Vermont’s Long Trail is celebrating its 100^th birthday this summer. The 273-mile hiking trail winds along the spine, and over the highest peaks of the Green Mountains between the Massachusetts and Canadian borders. It sparked the idea for the Appalachian Trail, in fact, the trails share one hundred miles in the southern part of the state.

The Green Mountain Club was founded by a group of enthusiastic outdoorsmen with plans to build “a footpath in the wilderness”, but it took three young women to put it firmly in the national limelight. Dubbed “The Three Musketeers” Hilda Kurth, Catherine Robbins, and Kathleen Norris donned high lace-up boots, knickers and bandanas, hoisted 25 pound packs and embarked on their successful end-to-end adventure during the summer of 1927.

Women traveling in the mountains alone, or in groups are common today, but it pushed the boundaries of the social norm of the 1920’s. According to Vermont Public Radio commentator, Tom Slayton, the story was very quickly splashed across the front pages of newspapers around the country. In bold type, The San Francisco Examiner’s headline gasped, “They Carried No Firearms and Had No Male Escort!” Other newspapers were similarly incredulous.

These spunky gals helped pave the way for generations of women to come. I sometimes think of The Three Musketeer’s route finding misadventures and bridgeless stream crossings when I’m hiking on the well blazed and mostly debris-free trail and thank them for their feminist trail blazing.  When the going got rough, Hilda Kurth would pull out her ukulele and belt out a lively song or two, spirits revived, they would continue up the trail.

For more lively stories about The Three Musketeers click here.

In conjunction with the Long Trail’s 100^th birthday celebration, the Green Mountain Club is holding an on-line raffle to send one lucky winner on an all expense paid trip to Nepal. The drawing is August 15^th.