The Hike Like A Woman Podcast
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The Hike Like A Woman Podcast
Bridgette's Tribute to Grandma Gatewood
What if nature could become your greatest healer?
On the pod today, Bridgette, an accomplished artist, educator, and outdoor enthusiast from Houston, Texas, shares her journey through art and hiking. Diagnosed with pulmonary fibrosis in 2017, she found solace in hiking, leading her to create a women's hiking group in Houston that has since blossomed into a thriving community, Houston Women's Hiking.
Join us as Bridgette discusses her latest project—a sculpture of Grandma Gatewood, the first woman to hike the Appalachian Trail solo. Bridgette shares the inspiration behind this project and why she thinks it's important to honor Gatewood’s legacy.
We hope you enjoy the conversation.
To learn more about Bridgette visit: https://creativesculpture.com/
To learn about Huston Women's Hiking visit: https://houstonwomenshiking.com/
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Bridget, welcome to the show. I'm so excited to talk to you today. You're in Houston, yes, and thank you for having me. It's hot here in Houston. It is a hot summer day. It is not a hot summer day here in southeastern Wyoming. But I'm glad we can hop on this call because I'm so excited about one particular project that you're doing, and we'll talk about that in just a second. But first of all, when I looked at your website, I saw that you're just kind of a Renaissance woman, you're, you're an artist, you're a mom, you're a grandma, you're a hiker. You do, you're, you're, you're an educator. You do so many things. So so can you just give us a little brief like tell us who you are.
Speaker 2:In two minutes or less. I'll give you three you can have. Um, I'm a sculptor. I live here in Houston, texas. I do all figurative work, um, monumental and regular. I'm also a writer. I have several books I've written and um, a new one that's coming out that I hope we get to talk about.
Speaker 2:Um, and I am a mom and a grandma and I really, and I love being a mom and a grandma, um, and so I think that's it in a summary, except for I love to be outdoors and I love hiking and I love to inspire the single thing and I that I wrote in the memoir see, I'm talking about the book before. No, that's good, that's good. Um, the memoir is called, one Foot in Front of the Other, art, hiking and Healing. And, as I, you know, as I wrote in the memoir, I love to help other people. It's like a seed in my life from very early age, and if I can share my story and it helps somebody else, then it's makes whatever I've gone through worth it. So, yeah, that's a little bit about me, boy. I could like talk all day about me.
Speaker 1:That's good and I so, you, you, we, you, in our kind of pre-chat here. You mentioned some hardships that you've had. So you do all of these things, but your life has not been like rosy and perfect and you've had some health issues that you said are affecting your ability to hike right now. How do you think sharing that is helping other people?
Speaker 2:Yes, and the health thing is, I have pulmonary fibrosis, was diagnosed in 2017, january 2017, and given two years to live. So, hey, spoiler alert, as I always tell everybody, no, we're not, you know, like a package of meat. Nobody can put an expiration date on us, no matter what you're going through. Oh, I love that. Yeah, and I, just before going through this, I had left the marriage of 19 years, so I was trying to find myself and I was spending a lot of time in the woods, and what happened is I text my daughter and say I'm going in. The trail is when I talked to you about earlier, it should be out in two hours. And then she would text me back and she'd say oh great, mom, I got your GPS, I know where to tell them to find your body, be safe. And so she said mom, you have to start a Facebook group. And back then, in 2017, 2016, 2017, I didn't even know what that meant, and so it just started with neighborhood people, and then it has grown to 17,500 women and we get 50 to 100 a week, so it's not like it's hit this peak, it just keeps growing. And it's a large group, because Houston's very large, so we go down to the Galveston the coast, up to Montgomery County, which is pretty far, like you know, an hour and a half away from the center city, and the the same. I mean, I've seen pictures where people have taken Houston and put Houston inside the States. We're really, really big, you know. So, and the thing about us is we don't have mountains and we are at sea level, so people go. How do you hike? Well, we're known as the Bayou City and what happens with bayous is that's where the water runs and typically there's green space around those bayous. So, because we're known as the Bayou City and what happens with bayous is that's where the water runs and typically there's green space around those bayous. So, because we're the Bayou City, we have tons of hiking and we don't just stay here.
Speaker 2:During COVID, one woman posted you know, flights are really cheap to Colorado, does anyone want to go hike for the day? And people would go and hike. So it's a group that can help people to do whatever they want to go hike for the day, and people would go and hike. So it's it's a group that can help people to do whatever they want to do. And you know, when you're hiking, especially when you're hiking with women. There's this camaraderie, there is this feeling of we are um, we are mother, like mother. Earth is a mother, it's a female. So there's just something about it we heal each other, we strengthen each other and it's like a support group. It's a great community. I love it.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes to all of what you just said. I'm like standing up and cheering and clapping because I think there's something so powerful. I just got back from climbing Kilimanjaro, so there were 24 women on this trip. We climbed Kilimanjaro and the past week, as we've been all getting back home back to lives and works and family and all the things like there's been our text thread has just been blowing up with women who were like I really miss the experience of of being there with my sisters. They were not my friends, they became sisters after this shared, really hard trek, and so there's something so powerful about those friendships that are formed together on the trails. That's the best kind of friend because it takes away all of all. The other things don't matter, because what matters is the person that you're talking to you as you're walking down that trail. It's so powerful.
Speaker 2:And I have found, with Houston women hiking like we do, two camp campsites or campground camping trips where we have a hundred women, a hundred women are camping and the synchronicity this person is into this, this person's into this.
Speaker 2:They've never met each other, but I call it trail magic. It's trail magic that happens over and over and I almost come to expect it. And women are always saying I met my best friend hiking, yeah, yeah. And because we're hiking, it doesn't matter what our ethnicity is, what our cultural backgrounds are, what our demographics are in any way, shape or form. We're just there in the woods.
Speaker 1:I love it. The trail does not discriminate.
Speaker 2:I love it.
Speaker 1:It's so cool and you run this group with your daughter.
Speaker 2:Yes, so in 2017, just after I started it her home, her house, burned down. She lost everything. 2017 was a really difficult year. Harvey hit Houston, destroyed all of Houston. I had a sculpture in New Mexico, kind of my magnum opus. It's a monumental sculpture of Alice in Wonderland's Manhattan tea party and it has 150 things in it and it took me all these years to do it. And the foundry went under in new mexico and so there was, like all this, one thing after another, which I'm convinced that, um, trauma can induce physical problems, and at the end of that year is when I discovered I had, you know, the pulmonary fibrosis.
Speaker 2:So after she recovered from the house thing and she she kept hearing me talk about how great Houston women hiking was and she started to join in and she does that and she hikes and she also does a lot of paddling and leads path, cause we do a lot of different things besides, yeah, yeah. So it's been really great and we have all family and I have an 11 year old granddaughter, and so she, we all all decided I think it was around COVID that it was much better to, as a family, to go camping.
Speaker 1:We could all go camping.
Speaker 2:So we have this we have 80 something parks state parks in the state of Texas. Our goal as a family is to hit all of them. I think we're up to 30 or something. Yeah, and it's been a lot of fun to go camping and hiking and seeing this great state and exploring with my granddaughter. I just love it. I love it.
Speaker 1:There's something so special about those multi-generational hikes. I love it when I see grandparents and their grandchildren skiing together, hiking together, camping together, backpacking together, traveling together. Like that is. That is so powerful and you're showing you're showing your granddaughter this really strong example of like look at me, look what I can do, like nothing's stopping me.
Speaker 2:It's been really interesting. And then, through COVID and after we I I'm a writer, so my kids were homeschooling and I said, why don't I teach her writing? So, as part of her writing, we decided to document her trips and her fun activities and she is coming out with her first book at 11 years old and fall. I'm so excited and so to also to experience it through the written word together as and to document it there and to have it there has been so much fun. So then my daughter she's got some, she's published some hiking journals and I with my new book and Issa with her book coming out We've been doing like book signings and going and talking to literary clubs. We've been doing like book signings and going and talking to literary clubs and she and Issa was there one day and she says I just want to inspire children to go outdoors, especially little girls.
Speaker 1:And it just went.
Speaker 2:And I remember this time when this man had like a little girl down here and one and another one over here, and he had these three little girls all under the age of five and my daughter handed him a Texas state park guide so he could go camping, and he just looked at her. He said I could go camping with my girls, I could go camp. And it was like boom to realize he could take his little girls camping and they'd probably love it. So we're ambassadors for the outdoors. I just love it.
Speaker 1:Where does this come from? Did you grow up in a really outdoorsy family, or is this something you found as an adult?
Speaker 2:It's interesting because with the memoir I kind of had to follow that and the hiking was a really good thread between the memoir and the art and the healing. There were many, many instances of camping outdoors. I grew up in Western New York on the Allegheny Mountains so I would go camping there and had camping experiences as a kid. I left home at 15. So my husband and I did a lot of camping and traveling. So he was then my boyfriend at the time. So yeah, we I have a lot of outdoor adventures and stories.
Speaker 1:I love that. I love that. So how did you get into art? How did you become an artist? Did you, like, take a class? Did you learn how to sculpt? Did it start with sculpting or did it start with drawing and evolve into sculpting? I have so many questions about your background as an artist.
Speaker 2:Oh thanks I, ever since I could pick up a crayon. Questions about your background as an artist? Oh thanks I. Ever since I could pick up a crayon, I wanted to be an artist. So, and my first commission was in kindergarten. I had the bulletin board in the hallway. So it's been a long journey for me as an artist. I was in my 20s when I was sculpting in the sand in Boca Raton and decided I really wanted it felt like I was coming home to sculpt, where all the other art mediums felt very forced. So when I found sculpting I'm really self-taught. I just did that. And then later on in life I went back to school for art and technology. So that's the other aspect of me. I'm a tech gal and I've got a new book coming out on that too. So that's the other aspect of me. I'm a, I'm a tech gal and I've got a new book coming out on that too. So that's really interesting.
Speaker 1:How do you find time to do all these things, to write your books, to do your sculpting, to lead the hiking group, to spend quality time with your granddaughter? How do you do this all?
Speaker 2:Well, if you noticed, it all intertwines. It's hard to separate the threads because they all go together. And I'm not in a relationship, I'm single, you know, and I really love what I do. Yeah, so it just makes it easy. And I have to tell you, it sounds like I'm really busy, but there's been a lot of times where I'll just like sit there and veg and not do anything, which I need to do. Less vegging and more especially since I'm redoing the 3D tech book. So yeah, but I've been. I've been an artist a very long time and I've sculpted people like DB King, millie Nelson, bill Monroe. I did the Grambling State Tiger, the mascot for Prairie View, panther, I. You know I have a background in my art. My Alice in Wonderland is probably my favorite and also my my most angst because of all that happened with it. Yeah, but now this new piece is so exciting.
Speaker 1:Okay, good, let's talk about Grandma Gatewood. Yes, so you're currently working on a sculpture of grandma Gatewood? Yeah, can you? Of course, I know who grandma Gatewood is, but maybe you could tell our audience um a little bit about grandma Gatewood and why this is such a powerful piece well, I love grandma Gatewood because I'm I'm a grandmother, so, yeah, I can appreciate that.
Speaker 2:Um and grandma gatewood. When the appalachian trail was just starting, um saw an article in in national geographic and said I could do that. I also think it's very interesting and very powerful that she came from a dysfunctional family, that her husband was very abusive to her and one day she just decided that she was not going to take it anymore. Kids were grown and I'm going to go for a walk and she never went back.
Speaker 2:But, she did do the Appalachian Trail. She was what? 67 in 1954 when she did it. Yes, and that's amazing, it wasn't her first attempt. Her first attempt was scratched but and then she did it three other times after that. So because of who she was and a grandma doing it solo, she wasn't the first woman, which was the first solo woman.
Speaker 2:Um, it brought a lot of media attention to the trail and some people claim that she saved the appellation trail because of the media attention to the trail and some people claim that she saved the Appalachian Trail because of the media attention to the trail. And she did it with, like you know, a satchel over her shoulder that had a shower curtain and a pair of head shoes. She didn't like have all these extra things. So for me, I think the inspiration that she gives to so many many and as paul at her cemetery um, the cemetery where she's at said, uh, she's evergreen, it's it, it's like it doesn't matter what generation you are, her story lives on and is is inspiring. So when I found out paul wanted to do a statue for the cemetery in Ohio that's where she's from I contacted him and it took a really long time I mean like a year to return my call.
Speaker 2:I just kept thinking it's not going to happen. It's not going to happen. And then finally, he called me back and I jumped on it and I jumped on helping to raise the funds. That's the most difficult. Everybody knows her and there's so many people that know her. Yeah, yeah, but I told Paul that I would love to do one for her cemetery, but I also want to bring her back to the AT. There's just something about getting her back there. So if I sculpt one, we can cast the same one twice.
Speaker 2:And one can go to the cemetery and one can go to the AT. So we are working with two different groups, two different states, two different locations. It's not our first two. There was a whole other location that we tried and it just didn't work. Who want her? Because the thing with Appalachian Trail is the Appalachian Corridor is specified it's state park, nothing can go on. So you have to get the right approvals. So one will go there and one will go at her cemetery plot Plaques, installation delivery, and we're looking to raise $200,000 to do that, which I believe we can Sure If everybody just if everybody just gave a dollar, we would do it.
Speaker 1:Yes, and we'll. We'll post links to how people can donate and be part of this in the show notes and on our website and all the things, cause I think that's really, that's really important. She was such a pioneer and she really paved the way for so many women in the outdoor community. She needs to be recognized, so.
Speaker 2:And now that you know, like I'm in my sixties and so for me to look at her and to see what she was doing. And then she, the Buckeye Trail in Ohio. She was influential in the one of the founders of the Buckeye trail and I just I didn't know that thing was big, I didn't know it goes like all the way around Ohio. I didn't know that.
Speaker 1:Wow.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and so I'm impressed with all that she has done and it. I was really excited because there's a movie on her and so I was really excited that those people who did the grandmagatewoodcom her official website let us come on there so we can I can blog about the progress people can watch over my shoulder in the studio as I work and that type of thing. So, yeah, we've been really excited about that and it for me it's a again, it's a really important one. It means a lot.
Speaker 2:So I had to get all the clothes that she wore and set up the model and I'm starting to work on the small maquette, but yeah, what's been the biggest challenge as you've been working on her?
Speaker 1:Has it been trying to recreate her? Have you felt any connection to her as you've been working? That's a better question. Have you felt any connection to her as you've been working on this project?
Speaker 2:It's interesting because I think it was her great-granddaughter came down here and, um, I had told her great-granddaughter. What did I say to her? That I felt that grandma greatwood was very straightforward and wouldn't you know, like not going to take anybody's, this is what she does and and this is it. Yeah, and she said you're absolutely right, but I have documented, I sculpted, so I sculpt dead people. Yeah, I do. I've sculpted so many deceased loved ones that there are some strange connections and strange things that happen. So I look forward to having this communion with Grandma Gatewood.
Speaker 1:I think I do, as long as she's not going to fuss at me. I don't think I'd want her to fuss at me. No, because I think you got nothing, but nothing but respect for grandma gatewood. Yes, yes, we're in nothing, we're in contact with her family.
Speaker 2:So her family's been approving the pose etc and I you know everybody sees her just standing there with her satchel over her, her shoulder, and I said I told the family.
Speaker 2:I said I don't want to do that. That's a posed photograph. That's what grandma Gatewood does for a photographer that says, can you pose for me? And then she stops in the middle of her hike and she poses. I wanted to get her with her hiking pole going uphill. And that moment when you just take a step uphill and you go aha, that moment when you look in the vastness and you go this is why I'm here, that's what I'm trying to get, not a certain pose that you see in all of these, these photographs.
Speaker 2:And then the other really cool element is I talked to her daughter I just posted about this Her, her, her granddaughter said can you tell me a little bit about her hiking stick? And she said it was always sassafras and if you notice, it's really short. It's a short stick. And I said well, the reason why I ask is because I have a wonderful tree in my backyard, a black walnut, and it had my daughter's swing on it. My daughter is old, now older.
Speaker 2:Or my granddaughter's swing was next to it and the black walnut died and it felt like a part of my family died and I kept looking up at those, those limbs, and I'm going that would make a great stick for grandma Gatewood to carry, and so I saved a couple of them and I what would happen then is I would actually make a mold of that stick and it would be cast in bronze. So for me there's this emotional connection to the peace and family that I think that was there for her, but it's a way for me to intertwine that into the sculpture.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's so beautiful, that's so powerful. Thank you. So what's the timeline? When is the sculpture going to be done? When are we going to be able to go see Grandma Gatewood sculpture going?
Speaker 2:to be done. What's when? When are we going to be able to go see grandma gatewood? Well, if we had all the money tomorrow, it would take probably a year, because it takes me four to five months to sculpt and it takes about six months at the foundry. I believe that they're going to put the one in ohio in there first and then probably in a month or two later, put the one at the at. So if we had all the money tomorrow, we we could do that.
Speaker 2:My goal is to try to, as money comes in, to continue to work on it so people can see the progression of it. At this point we need like $10,000 or $15,000 to take her, because what I'll do is I'll take this maquette, once I've got it done sculpting, and I 3D scan it with a 3D scanner and they send that digital file to a company and they computer, numerically controlled, cnc mill it out of foam kind of look like a drill going all the way around it and they'll mill out foam to life size and they send this foam back to me and I can carve on that. That foam becomes my armature. That has enlarged the sculpture. It saves a lot of time and a lot of energy for me much easier than trying to make a metal armature and pull it all together. So that's our next step in the process.
Speaker 1:That's so fascinating. I haven't ever thought about like the process that goes into creating something like that. That's what you could watch on the blog too, then, okay, we will link to that on the blog because I'm so curious about that. So we've talked about grandma gatewood. We've talked about your book. What else do we need to know about you?
Speaker 2:well, I, as I said, I think I think the books are um for me. You know, it's when isa said. When isa said that she was going to do her book and it was going to happen. I've, I love to write. I also like to write for children. I have several children's books I've never published because I'm an artist and I've always felt like I needed to illustrate them. But I'm not an illustrator, I'm a sculptor. They're two totally different things. So there was one called the Tent Poem and it was in her book and my daughter pulled it. She says, mom, this has to be a book on its own.
Speaker 2:So my granddaughter allowed me to put two of my poems in her book, or a couple of my poems in her book and I'm really excited about that, because I feel like that opens up new doors for me to be able to to be doing these poems and and that my granddaughter did it. Um, I do you have?
Speaker 1:children. I have two, two boys boys, 10 and 12. Or 11 and 12. We just had a birthday.
Speaker 2:So she's an avid reader and we're trying to get Chris Cofer. Do you know who Chris Cofer is? I don't. He was the guy that played on Glee. If you watch the show Glee, I never watched Glee. Okay, if you haven't watched the show glee. He's also the author of children's books land of stories, and so she wants to get him to write her forward for her book, and the reason being is because he started writing when he was um her age and his grandmother helped him. So, oh, that's our thing. We're trying to get Chris Colfer to to um forward.
Speaker 1:Do the forward for her book which I'm not sure if he listens to the podcast, but we can. We can tag him on the podcast and he needs to write a forward for this girl's book, because that's really special that's so special and you know.
Speaker 2:Getting back to the idea of those people who are hiking that have limitations, yeah, yeah, because I think it's really important to talk about those limitations. Sometimes they can't. You can't see them. Like Chris says, mom, people don't know you're sick because you look so healthy and you're so active and it is really easy. It would be really easy to sit still and not do anything, because it's harder to do it, or I don't want people to see me with oxygen, or you could make any other excuse but, no matter what your limitations are, just push, just keep pushing and don't let anybody put a expiration date on you and um and and that woods.
Speaker 2:They are healing and science has proven. There's a couple things first of all, being in the community, so, and being in the woods. Science has proven that it's a healing bomb, a healing. And look up the science, yeah. So I encourage people that if you have limitations, push past them. Find a hiking group, get out in the woods.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and do what you can right. When I was going through cancer treatment, sometimes I would just take a camping chair out and I would sit on the side of the trail because it was all I had the energy to do that day and that was okay. So it's like adjusting expectations and then recognizing that getting outside doesn't have to be some lung-busting ascent up a gigantic mountain.
Speaker 2:It can be sitting in a window and watching the birds in your backyard, or whatever Walking through your backyard and exploring nature or whatever I do, mindfulness hikes it's one of my favorites and I think mindfulness hikes have changed the way I see hiking, because I'm and someone said, you see things that nobody sees Prashit. But I'm also one of those persons that, would you know, I'll go over an arch in a tree and I'll tap it three times and say, let us in fairies. Yeah, so I'm one of those people. So it's your, it's your height, the term hike, your own hike, it doesn't matter what it is. Um, they're in our group.
Speaker 2:We have women that are training for kilimanjaro, and so they're trying to do what they can do, and then other people just are grateful that they can. I've had people tell me that they get to the hike and they sit in their car and they cry because meeting other people is so difficult, and then they get out there and they're just glad to be able to get out of their car and join other people. So, no matter where you are and I think that's why I like our group is because women are helping them and understand it doesn't, we'll hike at your level. You know, we'll hike what you need to hike. We're going to watch out for you so go hikers. See my Hike my Head Girl t-shirt I got on, that's awesome.
Speaker 1:Well, brigitte, thank you so much for talking. That's awesome. Well, brigitte, thank you so much for talking. Where can we find you online? Where can we be inspired by you? Where can we follow grandma gatewood's progress? Where can we read your books? Um, but more importantly like, where can we um go to be inspired by you and also hike with you if we're in the houston area?
Speaker 2:if you're in the Houston area, it's Houston Women Hiking on Facebook. We also have a website that will lead you to that Facebook group. Thegrammagecom will send you to the fundraiser site and you can watch the blog on there. You can go to Creative Sculpture U-R-E. Sculpture, not sculptorcom. That's my website and I'm on Instagram and Facebook as well and I I post a lot. I have a tendency to post a lot, but that's okay, cause what I do if you people can't hire me, if they don't know me, so it's kind of like what I have to do. So and they want to know you personally, like in your business, they want to know you personally before they hire you to take them on a hike and trust you their life.
Speaker 1:Absolutely absolutely.