Gordon and Sue

[anchor]

Do you know Gordon Smith or Sue Lockwood? If you ever came to a road crossing and got a bottle of gatorade from an older couple (brother and sister)in a van, you met Gordon and Sue and their assistance dog. They have supported hikers on the AT, PCT and CDT for years.

Sue hiked miles and miles of trail before she lost her leg. She did a lot of the North Country trail while undergoing dialysis and hiked coast to coast after her kidney transplant. http://www.northcountrytrail.org/explore/endtoend/talone.htm http://www.americanhiking.org/news/journal/after.html

They are really wonderful giving people with a long association with long distance hiking.

Well, I have some bad news. Gordon suffered a stroke this winter and they have moved to an assisted living facility. I don't know if they will be out on the trail (AT, PCT, CDT, etc...) again. Being a part of the extended trail family is very important to them and this may be the 1st year in a long time that they don't have the opportunity to support hikers on one of the trails.

If you would like to correspond with them and allow them to continue to be a part of our family, I have their snail mail address. Just email me and I will send it out to you.

[Sly]

I haven't met either of them personally but have heard lots of great things about them from others that have.

However, I have seen them in the "Journey on the Continetal Divide" video by Carol and Joe McVeigh (hiked 1991?) who Sue and Gordon helped for about 700 miles before they parted company.

If you'd send me their snail mail, I'll send them a card.

[Miss Janet]

Were they helping Granma Soul a few years ago?

[wilderness bob]

Gordon once told me that they provided support on the AT all the way north until the road turned to gravel. When it did he would not go any further for fear of getting a flat tire. I kept bouncing into them from southern Virginia to northern Vermont. I can still hear his voice calling up the trail, "Gatorade"? They were part of my hike, my memories and indeed those two "trail angels", will be missed. WB

[anchor]

they did support grandma soul. that was the year that sue lost her leg. actually sue and her mother hiked with grandma soul for years.