(December 2014) 8. Grandma Gatewood's Walk: The Inspiring Story of the Woman Who Saved the Appalachian Trail
Emma Gatewood told her family she was going on a walk and left her small Ohio hometown with a change of clothes and less than two hundred dollars. The next anybody heard from her, this genteel, farm-reared, 67-year-old great-grandmother had walked 800 miles along the 2,050-mile Appalachian Trail. And in September 1955, having survived a rattlesnake strike, two hurricanes, and a run-in with gangsters from Harlem, she stood atop Maine’s Mount Katahdin. There she sang the first verse of “America, the Beautiful” and proclaimed, “I said I’ll do it, and I’ve done it.”
Emma Gatewood told her family she was going on a walk and left her small Ohio hometown with a change of clothes and less than two hundred dollars. The next anybody heard from her, this genteel, farm-reared, 67-year-old great-grandmother had walked 800 miles along the 2,050-mile Appalachian Trail. And in September 1955, having survived a rattlesnake strike, two hurricanes, and a run-in with gangsters from Harlem, she stood atop Maine’s Mount Katahdin. There she sang the first verse of “America, the Beautiful” and proclaimed, “I said I’ll do it, and I’ve done it.”
Grandma Gatewood, as the reporters called her, became the first woman to hike the entire Appalachian Trail alone, as well as the first person—man or woman—to walk it twice and three times. Gatewood became a hiking celebrity and appeared on TV and in the pages of Sports Illustrated. The public attention she brought to the little-known footpath was unprecedented. Her vocal criticism of the lousy, difficult stretches led to bolstered maintenance, and very likely saved the trail from extinction.
Author Ben Montgomery was given unprecedented access to Gatewood’s own diaries, trail journals, and correspondence, and interviewed surviving family members and those she met along her hike, all to answer the question so many asked: Why did she do it? The story of Grandma Gatewood will inspire readers of all ages by illustrating the full power of human spirit and determination. Even those who know of Gatewood don’t know the full story—a story of triumph from pain, rebellion from brutality, hope from suffering.
Blue Ridge Expeditions: August 23rd, Hike on Garden Mountain
On this hike you will see beautiful moss- and fern-covered trees and top of the ridge line views into Burke’s Garden, and hear calling ravens. There is a 3.7 mile stretch of sandstone cliffs that drops off abruptly in some places.
This easy 4.9 mile section of the Appalachian Trail runs across the top of Garden Mountain, from Route #623 to Walker’s Gap (at end of Route #727 in Burke’s Garden).
On this hike you will see beautiful moss- and fern-covered trees and top of the ridgeline views into Burke’s Garden, and hear calling ravens. There is a 3.7 mile stretch of sandstone cliffs that drops off abruptly in some places. Bring water, as none is available on this hike. We will meet at 8:00 a.m. at the Kangaroo Gas Station/Dairy Queen at the Bland I-77 exit and will carpool to the drop off and pick up sites from there. Please contact BRDC trip leader Amy Roberts at 276-688-3793 or aarobert@vt.edu for more information and to sign up for the hike. A limit of 20 participants will help to protect the trail.
