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.
I’d come down the high Karakoram passes from Afghanistan on lonesome, cliff-hanging trails long trod by ethnic Kyrgyz and Wakhi yak herders bent on old-fashioned barter. They brought over herds of 10 or 12 yaks, trading half away in Pakistan for rice, candy, portable radios, medicine, factory-made clothing, and cell phones that didn’t work as phones—there was no signal—but as tiny video players. They then hauled all these goods back to the wild pastures of Afghanistan on the backs of their remaining yaks. The Silk Road yet lives.
Chapursan in Persian means “What else will you take?” as in the question that all shopkeepers ask.
I traded away 2,500 walked miles of Central Asia for thousands more miles of South Asia, for a shaved-head Pakistani guide named Naveed Khan, and his goat-chasing dog named Athena.
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
Qudrat Karim
Brick maker, age 30
Who are you?
I make bricks here.
Where are you going?
I’m not going anywhere.
Where are you from?
I’m from that village over there—near Kirmin. Please come have tea. It’s already made. It’s our tradition.
A video showing the landscape around this Milestone
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