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 clawed our way up Ak-Baital—White Horse—Pass at 15,272 feet, the highest point on the empty Pamir Highway, the second-highest road in the world, and then we tottered down the other side where barren mountains spat up eye-aching colors of earth: terra-cotta reds and serpentine greens, magentas and chromium yellows.
A hundred and twenty years ago British and Russian spies played hide-and-seek here in a remote and freezing colonial struggle called the Great Game. To keep warm, one protagonist, Charles Murray, the seventh Earl of Dunmore, danced a Scottish reel for his Russian competitors in a yurt.
We danced too. All the way to Murghab. Thousands of summer mosquitoes were our partners. Guide Safina Shoxaydarova got bitten scores of times. Even the donkey wouldn’t stand still to be photographed.
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
Mosquitoes
No human being was encountered on foot within six miles (10 kilometers) of recording this Milestone.
A video showing the landscape around this Milestone
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