Grandma Gatewood's Walk

 Ben Montgomery wrote a book about a woman called Grandma Gatewood's Walk: The Story Of The Woman Who Saved The Appalachian Trail. At age 67 she left her home in Ohio with a bag and about two hundred dollars and went to Georgia to start her hike. She had no tent, no sleeping bag, no hiking boots, and no phone. The year was 1955 and only one person, a friend, knew where she was. She was born on a farm. She married an abusive man and had ten children by him. Now her children were grown and on their own so she thought she would hike the trail after reading about it in a magazine at the doctor's office. She had some difficulties. A porcupine tried to crawl on her one night. A rattlesnake bit at her but didn't make it through her dungarees. A hurricane flooded the mountain sides in Maine and two Navy men helped her cross the stream by tying a rope around her and themselves. She actually hiked the trail three times. Her success caught the attention of local newspapers. Sometimes she complained about the downed trees and the poor condition of the trail. People listened to her and worked to upgrade the Appalachian trail. When that was done she decided to hike the Lewis and Clark Trail to Oregon. She became quite famous and was featured in parades. She was interviewed on television by Groucho Marx. After all that she stayed in Ohio and worked to improve a local trail to a cave. I liked her story. Like her I also have bunions and I have no desire to sleep on a trail at night without a tent.