History & local legend
Bake Oven Knob Shelter is an open-front overnight shelter along the Appalachian Trail below Kittatinny Ridge in Lehigh County. Built in 1937, it is separate from the nearby rocky overlook. Stories about the shelter describe campers abandoning their sleeping places after seeing something approach through the woods.
A 2009 account collected by Pennsylvania Haunts & History described hikers spotting a large, shadowy shape moving up the ridge toward them during the night. They packed their sleeping bags and left rather than wait for it to reach the shelter.
In July 2023, another camper added a memory from the 1970s. After many uneventful stays, the camper and companions saw an animal they could not identify. The closest comparison the writer could offer was a camel walking upright on two legs. The sight caused such immediate panic that the group gathered its equipment and returned to the car.
Sources
- Pennsylvania Haunts & History, Bake Oven Knob, October 2009, account of the shape on Kittatinny Ridge with a camper’s July 2023 recollection of an encounter in the 1970s
- Blue Mountain Eagle Climbing Club, Bake Oven Knob Shelter, construction date and location
- Appalachian Trail Shelters waypoint survey, Bake Oven Knob Shelter, GPS point below the trail
- Gone Hikin’, 2012, firsthand walk and photographs distinguishing the summit and the shelter
- Weston Brophy, view from Bake Oven Knob in October 2013
