<Tr> <Th_colspan="2"> Notes </Th> </Tr> <Tr> <Td_colspan="2"> Gallipolis Daily Tribune, June 4, 1973 </Td> </Tr> <P> Emma Rowena Gatewood, better known as Grandma Gatewood (October 25, 1887--June 4, 1973), was an extreme hiker and ultra-light hiking pioneer who was the first woman to hike the 2,168 - mile (3,489 km) Appalachian Trail from Mount Oglethorpe in Georgia to Mount Katahdin in Maine solo, and in one season . </P> <P> Gatewood was born to a farm family of 15 children in Guyan Township, Gallia County, Ohio . At the age of 19 she married 27 year - old P.C. Gatewood, a college educated primary school teacher, and later tobacco farmer, with whom she had 11 children . She had 24 grandchildren, 30 great - grandchildren, and one great - great - grandchild living at the time of her death at 85 . </P>

Who was the first woman to hike the appalachian trail