Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of iHeart Radio. Hey
Speaker 1: brain Stuff, Lauren bobabam here. Sometimes you've had enough and
Speaker 1: you just need to go for a walk. It's understandable
Speaker 1: a walk can clear the mind, and it's possible the
Speaker 1: extent to which your mind needs to be cleared should
Speaker 1: determine the length of the walk. This isn't necessarily scientific,
Speaker 1: but the story of Emma Gatewood provides anecdotal evidence that
Speaker 1: it might be true. Emma Gatewood, called Grandma Gatewood by
Speaker 1: her family and later the world, was one of the
Speaker 1: early through hikers of the Appalachian Trail, the longest walking
Speaker 1: only footpath in the world. When she left Ohio in ninet,
Speaker 1: she told her family that she was going for a
Speaker 1: walk in the woods. So it was surprising to her
Speaker 1: eleven children and twenty three grandchildren that the sixty seven
Speaker 1: year old matriarch of their family had undertaken this hype.
Speaker 1: It stretches some two thousand, one hundred and ninety miles
Speaker 1: that's three thousand, five hundred and thirty kilometers from Georgia
Speaker 1: to Maine. Her family only found out when one of
Speaker 1: them stumbled across a newspaper feature about their mother's truck.
Speaker 1: Gatewood was not the first person, or even the first woman,
Speaker 1: to hike the trail. In ninety nine, year old Earl
Speaker 1: Schaeffer was the first person to hike the entire trail
Speaker 1: by himself. In nineteen fifty two, Mildred Norman Ryder, in
Speaker 1: her mid forties at the time, completed the entire trail
Speaker 1: with a companion. Gatewoods hike was notable because of her
Speaker 1: age and because she was the first woman ever to
Speaker 1: complete the trail in a single season. For the article
Speaker 1: this episode is based on Hows to Work spoke with
Speaker 1: Larry Luxembourg, president of the Appalachian Trail Museum in Pennsylvania.
Speaker 1: He said, when Grandma Gatewood did her first through hike
Speaker 1: in ninetti, there were few hikers and it was hard
Speaker 1: to follow the trail. There were also many fewer resources
Speaker 1: for hikers, fewer stores near the trail, and much less
Speaker 1: information about the trail. She saw very few hikers along
Speaker 1: the Appalachian Trail, but still Gatewood hiked it alone. Wearing
Speaker 1: canvas sneakers. She walked through seven pairs of them that summer,
Speaker 1: Carrying a denim Duffel bag over one shoulder. She brought
Speaker 1: a change of clothes, a blanket, a plastic shower curtain
Speaker 1: for shelter at night, a Swiss army knife, a canteen,
Speaker 1: a flashlight, a length of rope, and a few other essentials.
Speaker 1: She ate a lot of vienna, sausages, trail mix, and
Speaker 1: bullion from cubes. Sometimes she ran out of food and
Speaker 1: ate berries she recognized in the forest. By the time
Speaker 1: Gatewood became a famous hiker, she had lived the kind
Speaker 1: of life it would take a few thousand miles to
Speaker 1: walk off. Born in Ohio in seven, Gatewood's father had
Speaker 1: lost his leg in the Civil War, and her mother
Speaker 1: single handedly raised fifteen children in a small log cabin,
Speaker 1: sleeping four kids to a bed. Gatewood completed school only
Speaker 1: through the eighth grade, but she loved reading and writing
Speaker 1: poetry and walking in the woods. In nineteen o seven,
Speaker 1: at the age of nineteen, she married a primary school
Speaker 1: teacher and later tobacco farmer by the name of PC Gatewood.
Speaker 1: For the next thirty years, she would endure frequent assault
Speaker 1: from her husband while also doing strenuous farm work and
Speaker 1: raising their eleven children. She tried to escape a few times,
Speaker 1: but it's hard to disappear with multiple children. In Tow
Speaker 1: In ninety nine, after being nearly beaten to death by
Speaker 1: her husband, Gatewood was arrested for throwing a sack of
Speaker 1: flower at him. She spent the night in jail before
Speaker 1: the mayor of the town saw her cracked teeth, bruised face,
Speaker 1: and broken ribs and took her into his own home.
Speaker 1: She stayed there until she healed, at which point she
Speaker 1: filed for divorce, a difficult thing to obtain at the time,
Speaker 1: but her divorce was granted in nineteen forty one and
Speaker 1: she was given custody of the three children who still
Speaker 1: remained at home. In nineteen fifty one, after all of
Speaker 1: her children were out in the world, Gatewood found a
Speaker 1: back issue of National Geographic, which included photos and a
Speaker 1: story about the Appalachian Trail. Gatewood was intrigued and decided
Speaker 1: she wanted to be the first woman to hike it alone.
Speaker 1: Gatewood's first attempt at hiking the entire trail was unsuccessful.
Speaker 1: In nineteen fifty four, she started out from Maine, but
Speaker 1: broke her glasses, lost her way, and was rescued by rangers.
Speaker 1: The next year, she tried again and successfully hiked an
Speaker 1: average of fourteen miles that's twenty two kilometers a day
Speaker 1: from Georgia do Main. She didn't necessarily enjoy everything about
Speaker 1: the experience. After her nineteen fifty five hike, Gatewood was
Speaker 1: interviewed by Sports Illustrated and she had this to say
Speaker 1: about the trail. I thought it would be a nice lark.
Speaker 1: It wasn't. There were terrible blowdowns, burnt over areas that
Speaker 1: were never remarked, gravel and sand, washouts, weeds and brushed
Speaker 1: her neck, and most of the shelters were blown down,
Speaker 1: burned down or so filthy. I had to sleep out
Speaker 1: of doors. This is no trail. This is a nightmare.
Speaker 1: I would never have started this trip if I had
Speaker 1: known how tough it was. But I couldn't and I
Speaker 1: wouldn't quit all things considered, the only thing more improbable
Speaker 1: that Emma Gatewood's completing the trail from Georgia do Main
Speaker 1: in a single summer under these conditions at the age
Speaker 1: of sixty seven is that she did it again twice,
Speaker 1: once in nineteen fifty seven and again in nineteen sixty
Speaker 1: four at the age of seventy six, though that time
Speaker 1: in sections. Also in nineteen fifty nine at the age
Speaker 1: of seven one Gatewood walked some two thousand miles or
Speaker 1: d kilometers of the Oregon Trail, inspired by the pioneer
Speaker 1: women who walked from Missouri to Oregon a hundred years
Speaker 1: before her. By then, newspapers had dubbed Gatewood America's most
Speaker 1: celebrated pedestrian, and she's been inspiring other hikers ever since.
Speaker 1: Today's episode is based on the article Grandma Gatewood Hiked
Speaker 1: into Appalachian Trail History at age sixty seven on House
Speaker 1: to Fork dot com, written by Justlyin Shields. Brain Stuff
Speaker 1: is production by Heart Radio in partnership with how stuff
Speaker 1: Works dot Com, and it's produced by Tyler Clang. For
Speaker 1: more podcasts my heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app,
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows,