walnut mountain shelter

While section hiking the Appalachian Trail, I normally don’t sleep in the shelters, but I had hiked most of the afternoon in the rain and was expecting it to rain during the night. I was wearing wet clothes and did not want to carry a wet tent the next day, so I chose to spend the night in the Walnut Mountain Shelter. I started this section at Max Patch on my way to Hot Springs, after getting a shuttle from Hot Springs to Max Patch from the Bluff Mountain Outfitters. This shelter is 7.5 miles north of Max Patch.The shelter was built in 1938 by the Civilian Conservation Corp and sleeps a tight five. The shelter has a relatively new tin roof with a fire pit in front. A privy is located down a trail about 50 yards in front of the shelter, and water is found down a side trail to the left of the shelter. This shelter is directly on the AT, not on a side trail.I had the shelter to myself, if you don’t include the mice (the reason I normally sleep in a tent). The mouse or mice started disturbing me just after 8 when I got in my sleeping bag. I heard the little guys running across the sleeping platform and at least twice one jumped in my hair. They too went to sleep around 2:00 a.m.