In 1955 a determined 67 year old great grandmother, who lived a hard physical and emotional life as a farm wife raising eleven children, told her gown children she was going for a walk. Her walk was the 2,050 mile,146 day hike on the Appalachian Trail from Mt Springer in Georgia to Mt. Katadin in Maine. With a change of clothes, wearing light weight sneakers (she went through 7 pairs of shoes), a cloth duffel bag over her shoulder, and less than $200 she went on a trail that hadn’t been maintained.
Snakes, water covering the trail, rain storms where she got soaking wet, rocky trails and she hiked along. She was the first woman to hike the entire trail solo, and first man or woman to do it three times.
“Grandma Gatewood’s Walk” by Ben Montgomery: The Inspiring story of the Woman Who Saved the Appalachian Trail is the selection for February’s discussion at Fairhaven’s Millicent Library, 45 Center Street, Fairhaven, on Thursday, February 17 at 10 a.m., in the library’s meeting room accessible through the Walnut Street entrance.
The discussion is free and open to the public. The book is available at the library or through the library’s website, www.millicentlibrary. For more information call Norma Markey at 508-993-3745.
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