By Mary Cassell, Vice Chair

Grandma Gatewood’s Walk: The Inspiring Story of the Woman Who Saved the Appalachian Trail (2014), by Ben Montgomery
A biography & autobiography (Emma Rowena Caldwell Gatewood, Oct. 25, 1887 – June 4, 1973).

This is a true story that is sure to intrigue and inspire you. Author Ben Montgomery of the Tampa Bay Times, award-winning journalist and Pulitzer Prize finalist, uncovered much of the story of Emma Gatewood posthumously. He was given access by Emma’s family to her diaries, trail journals, and correspondence written to her children. This book is the only biography of this hiking pioneer and superstar, who made the cover of Sports Illustrated and appeared on TV with Art Linkletter and Groucho Marx.

In 1955, Emma Gatewood, a 67-year-old mother of eleven and grandmother of 23, left her Ohio small hometown one day, telling no one. She was carrying only a 12-pound hand-sewn sack over her shoulder, $200 in her pocket, with a change of clothes and a pair of Ked’s on her feet. She had read and saved an article from National Geographic about the Appalachian Trail (A.T.), which told how no woman had ever hiked it before—let alone solo.

Emma Gatewood (nicknamed “Grandma”) essentially put the A.T. on the map and started two movements in long-distance hiking: through-hiking (thru-hiking), which is the act of hiking an established end-to-end, long-distance trail within one hiking season, and with continuous footsteps in one direction, and ultra-lite hiking. She traveled without a compass or map, relying on her instincts and better angels. She would tell people, including reporters as her celebrity status grew, that she did it as a “nice lark.” Not until Montgomery’s book was it known that she suffered at the hands of an abusive husband, and that this may have been the reason she took such an arduous journey by herself without telling anyone.

In 1939, the physical and mental abuse became so unbearable that Emma left her husband and two daughters and moved to California for a time before the separation grew too great and she returned to her Ohio home and the abuse. Her first attempt to hike the trail was one year earlier, in 1954. She told no one of her plans and got lost soon after leaving the trailhead in Maine. She was eventually rescued by rangers who returned her to her home in Ohio. Yet Emma refused to give up as hiking was forever in her blood. She returned to hike the A.T. in its entirety again, not once but two more times, and then went on to hike the Oregon Trail in 1959.

For the full story, check out a copy of the book, ebook or eaudiobook from the public library. Grandma Gatewood will inspire you to walk more confidently in life and to step right into your goals no matter your age or even physical condition. She demonstrates that we should not be influenced by what others think or tell us we cannot do, and that we can go for it and we will not ever be, think, or feel the same.

Watch the Book Trailer