Appalachian Mountains

Be careful what you water your dreams with. Water them with worry and fear and you will produce weeds that choke the life from your dream. Water them with optimism and solutions and you will cultivate success. Always be on the lookout for ways to turn a problem into an opportunity for success. Always be on the lookout for ways to nurture your dream. by Lao Tzu

For many years I was fearful to step out on my own. I wanted to hike the Appalachian Trail but could not find the inner strength to make such a big leap of faith.I was so inspired by a story about Emma Caldwell Gatewood,  better known along the Appalachian Trail as Grandma Gatewood. She was the kind of personality about whom legends grow. She was the inspiration I needed to follow my dreams in the attempt to hike the Appalachian Trail from Georgia to Maine. I knew at that point I was about to embrace my dreams and began planning my big hike.

The following story is an excerpt from my book, Still Living a Dream and provided to me by Rodale Press Inc.

 ”Emma Caldwell Gatewood, better know along the Appalachian Trail as Grandma Gatewood, was the first women to hike the entire Trail in one continuous trip.
She climbed Katahdin for the first time in July 1954. At the time, she was in her late sixties, and had borne eleven children. when she reached the summit, she put on a black wool sweater from her pack in which she carried her belongings and ate a lunch of raisins while she counted the lakes and ponds below. When she reached one hundred, she gave up counting, even though other ponds could be seen on the horizon
She was the first woman to walk the entire Trail in one continuous trip, and all alone, straight through from one end to the other. In 1956, at the age of sixty-seven, and 145 days later, she climbed Katahdin for the second time. For her hike she had fashioned a backpack out of denim material. Grandma Gatewood’s pack seldom weighed more than twenty pounds.
Seventeen months later, Grandma was back on the Trail in Georgia. In September of 1957, she completed her second hike along the Trail. She went through six pairs of Keds on this trip. She set another record and was the first person, man or woman, to hike the entire Trail two times. She said, “I wanted to see some of the things I missed the first time.
In 1958, the year after her second completion of the Appalachian Trail, Grandma began a series of walks along the Trail. In 1964, at the age of seventy-seven, she finished what she had begun ten years earlier. She continued on to walk the Knife Edge Trail from the summit of Katahdin.
Grandma Gatewood also tested her agility on other footpaths. There was the Long Trail in Vermont, parts of the Horseshoe and Baker Trails in Pennsylvania, the Cheaspeake and Ohio Canal Towpath in Maryland, and others. She also walked the Oregon Trail in 1959 at the age of seventy-two as part of the hundreth anniversary of the Oregan Trail.
Grandma Gatewood passed away on June 5, 1973. She was eighty-five years of age and had lived a very full life”

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Put your fears aside and follow your dreams!
Always remember that you have the power within you, to challenge life…with your heart, hand, and mind you have the power to mold each golden moment, into infinite possibilities.

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