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.
The Outer Coast of Alaska is a stormy mosaic—nature’s reshuffling puzzle.
The big, wide, silty Grand Wash River draining the Malaspina Glacier shifts constantly, like a whip in mid-crack, its moveable banks built up and eroding by kilometers from year to year. We located its mouth, in the end, by simply floating our pack rafts down the freezing current. In this way, we overshot the Milestone. After beaching my raft, I slogged back almost a kilometer to record it. Belatedly, I noticed bear signs everywhere. Huge tracks crisscrossing yet more giant tracks all over the riverbanks. A veritable bear dance floor imprinted on gray sand. And I’d forgotten my bear mace. That’s why there’s a pink finger in each lower left corner of the panorama photo: I was in a hurry.
“I don’t know what we could’ve done to help you from so far away,” walking partner Rowan Sharman later remarked archly. “I guess we could’ve tried just reasoning with the bear, like calling out, ‘Hey bear, don’t do that. No bear—don’t do that. Uh, please, bear, don’t do that.’”
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
Ned Rozell
62, writer. Rozell lives in Fairbanks and has written a science column for the Geophysical Institute at the University of Alaska for 31 years.
Who are you?
Ned Rozell.
Where do you come from?
I was born in Manhattan.
Where are you going?
Towards Hubbard Glacier for a little bit.
A video showing the landscape around this Milestone
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