The second Boyce Shelter was a modest patrol‑built log lean‑to erected in 1941 for the Lake Pleiad Section of the Long Trail. Sited close to the Long Trail and a reliable brook, it served as a small overnight refuge for hikers through the 1940s and 1950s before being replaced in the 1960s.
Construction and form
Contemporary trail documentation describes the 1941 Boyce Shelter as an open‑front peeled‑log structure with bunks for six to eight hikers, a stove, and a dependable water source on a brook about 75 feet south of the shelter. The Long Trail Guide’s 14th edition records these features and the shelter’s placement relative to the Burnt Hill approach and Breadloaf Inn.
Midcentury condition and use
Trip reports show the shelter was actively used but sometimes poorly maintained. A 1954 Smoke & Blazes trip report described Boyce as having “seen its best days,” noting interior litter and damp conditions that left hikers preferring to eat outside. That same pattern—heavy seasonal use with intermittent maintenance—appears in Lake Pleiad and patrol records of the era.
Repairs, replacement, and rebuilding
Section and federal records indicate a sequence of interventions in the early 1960s. A U.S. Forest Service entry records a 1963 replacement of the 1941 Boyce Shelter (listed as “Boyce Shelter, 1963. U.S. Forest Service, replacement of Boyce Shelter (1941)”), indicating federal involvement in renewing the site. Subsequent Green Mountain Club reporting shows continued attention: Long Trail News (May 1956) noted ongoing shelter repair needs in the area, and Long Trail News (Feb. 1966) reported that Boyce Shelter “has been completely rebuilt (by the GMC this summer, I believe).” Taken together, the sources show a mid‑century lifecycle in which the original 1941 lean‑to deteriorated, was replaced or renewed under U.S. Forest Service auspices in 1963, and then saw a complete rebuilding effort associated with the Green Mountain Club in the mid‑1960s.
Sources
- Long Trail Guide. 14th ed.
- Long Trail Guide Book. 14th ed.
- "Middlebury Gap to Boyce Shelter." Smoke & Blazes, 1954.
- Long Trail News, 1956.
- Long Trail News, 1966.
