Blog: Dermot Cole
Reports say Japanese hiker reaches end of road
Published Friday, March 27, 2009
•It sounds like Toru Yamaguchi has reached the end of the road.
Or at least another turning point in his walking career.
According to two reports from Deadhorse Friday afternoon, the 37-year-old Japanese adventurer has made it to the edge of the oil field, pulling his homemade cart/trailer.
"He's here," said an employee of the North Slope Borough police.
When I saw him in Fox in late November and he confirmed the news that he was walking to Prudhoe Bay, I was afraid that we'd soon be writing his obituary.
He wasn't dressed in expensive winter gear and he was pulling a heavy cart in the dark. But he's proven to be a mighty tough character.
In December, there was a lot of publicity about Yamaguchi after he was reported missing. It turned out he had been given a ride into Fairbanks just before Christmas and that he planned to keep heading north.
He resumed his walk to the North Slope in January and picked up his cart. He slept inside the cart.
A News-Miner reader first reported seeing Yamaguchi on the Top of the World Highway in September.
The only detailed published account I have found about him was in the San Antonio Express-News in Texas more than two years ago.
“It’s my dream, it’s just a dream, I like to walk,” he told a reporter in 2006.
Yamaguchi began walking north from the southern tip of South America.
His equipment has changed somewhat in the past few years. In 2006, he was pushing a two-wheel dolly “stacked to his chin with necessities,” the paper said. He had a tent, cooler, clothing and spare provisions.
In Alaska, he pulled a cart and a boxed trailer. He sleeps in the trailer and camps along the road. On the big hills, one truck driver told me, the hiker made several trips up and down, ferrying loads in a backpack.
When the Texas reporter interviewed Yamaguchi, he spoke mainly in Spanish about his two-year trip through South America and sketched his route on paper. He had previously walked the length of Japan.
“I don’t want help. Only I want to walk every day,” he said.
“I like ‘Forrest Gump.’ Do you know? Forrest Gump is very pure,” he said.
“I only want to arrive to Alaska,” he said in San Antonio in November 2006.
The newspaper talked to Yamaguchi’s mother in Japan who said, “He has very big dream, the dream is walking, walking only, to Alaska.”
Wow.
Yamaguchi: 1. Darwin: 0.
KUDOS KUDOS KUDOS!!!!
Way to go Toru! I sure would like to hear what he had to say about the walk up the haul road!
Wow, congratulations!
Good for him. That's something I could NOT do.
Is he going to walk back?
Congrats Toru, I lost that bet. I was sure they'd be retrieving his frozen body at some point.
Congratulations Toru. Alaska is full of stories of adventures and awesome feats and you have added another chapter for us to marvel at and respect your tenacity.
May you find what you seek on the road of life.
At the end of the road on the North Slope, we discover,
Yamaguchi == Japanese Polar Bear snacks.
... guess he forgot something!
Hey, bear bating season is pretty soon isn't it???
What an awesome accomplishment!! Ever since I became aware of this story during the January cold snap in Alaska, I have looked often for updates.
Like AKbychoice, I figured they'd find his frozen carcass somewhere along the Dalton Hwy.; even before that when he wasn't seen for awhile. But like others, I can report there are the proverbial crows singing on my back fence telling me how wrong I was!!
Earlier on, I figured if he made it through South America without getting shot or kidnapped, all Alaska is is just cold.
Again, congratulations, Toru!!!
CONGRATULATIONS TORU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I was wondering if he made it!!! So happy for you!! Congratulations Mr. Toru Yamaguchi!
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