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.
Long contested between warring states, Sword Gate Pass in the sawtooth mountains of China’s Sichuan Province was recognized as a strategic military choke point as far back as the third century. The Chinese idiom, “One man at the pass keeps 10,000 at bay,” is alleged to refer to this towering and supposedly impregnable gateway to the ancient kingdom of Shu. Today, on any forgiving afternoon, you can spill a five-yuan iced coffee, not blood, at the summit.
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
He Qian and Huang Yurong
He, 36, (left) and Huang, 34
Who are you?
He: “I work at Finance Bank.”
Huang: “I work for the electricity department.”
Where do you come from?
He: “I’m from Jianmen.”
Huang: “Me too.”
He: “We’re old friends.”
Where are you going?
He: “I want to climb up to glass walkway at the top of the mountain.”
Huang: “I don’t care where we go. The air is nice here. It’s nice nature. It’s good to get away from ordinary life.”
A video showing the landscape around this Milestone
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