Hello.
Back in my younger days there were a number of hiking shelters located on various trails around the state. These were typically three sided lean-to's with simple bunks to get you off the ground. Are there any of them left anywhere? Is there a list or a map? Thanks
Two of my favorites are
1. Moore Point on Lake Chelan. I cleaned all the pine needles off this structure a couple years ago to help the shakes air out and not rot. I talked with the ranger about replacing the rotten ones but they were unwilling to do all the assessments and historical rigamoral involved with having me do it. Lots of archeological hoops to jump through.
2. Church creek shelter at the Upper Skokomish trailhead ( or near it anyway...) I was delighted with all the immense trees in the area but only had time for a quickie hike down to the shelter and back. I would love to spend more time among the tree giants there....
-------------- "Altitude is its own reward"
John Jerome ( from "On Mountains")
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-------------- "Altitude is its own reward"
John Jerome ( from "On Mountains")
Here is a list of shelters and structures I remember still standing when I roamed the Olympics. Some I stayed in and some I didn't. I believe all are gone now.
* Shelter at the south end of Lower Lena Lake
* Original Boulder Shelter on upper Dungeness
* Old cabin at Sink Lake. (full of mice)
* Only remaining structure at Tubal Cain mine
* Only structure at Tull City
* Flapjack on the Bogie
* Corrigeda guard station on the Dose
* Lookout at Mt Townsend (abandoned)
* Mt Jupiter L.O.
* Mt Walker L.O.
* Old CCC camp at Quilcene
2. Church creek shelter at the Upper Skokomish trailhead ( or near it anyway...) I was delighted with all the immense trees in the area but only had time for a quickie hike down to the shelter and back. I would love to spend more time among the tree giants there....
I believe you are thinking of the Camp Harps Shelter. The Church Creek Shelter is a bit downstream from the Camp Harps Shelter. Its an easy trail walk to get to the Camp Harps Shelter. The last time I visited the Church Creek Shelter (almost 4 years ago) I was able to walk a trail down to Church Creek easily enough, but once I got to the other side of Church Creek, the trail remnants were hard to find due to downed trees and plants growing over the trail. It didn't seem like the Church Creek Shelter gets that many human visitors. I have pictures of both on one of my external hard drives.
Church Creek Shelter is on the left. Camp Harps is the center and right photos.
-------------- If you once forfeit the confidence of your fellow citizens, you can never regain their respect and esteem. - Lincoln
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-------------- If you once forfeit the confidence of your fellow citizens, you can never regain their respect and esteem. - Lincoln
I like to pop off trail on occasion and investigate something that looks different – sometimes it’s a cut stump in a wilderness area, sometimes an old campsite. They could be cut trees for a puncheon or bridge; but if none is around, I poke around to see if there are remnants of what might have been a leanto. For instance, along the PCT north of Janus, there’s a campsite in a spot below the trail. Back in there are a series of cut stumps, too big to be cut for firewood (at least I think so). There are no remnants, but it’s the only source of water between Janus and Pear, so my assumption is there was a leanto there.
Anyway, I’ve come across several maybe old leanto sites. Maybe I dream too much, but as the original poster says, these things were all over the place. Most were not as elaborate as the Olympic shelters and they easily went back to Nature – they were always half-way there anyway.
The Saddle Lake shelter off the trail up to Goat Flat and Three Fingers was built back in 1972 by the Everett Mountaineers hiking committee. At that time climber Ken Carpenter was the committee chair.
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