In 1955, a 67-year-old grandmother became the first woman to hike the Appalachian Trail

Emma Gatewood was a tough cookie. The daughter of a disabled Civil War veteran, Gatewood was just a teenager when she traded a hard-working life on an Ohio farm for a hard-living existence with an ignorant, abusive husband. After 30 years, 11 children, and a near-death beating, Gatewood managed to escape with a divorce, which was unheard of at the time, to raise her youngest three children alone.

In the 1950s, Gatewood read an article about the Appalachian Trail and the men who had hiked the 2,050 miles from Georgia to Maine. According to author Ben Montgomery, who wrote the book Grandma Gatewood's Walk, she told her daughter at the time, "If those men can do it, I can do it." So, in 1955, at the age of 67, she set off alone, with only a blanket and a shower curtain to protect her from the elements.

Depending only on the kindness of strangers and her wits, Gatewood completed the trail in 146 days, wearing out six pairs of sneakers along the way.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

But Gatewood wasn't too impressed with this record-breaking feat. In interviews afterward, she called the trail a nightmare. Shelters, if she came across any, were either burnt down or destroyed, so sleeping outside was preferred. The trail was meagerly marked and sometimes nearly impossible to maneuver. She said, had she known this, she never would have started walking in the first place. But, when Emma Gatewood starts something, she finishes it.

Incredibly, the grandmother would go on to walk the trail two more times, becoming the first person to complete three Appalachian hikes. And all that media surrounding her initial hike, and all the griping she did about her experience, helped save the trail. Repairs and restorations were soon made and Gatewood's story would inspire a new batch of hikers to try it out.

If you'd like to hear more about Emma Gatewood as well as the other interesting and surprising facts I learned this week, listen to the episode of "This week I learned" below. And, if you like what you hear, you can subscribe to The Week's podcasts on iTunes, SoundCloud, and Stitcher. —Lauren Hansen