news_101707_tillie

This was from the Roanoke Times

For the past 20 years, Tillie Wood spent two months of the year at Wood's Hole Hostel in Giles County, where she awoke before dawn to make biscuits for hikers who sought refuge from the rigors of the Appalachian Trail.

This spring, with the help of her granddaughter, Neville Harris, Wood made her last trip to her log cabin just half a mile off the AT.

Next spring, Harris will open the hostel without her grandmother, who was known and loved by hikers from across the nation.

Wood died Sunday in Roswell, Ga. She was 89.

Wood and her late husband, Roy Wood, rented the cabin in the early 1940s, when Roy was a graduate student studying a nearby herd of elk.

They later bought the property, and after Roy's retirement they converted the cabin into a hostel and added a bunkhouse.

Since then, Wood has spent from May to July serving breakfast to hikers who considered the hostel a luxury after many hard nights on the trail.

"Once they started using the place, word got around," said Charles Parry, an AT trail supervisor. "It was just a very nice place to stay."

The amenities include a solar-powered shower, a fireplace, a porch and, of course, breakfast.

"Tillie was a great cook," Parry said.

Every day, she served breakfast to the first eight people who had signed up the night before.

The comfort she provided made the hostel a destination for hikers, said Laura Belleville, regional director of the southwest and central office of the Virginia Appalachian Trail Conservancy.

"She's completely loved by the AT community," Belleville said.

News of Wood's death was noted on several hiking blogs and message boards, as were stories of memorable stays at her accommodations.

Last year Wood filed an easement with the Virginia Outdoors Foundation to permanently preserve the 100 acres where the hostel is situated.

"This is a small paradise, really," said Elizabeth Obenshain, executive director of the New River Land Trust.

Obenshain described trees and logs covered with lichen, and the chestnut log cabin in a clearing.

"They had loved and cared for this place and made it a famous stopover on the Appalachian Trail," Obenshain said.

Wood's sister, Tinky Mills, spent a few summers at the hostel.

"It is so peaceful. You sit on the front porch and look out on the valley," Mills said. "You hear the birds and the rustle and the wind."

She recalled befriending hikers and spending time with her sister, taking hikes or going on picnics.

"She'll be with us for several generations because she's so famous, so well-known," Mills said. "I don't consider her gone because she'll live in the memory."