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End of the Trail

fogtender

fogtender

Now a Published Author
Well yesterday when I was driving back from Anchorage I got the news a Forum member and very good friend passed away in the afternoon.

Larry Coy, known here as Roughwoods is gone and will be greatly missed by his family, friends and me.

We were getting ready to haul a bunch of building materials out to his homestead this winter by snowmachine so he could rebuild the roof and interior of the main house this summer.

For the past fifteen plus years I have had coffee almost daily with him at their Restaurant in Nenana. We have driven thousands of miles on both snowmachine and our Imps and Snotracs together mapping out trails to build both our cabins out on the Lake forty miles out from town, which was also a halfway point for him going out to his homestead that he planned on retiring at. One the many evenings of us being on the trail, the temps were almost -40 when we were coming back from the Lake at night, the Northern Lights were out against a dark star filled night. We stopped both snowmachines and laid back on the seats and watched the show of the lights dancing across the sky talking about the night sky.

Now I will be watching for him in the night sky on my trips back by myself.

You don't get many good friends like him in life, I hope everyone has one like he was.

Rest in Peace Larry...
 

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This is sad news, I've traded messages with him many times over the past few years. He will be missed.

Please let his family know that we are sending prayers.
 
My condolences Foggy. He sounds like the kind of guy we'd all be proud to know.
RIP Larry aka roughwoods.
 
Didn't get the chance to know him, but so sad to hear a beloved FF member has passed. Thoughts and prayers for him and his family.
 
Foggy, Hope he enjoyed your times together and passed happy and content. cherish the memories.
 
Foggy, losing a friend is never easy, especially such a good one as this. You and Larry's family will be in our thoughts and prayers. Hang in there and remember, it's all right to cry.


 
Mark,
I am so sorry to hear this :(
I do recall seeing him on here before.
It's never easy losing a friend.

One the many evenings of us being on the trail, the temps were almost -40 when we were coming back from the Lake at night, the Northern Lights were out against a dark star filled night. We stopped both snowmachines and laid back on the seats and watched the show of the lights dancing across the sky talking about the night sky.

Now I will be watching for him in the night sky on my trips back by myself.

.. and he'll be watching over you, my friend.:flowers::wink:
Big love and hugs darling.
 
Ah Foggy, I'm sorry to hear about your friend.

As I get older, it seems to be happening more and more often. Friends and acquaintances seem to disappear out off my life. The void that they leave behind never seems to be filled.

My condolences to all.
 
sorry to here about him sounds like one hell of a guy like most of the older alaskans are he will be missed by us all.
 
Although Larry (Roughwoods) didn't post much, he was an avid reader here on the forum. We would talk a lot about the modifications and improvements over others snowcats. He owned an Imp and four snotracs that he has done extensive work to that he put a lot of miles on as well as the snowmachine trips.

We would often chat about what someone had done to their units and see if it would be something we could do to our units and/or if it would be helpful to our applications.

So I would like to thank all of you that have posted here over the last few years and supplied us with hours of conversation.

This was the cabin that he built out on the Lake a few hundred yards from mine, I had posted it before, but I figured one last time won't hurt... It was a pretty enjoyable time during the construction of both our places, but this was Larry's place to hide out....

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTJ7Fka6YWo"]YouTube - Roughwoods cabin II[/ame]
 
For anyone that is interested, this is the website of "Roughwoods" where Larry did all the carvings and artwork for their Resturant/hotel.

http://www.roughwoodsinn.biz/

I talked with his wife tonight and she will be keeping the business open, but will be a few weeks or so before she is ready to go back to work.
 
He was a good guy, and will be hard to replace as a guy to break trails with! He was as good in the wilderness as you will ever find!
 
This was Larry's Obituary posted in the Fairbanks Daily News Miner today.

Him and his wife came to the house for Christmas day dinner, but as soon as he came into the house he was having problems and was taken to Fairbanks (80 mile drive) by ambulance. There they found he had a heart attack so they checked him over and found that his arteries were clogged from the heart, they did a series of "Rotorooter" jobs on them to open them up and installed a stint or two.

The following weekend he was looking pretty good but tired and the following Friday when I was driving back from Anchorage, I was called and told he had passed away.

Life is so short and fragile, you need to enjoy it while you can and with the people that are your friends. Needless to say this has been a pretty long last few weeks.

I wrote the Obituary for his wife, she wanted it very short and so I didn't have much space to deal with... Truthfully, I could have done a full page worth of writing on him so it was tough to do such a short version.

Travel Well Larry!


********************************

Larry Coy (1948-2011)

| Visit Guest Book


63023f0c-5be0-4f0b-8d49-30b3c1a1a8c3.jpg
Larry Coy departed for his final trapline inspection on Jan. 7, 2011.
Born in October 1948, his passions included prospecting, carved art, restoring machinery, and he was as at home on a trail as the wildlife. He homesteaded on the Kantishna River and raised a family there.
In the mid-1990s, he moved to Nenana and started Roughwoods Inn with his wife. As a father, husband and friend to many, he will be missed greatly by all.
There will be no service at this time at the request of the family.


Site at:

http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/newsminer/obituary.aspx?n=larry-coy&pid=147910795
 
fubar said:
Sorry to hear that news.

Mark, what is the name of his place in Nenana?
Click to expand...

It is called Roughwoods Inn, there is a lot of carvings and artworkd there that Larry did. Very nice place to stop and have a meal or just a cup of coffee to chat with the locals.

He has a fleet of rebuilt Snowtracs he was going to use for giving winter tours with. That was a real strong goal he had for them, sad it won't happen now.

This is the website they have:

http://www.roughwoodsinn.biz/
 
What a blessing it must have been to know him. You come across people like that only a very few times in a lifetime.

RIP, Larry.
 
Av8r3400 said:
What a blessing it must have been to know him. You come across people like that only a very few times in a lifetime.

RIP, Larry.
Click to expand...

Yeah, to sit and have coffee with him and have him relate his stories of living well off the grid and raising a family there is pretty neat. I wish he had written a book of his travels in the wilderness.

His wife had written a book on Cooking and it does pretty good, I would figure that if someone wanted to buy one, they would have to call her directly at the restaurant.

IMAG000.JPG
 
Wanted to thank all of you who posted on this thread. I am going to put a book together for Larry's family and will print out a lot of Larry's post from here as well as this thread.

I have hundreds of photos of Larry from over the years we spent out on the trail with snowcats and snowmachines that I will put in there as well.

If any of you make it though Nenana, Alaska, feel free to stop in at his resturant Roughwoods Inn for coffee and say hi to his wife Ruth. It will mean a lot to her knowing that Larry touched a lot of lives.

Thanks again!
 
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