Quiet hours at Huts question?

[shamples]

So I mentioned this story in my Bonds Traverse Trip report where we arrived at Zealand Falls Hut at 5:05AM and me and my father-in-law just went up on the porch and took a 10 minute break. Well an older guy came out of the hut prolly around my father-in-laws age of 69 years old and they started talking regular hiking talk of where ya headed today and coming from, blah blah blah. Well this old crabby lady comes out tha hut and shouts at us: “Gentlemen, there are 36 people sleeping in this hut right now and you are being very rude, Get Off This Porch Right Now!” Which just stunned us! Since we were just talking - not excessivly loud to purposly cause a disruption.

So my question is, do huts have quiet hours? Like a starting time and ending time? I mean it was after 5AM and getting light out where I would think most people start rattling around to get going anyway. But I'm an AMC member at this AMC Hut and this lady comes at me to tell me to "get off this porch"... where I'm just talking???? And even with quiet hours, would something as nonsense as that be against the rules??? Um, people talk even in early mornings. Do they expect people just look at each other and nod because it's morning and people may or may not be sleeping?? People talk, LOL. That lady really got under my skin with that one.

 

[TrekMan]

Quiet hours ... so to speak

Hi,

I would say that the quiet hours are from 9:30 p.m. (when they turn out the lights) when you can use headlamps and play cards etc, but in whisper tones. Then at 6:30 a.m. they serenade the guests with a song to wake them for 7:00 a.m. breakfast. So, I would say that before 6:30 a.m. whisper tone should be used again. And yes, some are up and about at that time, but they are usually quiet. I think you met a combination of early hours and the crabby lady. Happy trails .... TrekMan

 

[Kevin Rooney]

I think TrekMan put it well in terms of quiet hours. Another thing to keep in mind is that, for the most part, people who stay at the huts are not quite the hiker-lunatics you and I might be in terms of when it's time to get up. We think nothing of being on the trail at 5AM, and that means we're been up, had coffee, driven a couple of hours to the trailhead, etc.

Could the request to be quiet been a bit more tactful? Perhaps. I remember being chewed out at Galehead Hut over breakfast in no uncertain terms because our group had some champion snorers (we'd done a bushwhack over Owls Head the day before which made the snoring even worse!). The confrontive behavior was annoying, and I think one of our guys told him that they sold ear plugs at the hut. Had the woman being wearing earplugs she'd have never heard the conservation on the porch.

Stll - there are lots of people squished into a small space. Probably reasonable to expect a quiet time between 9:30PM and the breakfast call.

 

[Squashman]

quiet time

I stayed at Galehead for 2 nights last month, and on both mornings I was the only person up and about at 5 a.m. Others didn't begin stirring until 5:30, with many not getting up until the 6:30 serenade. Voices really carry in the clear mountain early morning air, so I would say that one should make special efforts to be quiet at such an early hour. After all, the hard working hut croo is still asleep at that time

 

[Bob Kittredge]

I'm not sure I could have managed much tact if you'd woken me up at 5AM. (But I would have tried.) At that hour I'm more dozing than sleeping so I'm easier to disturb. But I value that doze, especially if I've been hiking the day before and plan to hike again that day.

To carry on a conversation in normal tones at that hour outside an occupied hut seems like some combination of cluelessness and lack of consideration.

 

[Doc McPeak]

I thought the posted quiet hours were 6AM and 10PM?

I think before and after that the whisper rule is in effect. Usually a "Shhh" does the trick when people get louder than that, and yes, I have been (not at NH huts) on both sides of that fence.

 

[giggy]

Don't see how a couple of people talking on the porch violates "quiet time" anyway- you should have asked her if she had the deed to the hut since she had the authority to ask you to leave. Its one thing if you got the boom box blasting Motorhead at 5am - but have a small hiker convo - outside - sounded like you guys weren't the ones being rude.

chewed out b/c of snoring??? what the heck... If people want total quiet time - my advice is - don't stay in a hut with 30 other people on a heavy used trail!!

 

[JohnL]

Quiet time is quiet time, whether you agree with people’s lifestyles or not. What is quiet to a couple of talkers is noisy to a bunch of sleepers. It does not matter if you’re in a Hut, a lean-to or a campground. All that is required is some common consideration but I realize that consideration is not as common as it used to be. I don’t think everyone expects total quiet time but they do expect others to understand the special circumstances they are all in and take extra care so as not to disturb others. Just my 2 cents.

JohnL

 

[skiguy]

Quiet time is quiet time, whether you agree with people’s lifestyles or not. What is quiet to a couple of talkers is noisy to a bunch of sleepers. It does not matter if you’re in a Hut, a lean-to or a campground. All that is required is some common consideration but I realize that consideration is not as common as it used to be. I don’t think everyone expects total quiet time but they do expect others to understand the special circumstances they are all in and take extra care so as not to disturb others. Just my 2 cents.

JohnL

Agreed;but I do think that alot of folks donot really understand the special circumstances they are in. Earplugs are standard equipment for me these days in the backcountry. I think that one should be prepared for a certain level of noise when sharing backcountry facilities.
The gentleman whom came out of the hut to speak with you should have been more sensitive to the situation. I assume that he having stayed in the hut should have known about the "Quiet Hours" and should have given the situation the heads up. Of course the delivery of the Women could have been better; but she did pay alot for her experience and I'm sure we have all been a bit cranky in the morning.

 

[giggy]

yea johnl - I do agree to a point - had this convo taken place in the hut or in the bunkroom, I would be in total agreement. It was taken place outside the hut - and I assume there was no yelling, etc.. going on.

I guess I just look at how I would react - actually I wouldn't react b/c I would expect some convo like that.

When I stay at huts (RMC, lean to's, etc..) - conversation as described above doesn't bother me at all - and I fully expect it at all hours as people tend to arrive late and head out early. I don't know - thats what I expect when I stay at a hut with others. But - I do think the AMC huts tend to get a different crowd and something tells me this kind of falls in that catagory -

 

[skiguy]

When I stay at huts (RMC, lean to's, etc..) - conversation as described above doesn't bother me at all - and I fully expect it at all hours as people tend to arrive late and head out early. I don't know - thats what I expect when I stay at a hut with others.

Agreed.....but my experience is that The RMC's facilities are a bit more rustic and attract a different crowd with different goals. I have stayed away from AMC huts over the years to avoid the Hotel like rules and atmosphere that shamples experienced. Not to say that those rules don't serve a purpose and again the people staying at the AMC huts are paying alot more money than RMC cabins and therfore I assume they expect a different level of backcountry experience.

 

[dvbl]

Quiet time is quiet time, whether you agree with people’s lifestyles or not. What is quiet to a couple of talkers is noisy to a bunch of sleepers. It does not matter if you’re in a Hut, a lean-to or a campground. All that is required is some common consideration but I realize that consideration is not as common as it used to be. I don’t think everyone expects total quiet time but they do expect others to understand the special circumstances they are all in and take extra care so as not to disturb others. Just my 2 cents.

JohnL

I can't improve on that one bit. You said it perfectly.

 

[erugs]

I'm conservative and tend to be observant of the rules (unless they are ridiculous or I'm having too much fun and forget). I was sailing on the Schooner Summertime this summer and was shocked to learn that I'm a snorer. My partner hadn't mentioned more than a few snorts before, so I was quite surprised to learn I'm one of the noisy ones. If you think sound travels in the huts or shelters, just imagine what happens on a 57 foot wooden schooner. Every sound is like it is next door . I've learned that not everyone knows how to make a critical statement in a way that doesn't offend.

 

[Puck]

So much we don't know. How loud were you talking? Was the "older guy" and the "old crabby lady" married or related? Was there a history between the two? Perhaps he didn't wash his hands before he touched the bread at dinner the night before. Or he didn't let her pass him on the trail the day before.

Anyway one could be firm without being rude. One can be rude without realizing it. And it is also rude to point out bad behavior.

I hope the experience didn't ruin your day in such a beautifull area.

 

[Waumbek]

I never used them much anyway, but I gave up on huts during full-service season when someone complained that my headlamp was keeping them awake. Admittedly, that was the same night that during dinner the guy at the end of the table insisted that I, a 30-year vegetarian, really had to eat some meat to have enough stamina to make it through the next day. (I was finishing the New England 4Ks that trip so I was doing fine in the stamina category.) I go during caretaker season now and find a much mellower bunch of people. I prefer shelters.

 

[Toe Cozy]

Ear plugs, ear plugs, ear plugs! You can even go to your local audiologist and get custom plugs made that fit easily and snugly. You can even get them in fashionable colors like hunter's orange or glow in the dark green. Or if you're feeling really crazy a swirl of three colors to make everyone of those snorers, loud talkers, mice chewing through your food bag, green with envy!!!!

I'm an incredibly light sleeper. Soft conversation wakes me. With ear plugs I have slept three feet away from an epic snorer (my dad) on a wooden schooner, slept through many bats scratching their way back into the rafters under the metal roof of Stratton Pond Shelter, not been bothered by 3.5" of heavy rain and rippin' wind on my tent at Vargus Island, BC. Also good for home use....


30+ people trying to sleep in one location...nuts. Earplugs..the only sane answer.

 

[griffin]

It sounds like the woman was very rude, and possibly just as if not more disruptive than your conversation, but had I been in that hut I might have been pretty annoyed at being woken up, too.

Earplugs are great, but they don't block out everything. I've worn them in huts and tent sites, and they'll dampen noise, but some things - like human conversation - will cut through it. I think we tend to forget how far our voices carry in quiet places.

(fwiw, I've stayed at tent sites as well as huts, and I really don't think the tent/shelter crowd would be all that happy about being woken up before they were ready, either)