Grandma Gatewood Hikes the Appalachian Trail, well worth the hike

The story of Grandma Gatewood is a minimalist, unassuming story that’s so sweet and inspiring it’s all but impossible to believe that it happened in 1955.  However, it really did happen, anyone who reads it will come away with some degree of increased motivation and might just feel like a cream puff compared to the 67 year old grandmother. At the age when some folks intentionally drop anchor and become sedentary, she started walking and didn’t stop until she finished The Appalachian Trail.

The Appalachian Trail is the longest continuous hiking trail in North America. One part of the trail is in the north Georgia Mountains while the other is in northern Maine. The trail then continues through 13 states as it snakes its way along the eastern USA.  It’s 2,160 miles of hills, rivers, plains, valleys and nature, with nary a Quick Trip or 7-11 in sight. The story of why and how a 67 year old woman would want to-and be able to complete such an arborous hike is the stuff of legend and makes one wonder why this hasn’t been made into a movie.

Essentially, Grandma Gatewood just started walking. The book doesn’t mess around with a back story, nor does it need to. We see that Emma Gatewood was a very busy mom to 11 children who lived on a farm. Then, at the age of 67 she started walking from Springer Mountain at the Amicalola Falls State Park in Georgia. From here she left the beauty of the highest waterfall in Georgia and went north.

The book has gorgeous illustrations that are softly drawn and approachable for any age. Some of the pages are dedicated to the stretches of the trail and the states that she crossed. Those map illustrations include key cities, notable mountains and dates where she crossed certain landmarks.

We see what Grandma Gatewood was wearing, just a pair of canvas sneakers and a homemade sack. She ate berries along the way and drank water from streams as she passed them. It says that she did encounter a bear once, but scared him away by waving her arms and yelling like a crazy woman.

She didn’t have a map and she did get lost a couple of times. But she kept her cool, always found the direction again and met lots of people along the way. By the summer she had attracted reporters who managed to track her down on the trail for questions and photographs. She was even featured in Sports Illustrated in the August 15, 1955 issue. When they’d ask her why she was walking the Appalachian Trail she’d respond, “Just for the heck of it”.

This is a fabulous story that’s made all the more entertaining by the wonderful art. Grandma Gatewood Hikes The Appalachian Trail has a homespun feel to it that gives the book an older than average appeal for an illustrated book. Third graders will easily be able to read it, but kids of any age will enjoy reading it or having it read to them. Older readers will enjoy the notes that are in the back of the book where they can read more about the trail and get ideas for books with more information about its history.

You’re too old to exercise. Old people can’t do that. Grandmothers/grandfathers are too old to. You’ll never succeed. Why are you even doing this? Grandma Gatewood takes all of those statement, questions and presuppositions and doesn’t bother to argue or refute them. It just does.