Before Mildred Lisette Norman started calling herself Peace Pilgrim while walking across the country for nearly 30 years, she became the first woman to hike the Appalachian Trail. And while she did lots of amazing things that you can learn more about here, I think the AT part of it seems most appropriate for a Cold Splinters post. The following (there’s more after the jump that you should definitely read) is taken straight from the official Peace Pilgrim website:
Her sixth stage and final step, at which she arrived at complete inner peace, came in the fall of 1952, at the end of a long and extraordinary journey on foot. On April 26, 1952, Mildred Ryder began a 2,050 mile hike of the Appalachian Trail and parts of the Long Trail. She started her hike north from Mt. Oglethorp in Georgia, and headed toward Mt. Katahdin, in northern Maine. On the way, she made a 165 mile detour, and also hiked the northern half of the Long Trail in Vermont from the point where the two trails diverge mid state. She then returned to central Vermont and completed the remainder of the AT trek in October 1952. Completing this walk, she became the first women to hike the entire length of the Appalachian Trail in one season. At the end of this remarkable journey, she also achieved total inner peace and discovered what she was called to do.
She had been hiking for five months, living outdoors completely, equipped with only a pair of slacks, one shirt and sweater, a blanket and two plastic sheets. Her menu, morning and evening, was two cups of uncooked oatmeal soaked in water and flavored with brown sugar; at noon, two cups of double strength dried milk, plus any berries, nuts or greens that she found in the woods.
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