Lessons from Grandma Gatewood's AT Hike

     I love discovering stories I have never heard.
     Today, I discovered the story of Emma Rowena Caldwell Gatewood, an icon of perseverance, dedication, commitment, strength and whimsy.
     At 67 years old, Emma was the first woman to hike the entire Appalachian Trail alone. SIXTY SEVEN!
     Then, she did it again at age 68. She hiked the Oregon Trail at 71.
     Emma had been married to an abusive man. She had 11 children, and she knew opportunity would come only if she left her husband, after their divorce and their children were grown and starting families of their own.
     The story goes that she saw an issue of "National Geographic" about the famed hiking route, and decided she would do what no woman had ever done before. Her first attempt, which started in Maine, failed after she got lost and eventually broke her eyeglasses. She started her second attempt the next spring on Mount Oglethorpe in Georgia and completed the 2,000 plus miles trek in six months.
     A reporter who interviewed her while on the trail helped make her somewhat famous, recounting a story about a bear encounter. Grandma Gatewood, as she was called, revealed that she just shooed the bear away. Bears, she said, weren’t so scary to a mother who had raised 11 children.
     She was driven by natural curiosity and a determination.
     “I want to see what’s on the other side of the hill–then what’s beyond that,” she said.
     After her treks, she became a media personality and something of an icon for hikers: If a 67-year-old grandmother could hike 2,000 miles, surely they could.
     I learned about her story from a documentary about her, “Trail Magic.” Trail magic is a hiking term that could be defined as serendipity or lagniappe. It’s the driver who unexpectedly gives you a lift into town or the fellow hiker who shares her water with you and asks for nothing in return.
     The documentary intersperses snippets of Emma’s story with that of current day hikers. You quickly realize that, though she did not train mentally or physically for the hike, she was well suited for life outdoors. She used ingenuity. She had grown up on a farm and in the woods. She knew what roots, berries and greens were safe to eat. She knew to conserve her water and to drink from springs. She filled her rucksack with leaves to make a mattress.
     Grandma Gatewood, her family said, also loved to sing, and, so, when she arrived at the top of Mt. Katahdin in Maine, the north terminus of the Appalachian Trail, she broke into song:
     “Oh beautiful, for spacious skies,
     For amber waves of grain.
     From purple mountain majesty
     Above the fruited plain.
     America, America
     God shed His Grace on thee.
     And crown thy good with brotherhood,
     From sea to shining sea.”
     The beauty of Emma Gatewood’s story is that it resonates on so many levels. You don’t have to be a hiker or a grandparent or a victim of domestic abuse to identify with her.
     I can’t help but be inspired by someone whose late-in-life accomplishments stand as a testament to keeping on. If your bones ache, keep on. If your shoes wear out, keep on. If you get lost, find your way back, and keep on. If your glasses break, get your vision fixed, and keep on.
     And, when you reach the top of the mountain, stop and give thanks, remembering that it was grace that brought you to that mountain and that it is grace that will lead you home.