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Sto caricando le informazioni... Grandma Gatewood's walk : the inspiring story of the woman who saved the Appalachian Trail (originale 2014; edizione 2014)di Ben Montgomery (Autore)
Informazioni sull'operaGrandma Gatewood's Walk: The Inspiring Story of the Woman Who Saved the Appalachian Trail di Ben Montgomery (2014)
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Iscriviti per consentire a LibraryThing di scoprire se ti piacerà questo libro. Attualmente non vi sono conversazioni su questo libro. In 1955, an older person--a woman from Ohio who had already endured her share of life's tests and challenges--walks the entirety of the Appalachian Trail (or AT), from Mount Olgethorpe,Georgia to Mount Katahdin, Maine. At 67 years old, Emma Gatewood is credited as the first woman to complete the thru-hike, and the first person to complete the thru-hike three times. Grandma Greenwood's story, on both on the trail and in her past, are decisively a woman's, creating another facet of the story of a lone hiker on the Appalachian Trail. I wasn't enamored by the writing style or tone of the author, but he gave a considerable amount of attention to the character of Grandma Gatewood, which I appreciated and enjoyed. Emma Gatewood, a woman who suffered at the hands of an abusive husband for much of her life, set out to walk the Appalachian Trail from Georgia to Maine. She was in her late 60s when she set out in the 1950s on her trek. While I enjoyed the story, I was disappointed in the lack of footnotes/endnotes to see exactly where the author got the information he passed along. A bibliography was included, but it was obviously not complete as it failed to list newspaper accounts consulted and diaries. I'm not sure the flashbacks to her life as an abused wife were handled in the best manner. Perhaps a more chronological approach would have been better than "flashbacks." (The dual timeline just wasn't necessary.) Gatewood rewalked the trail the following year and walked the complete course a third time in sections. She also walked across the Oregon Trail later. I'm amazed she did it in tennis shoes instead of hiking boots and that she was able to travel as lightly as she did. I was unaware of all the shelters built along the trail for those walking at regular daily intervals even though I live near portions of the trail. nessuna recensione | aggiungi una recensione
Premi e riconoscimentiElenchi di rilievo
Biography & Autobiography.
Travel.
Nonfiction.
Emma Gatewood told her family she was going on a walk and left her small Ohio hometown with a change of clothes and less than two hundred dollars. The next anybody heard from her, this genteel, farm-reared, sixty-seven-year-old great-grandmother had walked 800 miles along the 2,050-mile Appalachian Trail. And in September 1955, atop Maine's Mount Katahdin, she sang the first verse of "America, the Beautiful" and proclaimed, "I said I'll do it, and I've done it." Grandma Gatewood, as the reporters called her, became the first woman to hike the entire Appalachian Trail alone, as well as the first person-man or woman-to walk it twice and three times. The public attention she brought to the little-known footpath was unprecedented. Her vocal criticism of the lousy, difficult stretches led to bolstered maintenance and very likely saved the trail from extinction. Non sono state trovate descrizioni di biblioteche |
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Google Books — Sto caricando le informazioni... GeneriSistema Decimale Melvil (DDC)796.51092The arts Recreational and performing arts Athletic and outdoor sports and games Outdoor leisure WalkingClassificazione LCVotoMedia:
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Author Ben Montgomery tells the story of Emma "Grandma" Gatewood, the first woman to ever through hike the 2,050 Appalachian Trail in 1957 at the age of 67. She then became the first person -- male or female -- to hike the trail two, and then three times. She was first inspired to hike the trail while reading about it in an article in National Geographic magazine. The article claimed that any person in reasonable health should be able to hike the trail and wouldn't need any special equipment. (This was in a time when even those who created the trail didn't imagine that anyone would hike it all the way through. It was intended for day or weekend hikes). Emma hiked it with a hand-sewn back satchel which carried only the essentials (omitting a tent) and went through numerous pairs of flimsy shoes in her journey.
Using her journals, newspaper articles, letters, and interviews with children and others who knew her as sources, Montgomery gives us a picture of this extraordinary woman. He not only brings readers along on Emma's journey, but also tries to discover her motivation for making such a quest.
Emma spent her married life on a farm in southern Ohio, which had much more in common with Appalachian West Virginia than the rust belt cities of the northern part of the state. Her married life was miserable. Her husband was mercilessly abusive, and the author implies that at least some of her 11 children were conceived via instances of marital rape. In that era and in that place, a husband's word was gospel, and after one particularly bad fight although Emma was left with a bludgeoned face, 4 broken teeth, and broken ribs, the local sheriff came and arrested *her* because her husband, with hardly a scratch, claimed Emma was being uncooperative.
Decades after being in a horrible marriage Emma finally divorced her husband. Once her children were finally grown she was ready to live life on her terms. All she told her children was that she was going for a walk, and that's all they heard from her until she had walked more than 800 miles of the Appalachian Trail.
Emma had much to say about the "lazy" attitudes of people of her day. Those who would rather jump in the car than walk a few blocks to run an errand (and this was in the 50s and 60s -- God only knows what she'd have to say today!) She also had a deep reverence for the outdoors . Although she's not a household name today, she gained quite a bit a fame during her journey, and as a result of her hike she brought much-needed attention to the inadequacies of the Appalachian Trail as it was in her day -- from poorly maintained trails, to missing blazes, to falling-down shelters.
Even after her Appalachian Trail hikes, Emma continued making long-distances walks throughout the rest of her life, including walking the 2,000 mile Oregon trail among others.
If you're looking to be inspired, or for a reminder that age is just a number, look no further than this book.
5 enthusiastic stars. ( )