Don Twohey’s first pack trip with PCTA’s Lyons’ Pride trail crew in the Castle Crags Wilderness didn’t go so well. It poured for several days, and the crew, camped near a raging creek for eight days, did its best to fight off the wet and cold.
That was in 2005 and Don was in his 70s. A lifetime camper and backpacker, he was still an outsider to the tightly knit group. In the middle of the first night, when nature called, he tripped over his tent pole and broke it. Water poured into the tent, soaking his clothes and down sleeping bag.
“We propped him up in front of the fire and he spent two days in that position tending the fire,” said John Lyons, the crew leader. “He confided in us that he hadn’t been backpacking in a few years and that most of his equipment predated our birthdays.”
It’s one of those trips that everyone who was there has continued to talk about. And we talked about it again in the last several days as we remembered Don, who died Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2015. He was 87.
Don and his grandson, Ryan Peacock, visit former California Rep. Dan Lungren during a Hike the Hill trip in Washington D.C. (PCTA file photo)
Don was a standout in terms of PCTA volunteers. He received the Alice Krueper Award in 2006, the PCTA’s top honor for outstanding trail maintenance volunteers. He worked trail crews all along the PCT. He traveled to Washington D.C. for advocacy work as part of the association’s Hike the Hill team from 2008 to 2011. And he was a regular presence at annual meetings in Sacramento, always ready with a tough question or two about the organization’s direction or finances.
“He absolutely lived and bled PCTA,” John said.
He was tough, gruff and hopeful that PCTA would continue to prosper. He loved the mountains and giving back to them through his advocacy and trail work.
“He was a large life force and he wasn’t a wallflower,” said friend and fellow PCTA volunteer Gary Lee. “He wanted to engage people and get to know them. He had his own opinion. It wasn’t as if he was extreme, but if he felt strongly about something, he’d share it.”
Don and Cynthia Lusk, a U.S. Forest Service employee, work together to improve the trail in the Plumas National Forest. (PCTA file photo)
Beth Boyst, U.S. Forest Service PCT Program Manager, said she felt lucky to have had Don as a mentor and friend for so many years.
“Don was a passionate steward of the PCT – he always looked to make sure the trail was protected,” she said. “He never missed an opportunity to ask me about the Tejon Ranch relocation and to probe on why it wasn’t done. I will miss his vision, passion and leadership.”
Mike Dawson, PCTA’s Director of Trail Operations, said Don’s “open communication style” made it easy to understand existing trail crews when he first started working at PCTA. “Don was a hard working, generous and irascible trail curmudgeon…and quite proud of it! He will be missed up and down the PCT, but he’s still working trails in the hearts of many PCTA volunteers and staff.”
Back to that wet camping trip: Don was soaked but didn’t complain. When the weather broke and he was able to dry out his gear, he managed to get in a few more days of work on the trail. One day, he came back to camp after and asked John for duct tape.
“I asked him what he needed it for and he said his shoes. The sole fell off,” John said with a laugh. “We thought, what a way to spend his first trip. We’ll probably never see him again.”
But John’s first phone call after that spring trip was from Don. He wanted to sign up for the next two Lyons’ Pride outings.
Don was always in the camp kitchen. (Photo courtesy John Lyons)
Gary Lee was on that 2005 trip as well. He and Don became good friends and lived close to one another in the Sacramento area. More than once they talked about that rainy trip. “He said from his perspective it was the best trip ever. Part of it was because, aside from the tent and mess, when there was work he enjoyed it. And there was something about John that really won him over.”
Gary said John offered Don a few winks in his own tent, but Don was happy sleeping in a chair by the fire. “That generosity meant so much to Twohey, that endeared him to John forever.”
That trip was PCTA Regional Representative Ian Nelson’s first to a Lyons’ Pride project as well. A year into the job, Ian was escorting a reporter for The Oregonian newspaper, yours truly. We both got pretty wet hiking into camp and wondered what was up with the wet dude stoking the fire.
“I looked forward to talking to him every time I got out with the crew because either way it was going to be a good conversation,” Ian said of Don. “He was engaged with our work and passionate about it and he wanted to contribute his time.”
Don quickly fit into Lyons’ Pride, but he did as many as 10 trips a year, joining other crews as well. He and Gary rode together in recent years as far as Southern California. Gary did the driving. “He was getting up in age these last few years, unless I went, he wouldn’t go. It worked out well for both of us because I wouldn’t go by myself either.”
Three recipients of the Alice Krueper award for outstanding volunteerism: John Lyons, Don Twohey and Doris Peddy. (Photo courtesy John Lyons)
Lyons’ Pride gave Don both his trail names. On one early trip, he packed in a small chair that he’d paid $7.99 for. It wasn’t the most stable, and Don set it up on a slope. As soon as he sat down, the chair fell over. They called him CD, short for certificate of deposit, because you rolled it over.
Later on, during a Trail Fest near Riverside, Don and John were camping with PCTA Trail Gorillas leader Pete Fish on a nearby work project. Don had a nice new tent with a cot and a quilt. He was set up, recalled John, until a storm came in.
“That night the wind blew and blew and blew,” John said. “Pretty soon I hear: ‘John, I need help.’ The wind went underneath his tent and flipped him upside down. Everything was all wet in his tent so we put him up in the rest room. The next morning his tent was in a tree about 10 feet high.”
From then on Don’s trail name was “Tent Wreck Twohey” because he trashed two tents.
Don and Jennifer Tripp, PCTA trail operations manager, at Trail Fest 2008. (Photo courtesy Jennifer Tripp)
Don Twohey was born June 19, 1928, in Livermore, California. His father built dams for a living, meaning the family moved around the West a lot, said Don’s daughter, Ann Bennett. A child of the Great Depression, he went to his first camp in the Sierra at age 10 and really took to it, Ann said.
“He was absolutely smitten with the mountains,” she said. “That was the beginning of it.”
Ann took her first backpacking trip with her father at age 15. He was a terrific planner, but later in life would always forget stuff. “He’d forget a sleeping bag and would wrap a tarp around himself. He always made do. He was tough. He was not somebody who minded being uncomfortable.”
Don joined the U.S. Marine Corps at the tail end of World War II and was stationed on Guam, but never saw combat. He spent his career at the National Labor Relations Board, retiring as the assistant regional director from the San Francisco office at age 55. He continued working as a labor arbitrator and supervised elections for the Teamsters, among other things, retiring at age 77.
In 1951, he married Yvette Elorga. They had four daughters: Carole, Janet, Ann and Joan, and divorced in 1974. Don and Jerilou Cossack were married in 1977. They had two children, Paul and Rebecca. They got divorced as well.
Don and Yvette remarried in 1991 – “very California,” Ann said. It was a true love story. “My dad and mom really did love each other a lot and I’m glad they had their last years together,” Ann said.
Yvette died on Jan. 15, 2006 of frontal lobe dementia. She was very impaired the last two years and Don visited her every day. “She was nonverbal and he was so loyal,” Ann said. “He was devoted to her and did not want her to be lonely.”
After Yvette died, Don was able to get back to the mountains and trail work. “The PCTA was great for him because it combined how much he loved being outside, how tough he was and doing something good,” Ann said. “He loved to be of service.”
Don, holding the yellow hard hat, top left, with Lyons’ Pride during a July 4 work party. (Photo courtesy John Lyons)
John Lyons said Don stopped coming to trail project in 2014. In May he was diagnosed with Nocardiosis, a rare bacterial infection. Despite the setback, Ann said he continued to plan and move forward. He fought it off for as long as he could.
John spoke with Don the morning he died.
“He confided in me that he’d had a good life and he was prepared,” John said. “He was in control. I could tell he was tired. He’ll be greatly missed by everybody. He was a fun guy to be around.”
Don is survived by his girlfriend, Dorothy Geduldig, his six children and 10 grandchildren.