[at-l] Fw: Ms Tillie passed away

[Carla & Dave Hicks]

Here is the first one I tried to get on the list earlier.

Chainsaw

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Carla & Dave Hicks" <daveh at psknet.com>
To: "PATH List" <path-list at path-at.org>; <at-hikers at yahoogroups.com>; 
<atc-varo at appalachiantrail.org>; <atc-gntro at appalachiantrail.org>
Cc: <theregister at appalachiantrail.org>
Sent: Monday, October 15, 2007 9:35 PM
Subject: Ms Tillie passed away


While I was hiking today I received a sad cell call from Atlanta Georgia.

I was sorry to learn that a Grand Lady of the Trail has passed -- Ms. Tillie
of Woods Hole Hostel (SWVA ) and Woods Hole Shelter (GA) fame is now taking
care of  footsore, wayward travelers in another realm.  [If not, if there
aren't trails to hike, if there is not Ms. Tillie maintaining a hostel there,
why go?]

For those who didn't have the honor of knowing her let me share a bit.

The following for the Roanoke Times is better written than I can produce.  So,
I just quote it.

>>
Tillie Wood and her husband, Roy, came to the property [where Woods Hole
Hostel is located] in the early 1940s, when Roy was a graduate student
studying a nearby elk herd. Looking for a place to rent, they were shown a
nice, solid brick cottage and a falling-down cabin with no electricity.

"They were young and it was picturesque, so they took the cabin," said Mary Jo
Osteen, the Woods' daughter.  After a year in the woods, they had a chance to
buy the place. So they did. A cabin and 100 acres for $300. Woods Hole almost
left the family twice. Once, when Roy Wood was becoming assistant secretary of
the interior in President Jimmy Carter's administration, the investigators
looking into his private life told Wood he had a conflict of interest. He
owned land next to a national forest.

"His answer," Tillie Wood said, "was, 'No. They own land next to me. I was
there first.' "

The Woods kept their cabin and woods.

Years later, the couple thought about donating it to the state. When their
granddaughters found out, they cried. That was the end of the donation. The
family still holds reunions there -- more than 20 relatives were at Wood's
Hole last summer -- but they let other people enjoy the place too.  Just a
half-mile from the Appalachian Trial, Tillie Wood has run a hostel for AT
hikers for the past 21 summers. For two months each year, she provides hikers
with a bed in the bunkhouse. She cooks breakfast for the first eight people to
sign up.

She made an exception at least once, when a hiker tried to frighten off a bear
by throwing food at the animal. The hiker, who earned the nickname Bearbait,
came into Woods Hole without any food, without a tent and with a big hunger.
Tillie Wood let him have a place at the breakfast table.

<<

Last I talked to Ms Tillie she was talking  about to turn the hostel tradition
over to her granddaughter, Neville Harris.  I've met Neville and think she
might just have the spunk to continue the tradition -- but she'll have a big
void to fill.

dave hicks -- a.k.a. Chainsaw

PS -- I'm sending the out with most addresses in the Bcc: box -- so as to
avoid spreading folks Email address around too much.

PPS -- Anyone on other trail list, please feel free to spread the word.