When Grandma Gatewood Took a Hike
When Grandma Gatewood Took a Hike
Written by Michelle Houts
Illustrated by Erica Magnus
To M. G. W.
—Michelle Houts
For all children young and old who love our Earth, most especially Nina and Sophia.
—Erica Magnus
Many years ago in a not-so-fancy, rather crowded log house in the woods not far from the Ohio River, Emma Rowena Caldwell Gatewood grew up with fourteen brothers and sisters. Eventually, she got married and raised eleven children of her own.
Emma had the greenest thumb and the most bountiful garden north of the Ohio River. She relished life’s simple joys, like finding Dutchman’s-breeches in bloom on a spring morning and visiting with neighbors near and far.
When other folks started to buy cars, Emma chose to walk. She walked over a hill to care for an ailing neighbor. She walked to town to clean houses for others. Five minutes or five miles, Emma didn’t mind the walk.
The roads of Appalachia twisted and turned, but Emma’s route always took the most direct path—as the crow flies. No matter that it took a body over hills, through thickets, or across streams, Emma always got where she was going on foot.
One day, after her children were grown and raising children of their own, Emma picked up a magazine. She found a story about a man who had spent months walking the entire length of the Appalachian Trail. It was a long hike. Two thousand miles long between Georgia and Maine. Several men had completed the journey, but not one woman.
“Hmmph,” thought spunky old Emma. “If a man can do it, so can I!”
Of course, Emma was an experienced walker. But hiking? Hiking was not something she knew much about. So, she read about what she might need on the trail, and she sewed a nifty sack from a yard of denim fabric. She stuffed it full of clothing and food.
Then, on a morning in July, Emma Gatewood went by bus to Maine and climbed up Mount Katahdin. After she signed her name on the official Appalachian Trail register, she was on her way! If she walked south and stayed on the trail, she’d be in Georgia before Thanksgiving.
On the first day, she hiked over rocks and around a lake. She saw blueberry bushes and chipmunks, but very few hikers. This didn’t bother Emma. She liked being on her own in the middle of nature.
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