79: Grandma Gatewood Hikes the Appalachian Trail (Part 2)

An Old Timey Podcast

True Crime, History, Comedy

4.9 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 5 November 2025

⏱️ 89 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Emma Gatewood was embarrassed. Her first attempt at solo hiking the Appalachian Trail had been a disaster. But she was nothing if not determined. So, Emma tried again. On her second attempt, the 67-year-old grandmother was better prepared. Although the trail proved challenging, she kept going. Soon, the media took notice. If she completed the 2,000+ mile hike, Emma Gatewood (aka Grandma Gatewood) would become the first woman to solo thru-hike the Appalachian Trail.

Remember, kids, history hoes always cite their sources! For this episode, Norm pulled from:
Brown, Andrew. “Skyline Trail from Maine to Georgia.” National Geographic, August 1949.
Huston, Peter, dir. Trail Magic: The Grandma Gatewood Story. 2015. https://vimeo.com/ondemand/237744.
Montgomery, Ben. Grandma Gatewood’s Walk: The Inspiring Story of the Woman Who Saved the Appalachian Trail. Chicago Review Press, 2016.
New York Times. “Overlooked No More: Emma Gatewood, First Woman to Conquer the Appalachian Trail Alone.” October 7, 2021. https://archive.is/kp2au.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hear ye, hear ye. You are listening to an old-timey podcast. I'm Normie C.
0:07.1	And I'm Kristen Caruso. And in this episode, Grandma Gatewood starts her walk.
0:12.3	Mm. Okay, I am ready. Last week's episode, don't mean to critique you, was a bit of a bummer.
0:18.3	I'm sorry. I'm ready for her to slip on her Keds, was it?
0:23.4	Keds Canvas, yep.
0:25.2	Hey, adorable shoe.
0:26.8	I wore them for many years in elementary school.
0:29.4	Very cute.
0:30.0	Shout out to Keds.
0:30.7	I don't know how they're going to do on the Appalachian Trail.
0:35.0	Keds, if you want to sponsor this episode, reach out to us Kristen yes oh oh do you have a plug for us
0:45.2	or am i going to sit here twiddling my thumbs i i came prepared today and look at me go hey everyone
0:52.6	you seem like you want more of us.
0:55.4	I can tell. I can smell it in the air. I can feel it coming in the air tonight, I say. Hold on. Yeah, oh, right. Oh, man, you were just improvving, weren't you? You were just playing along. Damn it, I got thrown off because, you know, this is all in a script. Folks at the video level on Patreon, I'm going to need you to confirm that you're watching me read this script.
1:15.0	Kristen's a little frazzled today, I feel like.
1:18.3	She's been a weird day, Norm.
1:20.0	I don't even know the words to say, but I will say these words to you.
1:26.0	I don't know for to www.com slash old-timey podcast.
1:33.6	It's not 1994. You don't have to say W-W-W anymore.
1:37.1	I think it's funny to say it.
1:39.7	Head on over to the World Wide Web.
1:42.7	www.
	...

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