Hiking the Glenn Highway through Alaska. Published in Asphalt Pilgrims.
Paul Salopek
Every hundred miles Salopek pauses to record the landscape and a person he meets, assembling a global snapshot of humankind. Milestones reflect straight-line distances, but his walked distances are generally much longer. More on these waypoints here.
Every hundred miles Salopek pauses to record the landscape and a person he meets, assembling a global snapshot of humankind. Milestones reflect straight-line distances, but his walked distances are generally much longer. More on these waypoints here.
We took a compass bearing due north, towards Jordan. The wells disappeared. The old pilgrim trails faded out. The desert became pure a last time. Beneath the buzzing of flies there was a high-pitched sound. Almost inaudible. A faint, prolonged creak. It was the door of the Hejaz swinging closed behind us on its colossal hinges of space.
A wraparound soundscape at this Milestone
This Milestone’s location on a map
Photos of the ground under Paul’s feet and the sky above at this Milestone
A brief question and answer with the first person Paul meets at this Milestone
Exit
No human being was encountered on foot within 6 miles (10 kilometers) of this Milestone.
No human being was encountered on foot within 6 miles (10 kilometers) of this Milestone.
Observations from social media from the Milestone location
We selected tweets from within a 150 mile radius of this Milestone location — an area extending across the Gulf of Aqaba and into the tourist-friendly northeastern coast of Egypt. On the Saudi side were posts about sports, social issues, humor, immigration, the excesses of wealth. On the Egyptian side, eyes were turned toward the trial of former President Mohamed Morsi and stability in the country. Among the usual Arabic, we found tweets from Egypt in English, Japanese, Hebrew and Russian, some of which have been included here. Reflecting on our increasingly wired lives, one user in Duba, Saudi Arabia, tweeted, “All that connects me to you is a bunch of electronic devices. If humanity goes back to its primitive state, I would lose you forever.”
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