Today’s hike was along the Grandma Gatewood trail. We parked cars at either end and hiked between Ash Cave, Cedar Falls, and Old man’s cave. The map says it is 6 miles, but several measuring devices had our hike at just over 7 miles. This is a section of the Buckeye trail named for Grandma Gatewood who walked these trails regularly. She is a very interesting character and is famous for being the first woman to hike the Appalachian trail solo, first person to hike the trail 3 times, and the oldest female thru hiker. Here is a link to more information about her. Grandma Gatewood This article fails to mention that on her first attempt she started in Maine and got hopelessly lost when she broke her glasses. When rangers found her they told her to go home. It didn’t take her long to get back on the trail in Georgia to start again.
