Appalachian History features Bette Lou Higgins review of “Grandma Gatewood’s Walk” by Ben Montgomery

When I was in 11th grade at Garfield Heights Senior High School in Garfield Heights, OH, I had an English teacher – Mr. Toneff. We did quite a bit of writing in his class and Mr. Toneff had a mantra: “V.S.D.!” Vivid Specific Detail… for writing to be good, it had to have V.S.D.

Mr. Toneff would love Ben Montgomery. His new book, Grandma Gatewood’s Walk, has A LOT of V.S.D.

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Trail Magic Live #2 Emma, the “grandmother” of the Ultralight Movement

[vimeo 85454601 w=500 h=281] Emma Gatewood was probably the inventor or at least one of the earliest adopters of “Ultralight” back backing. Her life skills and years of commonsense applications, we would say now “adaptive technology” made her hikes possible with a minimum of gear. She thoughtfully preplanned the equipment, food and minimum support materials…

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Grandma Gatewood is on Twitter

To help promote our project we have set up @grandmagatewood for twitter friends.Emma was a communicator, letter writer and journal keeper. I think tweeting would have been like writing a postcard in Emma’s day. If you have a twitter account I hope you will help us and follow @grandmagatewood and we’ll follow you back! 

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Comfortable Shoes

On our trip up Mt Katahdin earlier this month we met “Last Out” on the trail at the end of the 100 mile wilderness. He was traveling with a group of scruffy trail worn friends that had endured a week of rain and a summer of extremes. “Last Out” told us that his goal was…

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