Appalachian Trail’s Rock Gap Shelter in Franklin replaced

Nantahala Hiking Club finished the Rock Gap Shelter replacement in February, according to Club President Victor Treutel

FRANKLIN – As the weather continues to warm up and hikers take to the Appalachian Trail in Western North Carolina, trail visitors passing through the region will have a new shelter to visit, Appalachian Trail officials announced March 3.

Rock Gap Shelter, located in Franklin, was replaced by Nantahala Hiking Club, the organization that maintains the Trail on the Nantahala Ranger District, alongside district staff members.

According to the U.S. Forest Service, the old Rock Gap Shelter needed to be replaced due to its age and condition.

Victor Treutel is president of Nantahala Hiking Club, which maintains roughly 60 miles of the AT, as well as sections of the Nantahala National Forest.

According to Treutel, the club tore the structure down in November and began rebuilding the structure in December. The shelter was completed in February.

Treutel estimated the original structure was 60 to 70 years old.

According to Treutel, in 2015, a tree had fallen on the shelter while a number of visitors were inside it, though no one was injured. As a result, the club replaced the roof.

“It was in pretty rough shape,” Treutel said. “We typically plan these things out about five years in advance, so it’s been on our list to have replaced for five-plus years. But the shelter’s open and it looks fantastic. It’s structurally very sound.”

Construction of the new Rock Gap Shelter began in December and was completed in February, according to Nantahala Hiking Club President Victor Treutel.

The new shelter is 13 feet by 20 feet, while the old shelter — or what it remained after the tree fall incident — was roughly 8 feet by 10 feet.

In the shelter replacement, the club’s construction included concrete footers to the foundation, as well as a retaining wall to ensure there was not going to be a washout of the structure, Treutel said.

“One of the challenges with building structures on the Appalachian Trail is that we don’t typically have a way to get special access to where it is,” Treutel said. “We were fortunate in that this was only a 1/4-mile trailhead to where the shelter is. But also because of that, we didn’t quite qualify for having any kind of air drop, because in the past the Forest Service would provide a helicopter if it was away too far.”

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Treutel said Nantahala Hiking Club worked with members of LBJ Job Corps in Franklin, as well as members of the U.S. Forest Service during construction.

“From the outside, it looks like a log home, but on the inside, the logs are shaven flat and they fit together like a tongue and groove lumber,” Treutel said. “These were specifically milled for us to our exact specifications. Some of them were 18 feet long, and they were heavy. We had to carry them all by hand. That’s where the young folks from the Job Corps really helped out a lot — to be able to do that and to save our old, retired bodies from having to carry all that lumber up there.

“We would have a crew between eight to 15 people, and there were probably 10 work days of getting all this equipment up there and building the structure.”

The old Rock Gap Shelter was torn down in November.

According to Treutel, the timing could not be better for AT visitors as the season’s first thru-hikers begin their treks through the region.

“It was a fun project, and we were glad to be able to get it done before the thru-hiking season starts, which here it’s just really getting underway,” Treutel said. “We were happy to be able to get it done. We had to work around some crazy winter weather in December, including a cold snap when we were trying to pour concrete.

“We’re definitely all proud of ourselves and the work we did, as well as the help we had from the U.S. Forest Service and Job Corps, and of course the conservancy who did a lot of the logistical planning with this thing,” he said, referring to the Appalachian Trail Conservancy.

Members of the Nantahala Hiking Club were joined by members of the U.S. Forest Service and the LBJ Job Corps in Franklin for construction of the new Rock Gap Shelter. The new building is 13 feet by 20 feet, while the old shelter was roughly 8 feet by 10 feet, according to Nantahala Hiking Club President Victor Treutel.

According to Treutel, the Appalachian Trail Conservancy — the nonprofit that oversees the management and conservation of the trail — submitted a budget request to the U.S. Forest Service and the National Park Service for the shelter’s replacement roughly five years ago.

Treutel said the club was appropriated roughly $10,000 in funding for the replacement project.

“The funding had been scheduled more than five years ago,” Treutel said. “In the last five years, construction materials have gone up significantly. From what we had budgeted five years ago to now, the cost had doubled. The Forest Service and the ATC were able to get some additional funding, but the club has had to pay (roughly $2,000) out of our own pocket to cover the excess costs.

“So, we’re looking for some donations to our club to help us cover that extra cost with that.”

The club took on added costs as a result of updated building codes as well, the club president said. According to Treutel, the shelter replacement totaled $21,000.

In January, Appalachian Trail Conservancy and U.S. Forest Service officials proposed decommissioning a separate shelter, Overmountain Shelter, a red barn located in Avery County. Overmountain Shelter is located less than 11 miles from Roan Mountain, offering visitors a scenic hike through Carvers Gap.

More: Overmountain Shelter to close?Appalachian Trail officials eye permanently closing once-popular Overmountain Shelter barn

Marshall resident/author Sarah Jones Decker’s book, “The Appalachian Trail: Backcountry Shelters, Lean-tos, and Huts” was published in April 2020 and serves as a compendium of the more than 250 such shelters on the trail. Decker collected her research after section-hiking large segments of the trail from 2018-19 following a thru-hike of the AT in 2008.

“It’s great to see new shelter being built and replaced instead of the other option of not having one in that location,” Decker said. “Shelters have always been a gathering place on the AT since the trail’s inception. I hope we can continue to care for/repair/replace these structures for generations to come.

“I know not everyone is a fan of shelters, but they can definitely be a welcoming sight in bad weather and help limit impact on a trail that continues to get busier every year.”

Franklin Chamber of Commerce, the Nantahala Hiking Club, U.S. Forest Service and the Franklin Appalachian Trail Community Council will hold a ribbon cutting ceremony at Rock Gap Shelter on March 17 at 11 a.m.

For more information, contact the Nantahala Ranger District of the Nantahala National Forest at 828-524-6441 ext. 424.

To donate to Nantahala Hiking Club or for more information on the organization, visit the club’s website, nantahalahikingclub.org. There are also opportunities for businesses to sponsor the club.

This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Appalachian Trail’s Rock Gap Shelter in Franklin replaced