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 walked through the lush foothills of Sichuan heading north along the rim of the Tibetan Plateau. The villages all had new concrete roads. The roads served cars and truck traffic. We tried to take shortcuts through the hills on old paths that had been worn by foot travel since time immemorial but now were fallen out of use. The forests had overgrown them. And we got lost and had to return to the roads. An aged cucumber farmer, Mr. Liu, offered to guide us, but he too got lost in the resurgent forest. “It’s around here somewhere,” he’d say, scampering up steep muddy slopes through the new undergrowth, swinging a bamboo stave and looking for the trails of his younger life. “It’s around here somewhere.”
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
Zhang Rong
Retired farmer, 60-something, pictured at left with Salopek's walking partner, Li Wan
Who are you?
I’m a retired farmer. I used to grow rice and lettuce. I never went to school. I like retirement.
Where do you come from?
I’m a resident of Mianzhu.
Where are you going?
I’m going to the mahjong hall to play with my friends. I’ll play about four hours. I do this all the time. It’s a 20-minute walk from my house.
A video showing the landscape around this Milestone
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