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Grandma Gatewood's Walk
The Inspiring Story of the Woman Who Saved the Appalachian Trail
By: Ben Montgomery
Paperback | 1 April 2016
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2014 National Outdoor Book Award Winner inHistory / Biography
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, sixty-seven-year-old great-grandmother had walked 800 miles along the 2,050-mile Appalachian Trail. By September 1955 she stood atop Maine's Mount Katahdin, sang "America, the Beautiful," and proclaimed, "I said I'll do it, and I've done it."
Driven by a painful marriage, Grandma Gatewood not only hiked the trail alone, she was the first person-man or woman-to walk it twice and three times. At age seventy-one, she hiked the 2,000-mile Oregon Trail. Gatewood became a hiking celebrity, and appeared on TV with Groucho Marx and Art Linkletter. The public attention she brought to the trail 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 interviewed surviving family members and hikers Gatewood met along the trail, unearthed historic newspaper and magazine articles, and was given full access to Gatewood's own diaries, trail journals, and correspondence. Grandma Gatewood's Walk shines a fresh light on one of America's most celebrated hikers.
Industry Reviews
"Grandma Gatewood's Walk is a brilliant look at an Americaboth good and badthat has slipped away, seen through the eyes and feet of one of America's most unlikely heroines. Gatewood's story suggests anything is possible; no matter your age, gender, or quality of your walking shoes." STEPHEN RODRICK, AUTHOR OF THE MAGICAL STRANGER
"Grandma Gatewood's Walk is sure to fuel not only the dreams of would-be hikers, but debates on the limits of endurance, the power of determination, and the nature of myth." EARL SWIFT, AUTHOR OF THE BIG ROADS
"A quiet delight of a book." KIRKUS REVIEWS
ISBN: 9781613734995
ISBN-10: 1613734999
Published: 1st April 2016
Format: Paperback
Language: English
Number of Pages: 288
Audience: General Adult
Publisher: Chicago Review Press
Country of Publication: US
Dimensions (cm): 21.5 x 15 x 2
Weight (kg): 0.47
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This product is categorised by
- Non-FictionSports & RecreationActive Outdoor PursuitsWalking, Hiking, Trekking
- Non-FictionTravel & HolidaysTravel Writing
- Non-FictionBiographies & True Stories BiographiesHistorical, Political and Military Biographies
- Non-FictionHistoryRegional & National HistoryHistory of the Americas
- Non-FictionHistoryEarliest Times to Present Day20th Century History from 1900 to 2000
- Non-FictionTravel & HolidaysTravel Guides
- Non-FictionSociety & CultureSocial GroupsGender StudiesGender Studies: Women and Girls