to wake the group of slumbering hikers, despite the fact that one was rising every ten minutes because she had a stomach bug. I ended up sleeping on the picnic table, only half sheltered by the overhang, with the water seeping in all night. An early riser left enough space for me at 4 am, so I got a couple solid hours of sleep before catching up to my sheltermates for the final descent into Damascus.

Hey Sandman!

Sweet Tea

#15

In comparison, I arrived at the first shelter past Duncannon at dusk and with barely enough natural light to arrange my gear and set out my sleeping bag. Unfortunately I did not have enough time to orient myself at the site, which had poor signage and meandering sidetrails. I soon found myself a lone awake hiker unable to locate the privy. It quickly esculated as a concern. Needless to say, when I was the first to leave the site in the morning I had to restrain myself from an attack on the inhabitant of the hammock strung across the path to the privy.

Sweet Tea

#16

I would never tent in a shelter…so rude. However I do pee in shelters. Is that bad??

Eric

#17

Not as bad as me peeing in my buddy’s tent…

Ryan

#18

There were six of us in that shelter when you showed up…myself, Jukebox, Postcard, Masterplan, Home Cookin, and Doublezip. Not five.

Catch-Up

#19

You must be right. I think I confused it with a stop later down the trail in VA. With four months of memories and no notes, I was bound to reconstruct memories at some point :wink: Are you headed to Trail Days in May?

Sweet Tea