May 02 2006

Lopez Native to Walk 2,600 Kilometers on the Tibetan Plateau

In the summer of 2006 Karjam and Cedar Bough Saeji will walk from the geographic center of China, a bit south of Lanzhou, Gansu Province, for three months, to Lhasa, the fabled city on the rooftop of the world.

Karjam comes from a family of nomadic herders, leaving his hometown to became a traditional Tibetan singer and dancer with three recordings. Cedar is a Koreanist (a scholar on Korea) and a photographer. They met in Korea in 2000 and were married in 2005.

Cedar Bough had a head start on preparing for this trip, growing up on Lopez Island. Her parents, Gregg Blomberg and Edi Blomberg, were the first of the "back to the land" young people who moved to Lopez to pursue a more idealistic and natural life. They moved to Lopez in the late 1960s, farmed, raised animals and built their own house. Cedar Bough was born in 1972.

"It will take us three months to walk from Ahwencang, my husband's hometown, to Lhasa, and during that time we will never descend below 3,000 meters above sea level. There will be 5,000 meter high passes to cross, gorges to skirt, and rivers to ford. This will not be easy. There is danger, from the elements, from food and water issues, and even from bandit attack in this vast and untamed expanse. With the exception of the first and last bits of our trek there will be no access to medicine or stores where we can replenish supplies. For the greater portion of the trip, any additional food that we need will have to be traded for from the nomadic people we encounter. There are stretches along this route where we may not meet a single person for five days or more," said Cedar Bough.

Karjam and Cedar Bough have started to search out sponsors, and have gotten a wonderful response from Sierra Designs and Sherpa Adventure Gear. They are hopeful this is just the tip of the iceberg--or should that be the hair on the yak's ears?

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