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Walking from Argentina to Alaska

Holly ‘Cargo’ Harrison is now in northern B.C. on his journey from Argentina to Alaska.
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Holly ‘Cargo’ Harrison is almost there … relatively speaking.

Suffering a heart attack in Nevada, having to use crutches because of a hamstring injury in mountainous B.C. — none of it is stopping the fromer U.S. Army ranger from finishing his quest to be the first person to walk non-stop from the southern tip of South America to the north shore of Alaska. Walking about 30 miles per day, Harrison plans on arriving in Prudhoe Bay June 16.

He made his way through the Bulkley Valley last week on what he described as a legacy project. He’s been at it for a year-and-a-half. For the first 11,000 miles he was on his own, but his brother-in-law Ian Smith bought a van to follow Harrison after the heart attack.

As of last week, Harrison “only” had about 1,850 miles to go.

While in Smithers, Harrison and Smith spoke of some of the local help they’ve had. In a stroke of luck, Harrison found a cell phone on the side of Highway 16 as he got into Telkwa. Miraculously, the battery had not died after lying in the snow for days.

The two were able to get a hold of the owner, who who showed his gratitude with moose meat and other goodies.

“You can’t rate people by borders. You can’t say there are more nice people here than there are over here, but I’m going to have to give an exception to Canadians because really, per capita that I’ve met there’s just that many nice people here. Far more than my own country even … I’ve never had the reception that I’ve had here from strangers. They go out of their way,” said Harrison.

“Really out of their way. They’ll drop what they’re doing to help you,” chimed in Smith.

Having gotten his moment of fame on the Today Show on American network television, Harrison said he tries his best to respond to everyone who messages him on his Facebook page. He is documenting his trip at the page ‘cargo, hiking from ushuaia to prudhoe bay’ with videos of everything from howler monkeys to crossing bridges under construction, to his taste of Telkwa moose meat.

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Holly ‘Cargo’ Harrison approaches Hazelton on his journey from Ushuaia, Argentina to Prudhoe Bay, Alaska. (Chris Gareau photo)
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