Book Note: Grandma Gatewood’s Walk

There’s Bill Bryson’s “A Walk in the Woods.” And Cheryl Strayed’s “Wild.”

Photo Above: Ben Montgomery. Chicago Review Press. 2015. 266 pp.

And then there’s the story of Emma “Grandma” Gatewood. You’ll finish it having a true understanding of what it means to be brave, strong, determined and accomplished.

In 1955, with less than $200 in her pocket and canvas sneakers on her feet, 67-year-old Emma Gatewood left her small Ohio town and headed south to Oglethorpe Mountain, Georgia, then the starting point of the Appalachian Trail. And she set out to hike the longest hiking-only footpath in the world, telling no one where she was going. 

Exactly 146 days and more than 2,000 miles later, she stood atop Mount Katahdin in Maine, the terminus of the AT, sang the first verse of “America the Beautiful,” and spoke her truth: “I said I’d do it, and I’ve done it.”

Thus she became the first woman to hike the Appalachian Trail alone. And she did it two more times (the last time in sections).  She hiked with her belongings in a handsewn cloth sack, with a shower curtain for rain protection and a single wool blanket. Word spread, journalists came and Gatewood’s story was written up in Sports Illustrated, appeared on the “Today Show” and in 2015 was the subject of the Emmy-nominated movie, “Trail Magic.”

Author Ben Montgomery, Gatewood’s great-great nephew, had access to her journals and letters, and interviewed Emma Gatewood’s surviving children. A professional journalist, Montgomery doesn’t shy away from the grim details of Gatewood’s early life and marriage, rife with domestic violence. 

But it’s shining admiration that fires this book, well-earned and well-told.  Read it, and go hike it.

Ben Montgomery. Chicago Review Press. 2015. 266 pp.

The story above first appeared in our September / October 2024 issue.