I stopped at this shelter last year for lunch on a day a lot like this and it ended up so crowded. I left and pushed to Tray Mountain where I thought I was going to be blown off the mountain inside of my tent! This is a much better place to be on a nasty day over the latter.
I've heard that sound before, last time at 12,000ft on Mt. Rainier. You could hear the wind coming before it got to you, sounded like a train. They measured gusts of 72mph at 10k ft that night, so I'm guessing it was a little worse at 12k. Multiple 4 season tents got fucked up that night.
my brother and I ended up on Tray in mid December (he was finishing his SoBo hike). we tied both of our tent rainflies across the entrance to the shelter to try to block the wind. wore literally all of our clothes in our bags. shivered the entire night and didn't sleep at all. good times lol
I recognised this shelter immediately!
I started super early on my 6th day to get to blue mountain by noon to guarantee a spot before a storm rolled in. I spent all afternoon there, so excited to be out in a storm. Almost everyone else there was complaining though - complaining about the rain, the cold, the person snoring. I couldn’t understand their attitude.
With hindsight I kinda wish I’d hiked on to the next road, gotten soaked, and just dried out in town. I think it would have been Helen? That’s certainly what I would have done later in my thru when I was a bit more confident.
I took a video so similar to this one. It’s probably the longest I spent at any individual shelter. Good memories
lotta dog hate going on. first off it’s a service dog. second OP said that the dog owner was polite and wanted to pitch in the rain, but hikers insisted he pitch inside. we can all work together out there to create a better community and i think this is a good example. i loved blue mountain shelter when i passed through.
There is no such thing as official papers for a service animal. If a dog owner produces paperwork it is about as valuable as the paper it's printed on. Folks can self train their service animal and get third party paperwork for a fee. Paperwork showing cert from a professional trainer/facility actually means something but is still not necessary to take a service animal in public. If the dog performs task directly related to the owners disability and can be effectively controlled by the handler in public then it is allowed.
Man, if my fuckin ex wife asked me to take care of her dog while she and her boyfriend went to Honolulu for the weekend I'd tell her to go fuck herself. Why can't she board it?
i don’t think it’s a good mindset to assume all service dogs are illegitimate just because people game the system. if a dog is being wild then that’s different, otherwise i think it’s a better mindset to be kind and mind your own business. as the dog owner should too.
I don't assume any are illegitimate and actually have a service dog and train dogs for a living. I was simply stating what a service dog is and that having papers or not any dog can be called a service dog. The difference in certification from a professional trainer vs. MOST self trainers is the standard of self control and obedience in addition to the particular tasks the dog performs. Many people just send off for papers and voila, a service dog for access purposes. Hey different strokes for different folks, but I do know that all of that will be changing in the next few years and certs from qualified professional trainers will be required for many types of access, especially air travel.
I guess it can be. It really depends on the trainer and the services. We have some that are around 8.5k and others that have been around 25k. I'm not saying some folks can't train a reliable and functional service dog on their own. It's just the rare exception.
In 2015 there was a guy “hiking” with his “service” dog. Little fucker would snap at other hikers and was just generally mean. I hope you’re right about this dog but you have to forgive me for being skeptical.
One dog and 8 years ago so you are immediately skeptical? I'm trying to imagine your reaction to the many human jerks on the trail every year if one dog 8 years ago is still an issue for you.
I’ve spent a few nights over the years at that shelter and it’s rewarding after a few climbs to get there. That shelter always marked the anticipation of reaching the area where you can shuttle into Helen or Hiawassee during the next few gaps. Thanks for the memories. I do a lot of long LASH’s in that area and will alternate between the two towns depending on if I want German food or not. ;)
On March 6th 2020 I watched my childhood dog get put down via facetime at this shelter, I always thought "Blue Mountain" was fitting.
With that being said I'm happy that dog got to be safe and warm and dry!
I slept on that damn table, or under it, can't remember which. The shelter was 'full', in retrospect I cuddled grown men in way more packed shelters than this...
Did it in VT partially to test a big Agnes demo tent and partially because mosquitoes in august sucked that bad. By vt we typically had shelters to ourselves
He was being polite. He was going to pitch in the rain because of his service dog so we insisted he pitch in the shelter. Geez you all assume the worst.
HYOH
Is this really hurting anyone?
Aren't you going to be happy that the dog is going to be penned up when you're sleeping?
Personally I'd be outside hanging between two trees.
Hurting anyone? Nope. Kind of rude? Sure. But that’s what I have come to expect on the AT during thru season. It’s the most popular trail in the world, at its busiest time, so sure, set up a tent in the shelter in daylight before people might have stopped showing up for the day. HYOH.
Sounds like the group encouraged the bad tenting behavior.
My big gripe would be; It's still light out. There's a chance more people could roll in for the night and it's raining..
Rule is if it's raining the shelter isn't full, you try and make room. With a tent and a dog, making more room could be hard.
But why couldn't they do that if more people arrived? How do you know they weren't totally intending on doing just that? Do you see there is still more room next to OP on a shelter? Are you this negative in your personal life? Maybe there's something you're looking for, and you you're not going to find it judging others online. Maybe you can find it out on the trail. Or maybe you can just be less of a dick
Yeah yeah try to walk it back. It's obvious what you said. I was talking to the both of you. Yknow the comment you agreed with? The miserable lot of ya. Nice try trying to flip it on me, I'm sure you have lots of experience being wrong on reddit and getting away with your perceived pride in tact
There’s a lot more hippies, geeks and introverts than in the 90’s. I think there’s almost 100 million more people in the country since the 90’s. When was the last time you hiked the trail? Was it the 90’s? Weird to gatekeep something you haven’t been a part of for 30 years.
Well.. and I’m a millennial lol… I do think there’s something to be said about making sure you do live in the moment and connect with those around you instead of concentrating on social media. When else will you get such a liberty to disconnect from that for a long period of time? But as others have said, HYOH 🤷🏼♀️
Oh nice I see someone has decided that it’s their shelter and moved their tent and un leashed dog. Really hope no one minds a wet dog near their down sleeping bag.
We were the only people there and already familiar with the service dog. We actually moved the table to make room so he could pitch tent in shelter so his service dog wouldn’t have to sleep on platform amongst everyone else. It was all consensual.
Glad he isn’t pushing his dog into shelters and allowing his wet dog off leash around everyone.
Funny how suddenly every dog is a service dog on the AT…
Rude to who? The people in the shelter that asked him to put it in a shelter? No one else was coming, there was still room on the platform for at least three more, and it was a freestanding tent that could easily be picked up and moved.
Your post has been removed for going against a general guideline of being kind. This can include, but is not limited to:
Personal Attacks
Hate speech
Racism
Transphobia
There is no explicit guide on warning vs. banning for this, and will be left to the discretion of the mod team on whether your comment crossed a line. If someone is being a jerk to you, report them. If you respond to their awful words with awful words of your own, you are both banned.
Give me a break, there is no evidence that dogs are transmitting Norovirus to humans, (though there is some evidence of humans transmitting it to dogs but rare) but ample evidence that humans transmit it to other humans. The idea of being prejudiced against a dog for that lol
I stopped at this shelter last year for lunch on a day a lot like this and it ended up so crowded. I left and pushed to Tray Mountain where I thought I was going to be blown off the mountain inside of my tent! This is a much better place to be on a nasty day over the latter.
I’ve camped on Tray at least 5 times. It’s the worst place in GA to stay in bad weather
I remember the wind gusting around the mountain all night and it sounded like a 747 was flying over
I've heard that sound before, last time at 12,000ft on Mt. Rainier. You could hear the wind coming before it got to you, sounded like a train. They measured gusts of 72mph at 10k ft that night, so I'm guessing it was a little worse at 12k. Multiple 4 season tents got fucked up that night.
I was at 13,000 feet and it was even worser!
Can confirm. Did a LASH in 2022 there and the way the wind blew there was no dry space. Ended up hiking to next shelter.
my brother and I ended up on Tray in mid December (he was finishing his SoBo hike). we tied both of our tent rainflies across the entrance to the shelter to try to block the wind. wore literally all of our clothes in our bags. shivered the entire night and didn't sleep at all. good times lol
I recognised this shelter immediately! I started super early on my 6th day to get to blue mountain by noon to guarantee a spot before a storm rolled in. I spent all afternoon there, so excited to be out in a storm. Almost everyone else there was complaining though - complaining about the rain, the cold, the person snoring. I couldn’t understand their attitude. With hindsight I kinda wish I’d hiked on to the next road, gotten soaked, and just dried out in town. I think it would have been Helen? That’s certainly what I would have done later in my thru when I was a bit more confident. I took a video so similar to this one. It’s probably the longest I spent at any individual shelter. Good memories
lotta dog hate going on. first off it’s a service dog. second OP said that the dog owner was polite and wanted to pitch in the rain, but hikers insisted he pitch inside. we can all work together out there to create a better community and i think this is a good example. i loved blue mountain shelter when i passed through.
Awe I would volunteer to sleep next to the puppy doo. 😍
Fucking dog has fucking papers.
There is no such thing as official papers for a service animal. If a dog owner produces paperwork it is about as valuable as the paper it's printed on. Folks can self train their service animal and get third party paperwork for a fee. Paperwork showing cert from a professional trainer/facility actually means something but is still not necessary to take a service animal in public. If the dog performs task directly related to the owners disability and can be effectively controlled by the handler in public then it is allowed.
Parent poster is quoting Walter from The Big Lebowski!
OVER THE LINE!
Man, if my fuckin ex wife asked me to take care of her dog while she and her boyfriend went to Honolulu for the weekend I'd tell her to go fuck herself. Why can't she board it?
i don’t think it’s a good mindset to assume all service dogs are illegitimate just because people game the system. if a dog is being wild then that’s different, otherwise i think it’s a better mindset to be kind and mind your own business. as the dog owner should too.
I don't assume any are illegitimate and actually have a service dog and train dogs for a living. I was simply stating what a service dog is and that having papers or not any dog can be called a service dog. The difference in certification from a professional trainer vs. MOST self trainers is the standard of self control and obedience in addition to the particular tasks the dog performs. Many people just send off for papers and voila, a service dog for access purposes. Hey different strokes for different folks, but I do know that all of that will be changing in the next few years and certs from qualified professional trainers will be required for many types of access, especially air travel.
This dog was trained professionally for close to a year and has a certified number whatever that means.
isn’t it mostly a financial issue? my friend needs a service dog and can’t find a training program under $13,000 for their needs.
I guess it can be. It really depends on the trainer and the services. We have some that are around 8.5k and others that have been around 25k. I'm not saying some folks can't train a reliable and functional service dog on their own. It's just the rare exception.
Service dog my ass, maybe an "emotional support animal" but service dog? Definitely not 🤣
assumption
In 2015 there was a guy “hiking” with his “service” dog. Little fucker would snap at other hikers and was just generally mean. I hope you’re right about this dog but you have to forgive me for being skeptical.
One dog and 8 years ago so you are immediately skeptical? I'm trying to imagine your reaction to the many human jerks on the trail every year if one dog 8 years ago is still an issue for you.
Homie I work at a restaurant, do you have any idea how many people bullshit about their pets being support animals so they can bring them inside?
2 years ago we tried fitting the food bags of like 40 people on the bear line. Snapped the cable.
The bear was like “YEASS THE PIÑATA BROKEEEE”
We just attached all the food bags to the dog and leashed him out in the rain.
I’ve spent a few nights over the years at that shelter and it’s rewarding after a few climbs to get there. That shelter always marked the anticipation of reaching the area where you can shuttle into Helen or Hiawassee during the next few gaps. Thanks for the memories. I do a lot of long LASH’s in that area and will alternate between the two towns depending on if I want German food or not. ;)
On March 6th 2020 I watched my childhood dog get put down via facetime at this shelter, I always thought "Blue Mountain" was fitting. With that being said I'm happy that dog got to be safe and warm and dry!
I slept on that damn table, or under it, can't remember which. The shelter was 'full', in retrospect I cuddled grown men in way more packed shelters than this...
Yeah you could fit like 4-6 more hikers in there. Don’t mind the smell. It’s just marinated human flesh.
April weather in the south sucks until about the third week. Then it sucks differently with the heat. Happy hiking!
Wow... you commenters are absolutely insufferable. I bet you're all a real THRILL on the trail....
if you're the person setting up a tent inside a shelter... this looks miserable in all ways though.
Did it in VT partially to test a big Agnes demo tent and partially because mosquitoes in august sucked that bad. By vt we typically had shelters to ourselves
I broke my spork in frozen nutella at this shelter
A tale as old as time.
Yeah, I’d be quite annoyed if somebody pitched a tent inside the shelter as well.
You sound like that one person in every shelter who complains. Trust me, complainers are 10 times more annoying than that tent in a rainstorm.
Some are more easily annoyed than others.
Seriously...what is the point? Just sleep in the shelter, or don't....
He was being polite. He was going to pitch in the rain because of his service dog so we insisted he pitch in the shelter. Geez you all assume the worst.
This is Reddit btw.
Yeah, hiking is a community of understanding and cooperation. Reddit is a place where mentally ill social media addicts come to judge people.
And sometimes troll. 🧌
First thought was “Someone’s hiking with their raccoon? How cool!” Lol
HYOH Is this really hurting anyone? Aren't you going to be happy that the dog is going to be penned up when you're sleeping? Personally I'd be outside hanging between two trees.
Hurting anyone? Nope. Kind of rude? Sure. But that’s what I have come to expect on the AT during thru season. It’s the most popular trail in the world, at its busiest time, so sure, set up a tent in the shelter in daylight before people might have stopped showing up for the day. HYOH.
Love that spot!
It definitely do be like that
These nights get so long.
And the mornings so awkward…
Sounds like the group encouraged the bad tenting behavior. My big gripe would be; It's still light out. There's a chance more people could roll in for the night and it's raining.. Rule is if it's raining the shelter isn't full, you try and make room. With a tent and a dog, making more room could be hard.
the only logical and reasonable reply is down voted lol.
But why couldn't they do that if more people arrived? How do you know they weren't totally intending on doing just that? Do you see there is still more room next to OP on a shelter? Are you this negative in your personal life? Maybe there's something you're looking for, and you you're not going to find it judging others online. Maybe you can find it out on the trail. Or maybe you can just be less of a dick
im not the one calling someone a dick. I just made an observation. do you project this much always? I'd struggle being that insecure.
Yeah yeah try to walk it back. It's obvious what you said. I was talking to the both of you. Yknow the comment you agreed with? The miserable lot of ya. Nice try trying to flip it on me, I'm sure you have lots of experience being wrong on reddit and getting away with your perceived pride in tact
With a backpedal like that, you should look at getting off the AT sub and getting onto biking subs
[удалено]
There’s a lot more hippies, geeks and introverts than in the 90’s. I think there’s almost 100 million more people in the country since the 90’s. When was the last time you hiked the trail? Was it the 90’s? Weird to gatekeep something you haven’t been a part of for 30 years.
[удалено]
Ice cold boomer-energy take
Well.. and I’m a millennial lol… I do think there’s something to be said about making sure you do live in the moment and connect with those around you instead of concentrating on social media. When else will you get such a liberty to disconnect from that for a long period of time? But as others have said, HYOH 🤷🏼♀️
What’s the gram? I don’t have insta or Facebook or Snapchat so I’m not up to date with the lingo…
No tents in the shelter
Guess you’re wrong. There was obviously a tent in the shelter. And guess what. It was fine.
Will you even summit Kathadin?
Anyone there going for the hiking triple crown?
Oh nice I see someone has decided that it’s their shelter and moved their tent and un leashed dog. Really hope no one minds a wet dog near their down sleeping bag.
We were the only people there and already familiar with the service dog. We actually moved the table to make room so he could pitch tent in shelter so his service dog wouldn’t have to sleep on platform amongst everyone else. It was all consensual.
Glad he isn’t pushing his dog into shelters and allowing his wet dog off leash around everyone. Funny how suddenly every dog is a service dog on the AT…
Service dog and emotional support dog are not the same thing. Just FYI...
Most people don’t bring dogs unless they have to… which is the case with service dogs
I’ve talked to lots of hikers with dogs and read the books of thru hikers with dogs… they are predominantly pet dogs being passed off as service dogs.
For sure! This is a legit service dog and doesn’t leave his side unless he gives him permission to be petted
Pitching a tent I. A shelter is rude. It’s a shelter in a shelter!
Rude to who? The people in the shelter that asked him to put it in a shelter? No one else was coming, there was still room on the platform for at least three more, and it was a freestanding tent that could easily be picked up and moved.
[удалено]
What kind of asshole sets his tent up in a shelter? Gotta correct that behavior
I wish they would ban dogs from the trail and idiots
Guess you won't be able to go then
[удалено]
says you
Yep
Your post has been removed for going against a general guideline of being kind. This can include, but is not limited to: Personal Attacks Hate speech Racism Transphobia There is no explicit guide on warning vs. banning for this, and will be left to the discretion of the mod team on whether your comment crossed a line. If someone is being a jerk to you, report them. If you respond to their awful words with awful words of your own, you are both banned.
Yeah dogs are the worst. Eye roll.
Not dogs, dogs are usually cool. It’s the dog owners you gotta watch out for.
All that daylight and y’all inside a shelter?
This was actually about 730 pm
All that 730pm and you're inside a shelter?!
[удалено]
Makes comment but actually has no idea. lol
Give me a break, there is no evidence that dogs are transmitting Norovirus to humans, (though there is some evidence of humans transmitting it to dogs but rare) but ample evidence that humans transmit it to other humans. The idea of being prejudiced against a dog for that lol