Top: A glimpse of Pecks Corner shelter, as seen from the Hughes Ridge trail, standing near the intersection with the AT. The shelter has the new open-front construction, a vast improvement over the former hiker-in-a-cage dungeon that it once was. The shelter has a privy, sitting uphill??? from the water source. Be sure to treat the water - I prefer to get mine from a spring just off the trail a bit further to the south. I'm not a big fan of staying in the shelters, but they do serve a valuable purpose in providing a place to stay for the folks hiking from Georgia to Maine on the AT. The remote shelters, such as Pecks Corner and Tricorner Knob, draw the more dedicated hikers, unlike the 'party huts' at Davidson Gap and Spence Field. The best stay that I ever had at a shelter, way back when I was still willing to stay in one, was in mid-January during a good ol' butt-kicking Smoky Mountain blizzard. We were the only occupants and by morning, over 18 inches of snow had piled up on the trails outside our dark abode. The hike out, down the long drop into Bradley Fork to Smokemont, was incredible.

Below: The intersection of the Hughes Ridge trail and the AT, about 1/2 mile above the shelter. The 5.3 miles of the Appalachian Trail between Pecks Corner and Tricorner Knob are, IMHO, the most spectacular stretch of the southern portion of the AT.