View Full Version : Kay Wood Passes
sasquatch2014
02-19-2010, 20:55
I had seen this undwer the Shelter thread but figured more folks may see it in a general thread about trail news.
Kay Wood passed away. She was a long time trail enthusiast who hike both the AT as well as the Lt and the top 100 peaks in NE. The shelter just tot he south of Dalton where she lived was named in her honor. Services will be on the 27th. See link for more info. The trail looses yet another one of its legends.
http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/berkshire/obituary.aspx?n=katherine-wood&pid=139818673
My thoughts and prayers go out to her family.
I was just thinking of Kay Wood the other day. She was the first thru hiker I ever met, and her lifelong dedication to the trail was inspirational.
My thoughts go out to her family and friends.
I was fortunate enough to meet Kay Wood at the annual winter AT maintainers conference at Mt. Greylock in 2006.
She left me with a lasting impression of someone who was very vibrant and fit. She did love the trail.
Blue Jay
02-20-2010, 12:37
I first met Kay in 1998. I saw a lady throwing twigs from the trail from a distance. When I got to her she asked me if I was a thru. I said yes and she proceeded to apologize for a downed tree a few miles up the trail. She had called it in and someone would be by in a day or so to remove it. I assured her that the Mass. section was the best maintained state on the AT to that point. You could see from her face that I could not have said anything better. She hugged me and proceeded on picking up twigs. You know how sometimes you meet someone and much later learn they are important. I knew she was right from the start.
canoehead
02-20-2010, 13:18
We had lunch on the trail in the October mt area at Finerty Pond.
Good times....
Well, we lost another one last week too in Mass. Steve Abel, a contemporary of Kay's. Steve was a maintainer extrodinaire. Even into his 80's he was an avid back country skier, and adopted every shelter in Mass. How old was he? He told me one day, he camped on the summit of Mt Greylock BEFORE Bascom Lodge was built.
He maintained the section of trail leading up to Saddleball mountain (now the Jones' Nose Trail) from Cheshire until about 4 years ago. Now a side trail, it was the AT until the mid 80's.
We will miss them both, they were key players in the formation of an organized club to manage the AT in Mass, and were instrumental in getting the AT through such places as Goose Pond and the Tyringham valley as the NPS began the effort to move the AT off of roads in the 1980's. Passionate about the AT and the role of volunteers, they showed the way for the rest of us to follow.
Cosmo
I had a brief meeting with her in Mass. a few years ago. She was a wonderful Christian lady.
I did not realize AT shelters were named after living people. Any other shelters named after someone still living?
I did not realize AT shelters were named after living people. Any other shelters named after someone still living?
Trail Clubs can name shelters pretty much anyway they want to. There are no trail-wide standards. We have some named for people and others named for their location, or natural features.
Memorial gifts for shelters and other Trail structures are becoming more common. Most Clubs (in NE, anyway) would accept the donation only if the honoree were intrinsically linked to the local trail effort.
In other words, if If former Defense Secretary Haig's (or even J.D. Salinger's) family wanted to donate a shelter here, we would probably turn them down, since they had no local connection.
Cosmo
Here is the link to a page on ATC's website. Please feel free to leave your comments.
We had services for both Kay Wood and her fellow volunteer Steve Abel on Saturday. Very nice and well attended. Good stories. Two good lives--well led.
http://www.appalachiantrail.org/site/apps/nlnet/content2.aspx?c=mqLTIYOwGlF&b=5703283&ct=8036823
Cosmo