Table Of ContentNATURE/BIOGRAPHY MONTGOMERY GRANDMA $26.95 (CAN $31.95)
Emma GatEwood told hEr family shE was
“Grandma Gatewood’s Walk is sure to fuel not only the dreams of would-be GATEWOOD'S going on a walk and left her small Ohio hometown
with a change of clothes and less than two hun-
hikers, but debates on the limits of endurance, the power of determination,
dred dollars. The next anybody heard from her,
and the nature of myth.” —Earl swift, author of The Big Roads
this genteel, farm-reared, 67-year-old great-grand-
mother had walked 800 miles along the 2,050-mile
Walk
“Go, Granny, Go! This astonishing tale will send you looking for your hiking Appalachian Trail. And in September 1955, having
boots. A wonderful story, wonderfully told.” —CharlEs mCNair, Books Editor at survived a rattlesnake strike, two hurricanes, and a
run-in with gangsters from Harlem, she stood atop
PasTe maGaziNE aNd author of PickeTT’s chaRge
Maine’s Mount Katahdin. There she sang the first
verse of “America, the Beautiful” and proclaimed,
“Before Cheryl Strayed, there was Grandma Gatewood. Ben Montgomery
“I said I’d do it, and I’ve done it.”
lets us walk with her—tattered sneakers, swollen ankles, and not an ounce THE Grandma Gatewood, as the reporters called
of self-pity—and with each step experience our conflicted relationship with her, became the first woman to hike the entire
Appalachian Trail alone, as well as the first person—
nature, the meanness and generosity of humanity, and the imperative to keep INSPIRING STORY
man or woman—to walk it twice and three times.
moving. This book makes me long for my backpacking days, and grateful for
Gatewood became a hiking celebrity and appeared
BEN moNtGomEry is a staff writer at the Tampa
Bay Times and cofounder of the Auburn Chau- writers who keep history and spirit alive.” —JaCqui BaNaszyNski, kNiGht Chair OF THE WOMAN on TV and in the pages of Sports Illustrated. The
iN EditiNG, missouri sChool of JourNalism public attention she brought to the little-known
tauqua, a Southern writers’ collective. He was
a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2010 and has WHO SAVED THE footpath was unprecedented. Her vocal criticism of
the lousy, difficult stretches led to bolstered mainte-
won many other national writing awards. He “Montgomery’s compelling tale secures Grandma Gatewood’s place in the
nance, and very likely saved the trail from extinction.
lives in Florida. American pantheon as a cousin of John Henry and Johnny Appleseed.” APPALACHIAN TRAIL
Author Ben Montgomery was given unprece-
—aNdrEa PitzEr, author of The secReT hisToRy of VladimiR NaBokoV
dented access to Gatewood’s own diaries, trail jour-
nals, 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.
BEN MONTGOMERY
Pulitzer Prize Finalist
Jacket design: Debbie Berne Design
Cover photo: Gatewood family collection,
courtesy of Lucy Gatewood Seeds
Author photo: John Pendygraft
Printed in the United States of America
GG Walk jacket.indd 1 1/17/14 11:35 AM
NATURE/BIOGRAPHY MONTGOMERY GRANDMA $26.95 (CAN $31.95)
Emma GatEwood told hEr family shE was
“Grandma Gatewood’s Walk is sure to fuel not only the dreams of would-be GATEWOOD'S going on a walk and left her small Ohio hometown
with a change of clothes and less than two hun-
hikers, but debates on the limits of endurance, the power of determination,
dred dollars. The next anybody heard from her,
and the nature of myth.” —Earl swift, author of The Big Roads
this genteel, farm-reared, 67-year-old great-grand-
mother had walked 800 miles along the 2,050-mile
Walk
“Go, Granny, Go! This astonishing tale will send you looking for your hiking Appalachian Trail. And in September 1955, having
boots. A wonderful story, wonderfully told.” —CharlEs mCNair, Books Editor at survived a rattlesnake strike, two hurricanes, and a
run-in with gangsters from Harlem, she stood atop
PasTe maGaziNE aNd author of PickeTT’s chaRge
Maine’s Mount Katahdin. There she sang the first
verse of “America, the Beautiful” and proclaimed,
“Before Cheryl Strayed, there was Grandma Gatewood. Ben Montgomery
“I said I’d do it, and I’ve done it.”
lets us walk with her—tattered sneakers, swollen ankles, and not an ounce THE Grandma Gatewood, as the reporters called
of self-pity—and with each step experience our conflicted relationship with her, became the first woman to hike the entire
Appalachian Trail alone, as well as the first person—
nature, the meanness and generosity of humanity, and the imperative to keep INSPIRING STORY
man or woman—to walk it twice and three times.
moving. This book makes me long for my backpacking days, and grateful for
Gatewood became a hiking celebrity and appeared
BEN moNtGomEry is a staff writer at the Tampa
Bay Times and cofounder of the Auburn Chau- writers who keep history and spirit alive.” —JaCqui BaNaszyNski, kNiGht Chair OF THE WOMAN on TV and in the pages of Sports Illustrated. The
iN EditiNG, missouri sChool of JourNalism public attention she brought to the little-known
tauqua, a Southern writers’ collective. He was
a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2010 and has WHO SAVED THE footpath was unprecedented. Her vocal criticism of
the lousy, difficult stretches led to bolstered mainte-
won many other national writing awards. He “Montgomery’s compelling tale secures Grandma Gatewood’s place in the
nance, and very likely saved the trail from extinction.
lives in Florida. American pantheon as a cousin of John Henry and Johnny Appleseed.” APPALACHIAN TRAIL
Author Ben Montgomery was given unprece-
—aNdrEa PitzEr, author of The secReT hisToRy of VladimiR NaBokoV
dented access to Gatewood’s own diaries, trail jour-
nals, 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.
BEN MONTGOMERY
Pulitzer Prize Finalist
Jacket design: Debbie Berne Design
Cover photo: Gatewood family collection,
courtesy of Lucy Gatewood Seeds
Author photo: John Pendygraft
Printed in the United States of America
GG Walk jacket.indd 1 1/17/14 11:35 AM
Advanced Praise for Grandma Gatewood’s Walk
“Just as Emma Gatewood helped save the Appalachian Trail from
years of neglect and preserve it for generations of hikers, Ben Mont-
gomery has kept her unbelievable story alive for anyone who loves the
outdoors, underdogs, heroic women, and amazing tales. I wish I’d read
it while standing on top of a mountain, but I almost felt as if I was.”
—Thomas Mullen, author of The Last Town on Earth
“In Grandma Gatewood’s Walk, a storyteller’s storyteller digs deep
into the long-forgotten tale of an inspiring journey, bringing forth
a transcendent story of dignity, independence, and the dynamic
human spirit.”
—Michael Brick, author of Saving the School
“With rich reporting and often poetic prose, Ben Montgomery takes
readers on an intimate, backwoods adventure with a resolute old
lady. Along the way, he explores the history of hikers and highways,
the solace of nature and solitude—and the urge to escape.”
—Lane DeGregory, journalist, winner of the
2009 Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing
GRANDMA
GATEWOOD'S
Walk
The Inspiring Story of the Woman
Who Saved the Appalachian Trail
BEN MONTGOMERY
Copyright © 2014 by Ben Montgomery
All rights reserved
First edition
Published by Chicago Review Press, Incorporated
814 North Franklin Street
Chicago, Illinois 60610
ISBN 978-1-61374-718-6
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Montgomery, Ben.
Grandma Gatewood’s walk : the inspiring story of the woman who saved
the Appalachian Trail / Ben Montgomery.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-61374-718-6 (cloth)
1. Gatewood, Emma Rowena Caldwell, -1973. 2. Hikers—Appalachian
Trail—Biography. 3. Women conservationists—Appalachian Trail—
Biography. 4. Appalachian Trail—History. I. Title.
GV199.92.G35M66 2014
796.51092—dc23
[B]
2013037551
Interior design: PerfecType, Nashville, TN
Map design: Chris Erichsen
Printed in the United States of America
5 4 3 2 1
For Jennifer
We do not go into the woods
to rough it; we go to smooth it.
We get it rough enough at home.
—GeorGe WashinGton sears
Now or never.
—henry DaviD thoreau
I get faster as I get older.
—emma GateWooD
