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 powered through this Milestone briskly, walking fast, striding up over a forested hill past remote and silent farms where bear and boar traps had been placed, and then nearly jogging with our packs down the narrow tractor lanes between grassy paddocks into the valley rice paddies below. We were following a road between Hiroshima and the west coast of Japan. We didn’t speak. We walked apart. We were simply covering ground. Making kilometers. And the only objects that came into focus for me, in this blurred hinterland, were persimmons.
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
Cheiko Ishihara
Retired farmer, age 90
Who are you?
I’m retired but I still do a little farming. Tomatoes mostly.
Where do you come from?
I was born here. My dad was a farmer. I started helping him when I was five. There were no good roads here then. Just pebbled roads. People pulled carts. The school was a half hour’s walk away. Walking was the only way to get around. Maybe it’s beautiful to you guys. I don’t think it’s beautiful.
Where are you going?
I’ve been to Hawaii. I’ve been to Hokkaido. I’m not going anywhere now. I’m trying to live to 100.
A video showing the landscape around this Milestone
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