Downtown Salt Lake is crawling with people here for the Outdoor Retailers Expo.
It's a gathering of adventurous types from all over the globe, including one man who's attempting a record breaking walk around the globe.
We're talking 36,000 miles!!
News Specialist Sammy Linebaugh has his story.
Karl Bushby started this trek when he was 29 years old. He's now 33, and expects to be on the road another seven or eight years.
He's originally from Yorkshire, England, and has stopped off here at the expo hoping to rally some help for what lies ahead.
KARL BRUSHBY/GLOBETROTTER: "WE STARTED DOWN HERE IN A LITTLE TOWN CALLED PUNTARANAS AT THE VERY SOUTHERN TIP OF THE SOUTH AMERICAN CONTINENT."
"We" is a backpack and cart that, for the past three years and eight months, have accompanied Karl Brushby more than 10-thousand miles through South America, up the Pacific seaboard to Salt Lake City.
Inside are all the essentials for keeping a 20 mile a day pace he says will take him across four continents, 25 countries, and land him back home by roughly the year 2010.
KARL BRUSHBY/GLOBETROTTER: "WE'VE GOT A TENT, SOME WARM CLOTHING, A SLEEPING BAG, A LAP TOP COMPUTER."
The computer is so Brushby can write home to mum in England where he grew up and first got the idea for what he sees as the ultimate adventure.
KARL BRUSHBY/GLOBETROTTER: "TO SOME PEOPLE, LIVING LIKE THIS MIGHT BE THEIR VISION OF A NIGHTMARE. BUT TO ME, IT'S THE WAY IT SHOULD BE DONE."
What he's doing has never been done before.
He's hoping to break the world record for the longest single unbroken path traveled solely on foot.
No cars, no bikes, no boats.
Which, begs the question, once he gets to Alaska just how will he cross the ocean to Asia?
KARL BRUSHBY/GLOBETROTTER: "WE'RE GOING TO USE THE ICE AS A LAND BRIDGE. WHEN THE ICE DROPS SOUTH DURING THE WINTER PERIOD FROM ALASKA TO SIBERIA, ACTUALLY USING THE ICE, WALKING ON THE ICE."
That, he acknowledges, will be tricky under the best of conditions.
He says he's here at the Outdoor Retailers Expo to network, meet experts in ice gear and equipment. He hopes they will help him along his journey.
Once in Asia, he's mapped a route west through Russia then back to London.
Someday he hopes to go everywhere, but says for now there's nowhere he'd rather be.
"DO YOU EVER WANT TO QUIT?" KARL: "NO."
"NEVER?" KARL: "NEXT QUESTION."
The next question was, "What does your mom think of all this?" He says his family and friends have really rallied around him and helped him get a website going.
August 9, 2002
