Grandma Gatewood's Walk

By: Ben Montgomery

Format: Physical Book

Completed: 10/21/2023

What's it about: The book tells the story of an unlikely candidates to walk the Appalachian Trail three times and become the first woman to through hike the whole trail: a 67 your old woman, Grandma Emma Gatewood. She also became the first person to hike it twice, and first person to hide it three times, all over the age of 67.

Main Takeaway: People of that era were simply built different. Emma Gatewood was built differently than those people. She had a hard life by any standard of the imagination, battling through an abusive husband in conjunction with the everyday farm life and raising 11 kids in the 30’s.

She took that difficulty to the next level by any stretch of the imagination by starting the trail after reading “it was fun, well marked, with shelters all along.” She quickly found out that was untrue, and the magnitude of what she was attempting was immense. She didn’t stop.

Packing extremely light, she roughed it by any stretch of the imagination; no sleeping bag, no tent, and only one small bag (more of a sack). She carried what she could eat and and picked up the rest when she hit towns. She walked mostly in a skirt and sneakers, which in the 50s could not have been adequate for the trail (she walked through countless pairs). She didn’t complain much, didn’t second guess her decision, and didn’t quit.

I take away that you can accomplish anything you set your mind to (and at any age). Emma Gatewood did what most young people wouldn’t have dreamed of.

Get our into nature, it will keep you young and healthy.

You can battle through hard times, and they will generally make you harder when you can weather them.

Lastly, never stop moving. Up until she died, she was hiking, walking, working in her garden, digging up holes, and working on her properties. She was a working woman, and a tough one at that.