The third Boyce Shelter was built by the U.S. Forest Service and replace the earlier 1941 patrol lean‑to in the same location.
The USFS‑built Boyce follows the mid‑20th‑century pattern of wood-framed open‑front shelters intended to be more weather‑resistant and easier to maintain than earlier peeled‑log lean‑tos. Its location on a west slope with a nearby brook was chosen to balance access to water with a site that shed wind and drainage. The 22nd edition of the Long Trail Guide (1983) records the approach, the slide on Kirby Peak, and the shelter’s placement at mile 13.0 on that section of trail, confirming the route and the water source description.
Contemporary guidebook entries describe the structure as a wood-framed, open‑front shelter with bunks for six to eight and water at a small brook about 200 feet north via the Long Trail, sited on the west slope of Kirby Peak just beyond the Burnt Hill Trail junction. These guidebook directions and the shelter’s basic specifications appear in the Long Trail Guide and were reiterated in mid‑1960s GMC notices about guidebook changes.
GMC Historian, Paul Woodward constrasted the new Boyce against infamously decrepid precursor:
I used this shelter only days after it was open for public use. We had bypassed the shelter at Lake Pleiad after a long day because of no water and a high concentration of bugs. It was our first year of hiking on the LT. A shelter without graffiti! It sure was spiffy.
Sources
- "Guide Book Changes." Long Trail News, 1964.
- Long Trail Guide Book. 22nd ed. 1983.
- Long Trail Guide Book. 24th Edition ed. Green Mountain Club, 1996.
- "Field Notes." Long Trail News, 2016.
- Woodward, Paul and Joanne . Green Mountain Club: Long Trail System Shelter History. 2 ed.
