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.
It was raining. But probably not as much as it rained when the road was built in the late 1930s. Back then, a legion of 200,000 villagers toiled for more than two years to gouge an emergency supply route through these jungled hills in Yunnan. The war was on. The Japanese had blockaded the ports. The villagers worked with only hand tools and muscle to open more than 700 miles of vital roadbed to neighboring Burma. Through mud. Through malaria. Through heat exhaustion. Back then the monsoons were so ferocious that the new road turned into a swollen torrent, carrying away days of labor, days of sweat. More than 2,300 roadworkers died. It rained much less now. Today, the climate crisis was drying out the landscape. Farmers said this all along the old Burma Road.
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
Luo Jun
Farmer, age 46
Who are you?
I mostly grow corn.
Where do you come from?
I was born here. This village hasn’t changed much in my life. It’s a good place. I have good neighbors.
Where are you going?
I’m going to my farm. It’s about seven or eight kilometers. I’m not walking like you. I’m walking to my car.
A video showing the landscape around this Milestone
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