MOUNT VERNON — Jean McKenzie signed up for the Grandma Gatewood Challenge the day before it began. She finished fifth among 344 walkers.
The 82-year-old Mount Vernon resident logged 57 miles over five weeks. The challenge asks participants to walk 25.
“Usually I’m not impulsive, but I kind of guess I was impulsive,” she told Ohio Eastern Star’s Pine Hill residents at a community education lecture last month.
Ohio State Parks created the challenge in memory of Emma “Grandma” Gatewood, a pioneering long-distance hiker who was the first woman to hike the entire 2,168-mile Appalachian Trail in a single season.
Participants walk 5 miles at five state parks over five weeks. The event ran April through May and is in its second year. Registration usually opens in February.
“The idea is it gives you a little bit of time to work up your endurance, which I didn’t have time for,” McKenzie said.
McKenzie, a Pine Hill resident, learned of the challenge when a state parks representative spoke to the group one Thursday in April. She researched it that Saturday and discovered it started the next day.
“I did sign up for it at the last minute,” she said.
Participants ranged in age from 8 to 82. McKenzie was one of two 82-year-olds.
Together they logged more than 5,500 miles across 943 hikes. The top walker, Tom, 67, logged more than 125 miles.
McKenzie set a goal of 60 miles and finished with 57.
“I almost made it, but the last week I gave out,” she said.
Diane Henwood, director of development at Ohio Eastern Star Home, praised McKenzie’s fifth-place finish. Pine Hill is on the OESH campus.
“That’s pretty amazing when you consider that there were 344 folks that registered,” Henwood said.
‘A little misplaced’
McKenzie’s first hike, the Hemlock Gorge trail at Mohican State Park, proved her hardest.
“It was a really difficult trail,” she said. “It was narrow with tree roots everywhere. They pop out at you.”
A sign said 2 miles each way, but after “walking, walking, walking and walking,” McKenzie ended up with about 7 miles. The trek took just over three hours.
“So I’m thinking, well, I’ve done my 5 miles, but I don’t know how that happened,” she said.
She next walked at Mount Gilead State Park. The only memorable moment came when a fisherman appeared to rescue a turtle.
“I don’t know whether he was just saying that, or maybe he wanted turtle soup for dinner, I don’t know, but I just kept walking,” she said.
Fortunately, she said, he returned the turtle to the pond.
The challenge centered on state parks, but McKenzie stayed local for the remaining hikes to avoid three-hour travel times.
She then hiked Wolf Run Regional Park, the Mohican Valley Trail and The Woodlands. She called the paved Bridge of Dreams section one of her favorites.
She briefly lost her way at Wolf Run and borrowed a phrase from Gatewood to describe it.
“Instead of lost, I got a little misplaced for 5 minutes,” she explained.
McKenzie also walked the Owl Creek Trail in Fredericktown and the Kokosing Gap Trail, the trail she said was her favorite.
Lessons for future walkers
McKenzie shared what she called “common-sense things that you think about, which I didn’t have time to think about.”
She recommended a pedometer or smartwatch, regular breaks, sunscreen, electrolyte drinks and white socks to spot ticks. She also urged walkers to slow down.
“Don’t think of it as something that you need to check off your list,” she said of the walks. “It’s something to really enjoy.”
She also recommended taking breaks, although she noted, “on a dirt trail, you’re not going to find a bench. You’re going to find a flat rock, if you’re lucky.”
McKenzie encouraged walkers to “just stop and enjoy what you’re seeing,” something she said was difficult for her.
“I get kind of focused and keep going, but the idea is, why are you out on the trail? Because you enjoy walking, you enjoy nature,” she said.
Grandma Gatewood’s legacy
Gatewood, of Gallia County, became the first woman to hike the entire Appalachian Trail in one season. She was 67 when she finished in 1955. The 2,168-mile trek took 146 days. She later became the first person to complete the trail three times.
However, McKenzie gave credit where it was due.
“There was a fellow that beat her to the punch seven years earlier. His name was Earl Shaffer. … He was age 29,” McKenzie said with a smile.
“Interestingly, she was inspired by a magazine article she saw in National Geographic. He was inspired by a magazine article he saw. … And then I got to thinking. Was she in the doctor’s office when she read this? It’s probably a good 15 pages long, the article. So, I’m thinking if she was in the doctor’s office, maybe she had to wait too long.”
Asked why she took on the hike, Gatewood answered simply: “Because I wanted to.”
In 1967, Gatewood also led a January hike through a 6-mile stretch of trails in Hocking Hills. The hike later became known as the Hocking Hills Winter Hike and continues today.
“Jean certainly espouses this quote from Emma Gatewood: ‘The forest is a quiet place and nature is beautiful. I don’t want to sit and rock. I want to do something,’” Henwood said.
To round out the Grandma Gatewood focus, the Pine Hill Book Club read “Grandma Gatewood’s Walk.”
On Oct. 7, Pine Hill hosted a dinner for residents that featured Gatewood’s great-granddaughter, Maureen Gatewood, and great-great-granddaughter, Caitlin Edwards.
