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 were pulling 20 miles a day along a new Korean-built highway across the desert because the donkeys were bogging in the sand. The sands were terrible but the highway verge was worse. The naked concrete radiated heat like a forge, and the roar of trucks blasted us like sonic buckshot. There was a misery of road kill—dead birds, dead foxes, dead donkeys. We put one foot in front of the other and said nothing. I retreated into the dank cave of my mind so that the road became a void.
In this way, like dazed mendicants, we staggered past the Milestone.
“Do you want to walk back?” Aziz asked.
I didn’t want to walk back. It was nine miles. I hitched a ride.
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
Yorkin Narziev
Natural gas rig operator, age 39
Who are you?
I’m Yorkin.
Where are you from?
I’m from the Romitan district.
Where are you going?
Work.
Observations from social media from the Milestone location
In this region near Bukhara and Samarkand, people post about local handicrafts, including pottery, dolls, and needlework, in a rich variety of colors and forms. The area appears popular among tourists, with a number of posts showing historic sites. One user posts a video of a relative’s wedding party, and another expresses excitement at arriving back home in Bukhara.
A video showing the landscape around this Milestone
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