[at-l] Gran-Ma Soule Tribute

[Mark Hudson]

Thought you all might like a look at the tribute to Gran-Ma Soule that Bill
O'Brien wrote and posted at ALDHA.org

skeeter

 Beloved 'Gran-Ma Soule' has died *By Bill O'Brien*
*Sept. 6, 2007*

I am trying to remember the first time I ever met Verna Soule. A quiet,
unassuming person, she had a way of coming up on you while hiking, as though
she were always there, and seemed to be ever present, not up front but in
the middle rows, at trail reunions and conferences. She would always make a
point to say hello.
[image: Verna Soule, at left] Known to everyone on the Appalachian Trail as
"Gran-Ma Soule," Verna died yesterday at age 82 at her home in Michigan
Center, Mich., after a long bout with cancer. It was a journey she tackled
with her characteristic honesty, tempered with that can-do attitude that
helped propel her up and down the mountains of America. I struck up a
correspondence with her when news first surfaced that she was ill. She
wasn't able to write as often, but when she did, it was pure "Gran-Ma
Soule."


   *"I'm doing okay some days," she wrote back in March. "I have severe
   pain then some days I feel so good I could forget I have cancer. I just take
   one day at a time."*


Although this year is the 20th anniversary of her thru-hike on the
Appalachian Trail, it seems she was out there hiking, on one trail or
another, every single year, starting with her first long-distance hike on
the A.T. in 1979. She hiked every major trail in Michigan, including a
thru-hike of the Superior Hiking Trail and two end-to-end hikes of the
Michigan Shore-to-Shore Trail. In between her section hikes, she also added
thru-hikes of the Sheltowee Trace from Kentucky to Tennessee, the Finger
Lakes Trail in New York, the Grand Canyon Trail in Arizona and the Long
Trail in Vermont, which she thru-hiked in 1989 and again in 1990. It was her
1990 hike on the Long Trail that brought her to the attention of folks
beyond the trails she had walked. Lynne Whelden filmed her and three other
"older" thru-hikers, all in their 60s, to produce the movie "27 Days: A
Backpacking Adventure on Vermont's Long Trail." [See photo above for the cover
shot off the video <http://www.lwgear.com/images/vid-27days-lg.jpg>, which
shows Verna, Dan Jones (center) and Joe Anastasia at the northern terminus
of the Long Trail on the U.S.-Canada border.] Whelden followed their every
step on that 270-mile trail and captured the dry wit and seasoned wisdom of
their words. For years afterward, people would come up to Verna at ALDHA
Gatherings and other hiker get-togethers just to meet the thru-hiking
grandmother from that movie. In the year 2000, and now a great-grandma,
Verna set out, as she often did, from Springer Mountain in Georgia to hike
the A.T., but this time she aimed to do another end-to-end hike, which at
age 75 would have made her the oldest woman to have ever thru-hiked it. But
when she reached Vermont, more than 1,600 miles into her journey, she had to
leave the trail because she had contracted Lyme disease. That was pretty
much the end of her long-distance hiking adventures, but not bad for a
21-year run. She first took up backpacking when the last of her four
children had graduated from high school. After getting Lyme disease, she
continued with shorter hikes, including one from the Ohio line to Mackinac
Bridge at age 78, until she became ill with cancer, her local paper
reported. "I kind of wanted to be one of the oldest women to hike the trail.
That was in my mind," she told The Citizen Patriot. "But that wasn't the
only reason I did it. I love being out there. There is so much beauty on the
trail, and the hikers are like a family."


IN 1992, during my last thru-hike of the A.T., Verna managed to catch up to
me and my hiking partner in Pennsylvania. It was a typically wicked scorcher
of a day, and we had seen "Gran-Ma Soule" somewhere in the Cumberland
Valley, a low-lying stretch of roads and farm fields that can just radiate
heat. We chatted briefly and headed onward. I was sure that by the time we
had reached our shelter for the night, there was no way we would be seeing
"Gran-Ma" for a few hours. I promptly set up my water bag with the shower
hose attachment near the shelter, stripped naked and just stood there, in
full view of nature, cooling off under the spray.
That instant, here comes "Gran-Ma Soule." My untanned hiker-white skin
turned red from embarrassment, but to her credit, this veteran mom, grandma
and thru-hiker just passed by as though she were looking at another
squirrel. What confounded me the most, I have to confess, was how the heck
she was able to keep up with us all day, in that grueling heat. AND, to top
it off, she was toting a bag of water, which she must have hauled up a long
hill from somewhere in the valley. For years afterward, whenever I saw
Verna, she never kidded me about that incident. However, my hiking partner,
Andrew Sam, has never let the memory of that disaster slip by without at
least one good-natured ribbing. I ran into Verna on the trail again the
following year, during one of two short hikes in early spring with either
Henry Edwards or Laurence McDuff -- my memory is bad and I apologize but I
think it was the hike with Henry. When I saw her, I have to admit I was only
partially surprised to see her out there yet again, trudging northward. "How
far do you hope to go this year?" I asked in an amazingly moronic moment.
"Oh, as far as I can. We'll see," came her reply. Pure "Gran-Ma Soule." Not
so worried about the final destination, just the journey. And dang it if she
wasn't toting another bag of water! Most hikers get by while hiking with
just a Nalgene bottle and later fill up a bigger bag when they get to their
campsite for the night. I asked her about it this time, and her reply,
simply, was that she decided to fill up when she saw good water. Then she
kept on hiking, water bag in tow. "That was where the water was." ... Pure
"Gran-Ma." In March of this year, she wrote that she was looking forward to
spring and watching her flowers grow. She enjoyed hearing from hikers she
had met over the years and wanted to know how my hiking pal Andrew was
doing. For much of the year, I tried to drop her a line when I could.
Ironically, the last one I wrote was Sunday, and with the Labor Day holiday,
I doubt she could've gotten it in time. But as I sat down to write, I sort
of had a feeling it would be the last time, so I was a little more
philosophical and told her there were lots of people in her extended trail
family keeping her in their prayers. I know what a comfort it was to her to
have her immediate family there for support. She wrote of them often,
particularly her great-grandchildren. One of them, at the age of 8, took
part in a polar bear plunge this past winter and raised $100 for cancer
research. "I was so proud of him," Verna wrote.

   *"I also have another great-grandson who is in track. He always comes
   in last but he crosses the finish line smiling and urging his teammates on."
   *

In a way, he takes after his great-grandmother. It's not how we finish, it's
how we get there. ... Pure "Gran-Ma."