Lands of Lost Borders

As a teenager, Kate Harris wanted to be an explorer, equal parts swashbuckler and metaphysician. With the Earth already mapped by the likes of Magellan and Marco Polo, she set her sights on the stars: she would become a scientist and go to Mars. But in between studying at Oxford and MIT, she set off by bicycle with a childhood friend down the fabled Silk Road, where, pedaling mile upon mile through some of the remotest places, she realized that exploration-in any day or age-is the...
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As a teenager, Kate Harris wanted to be an explorer, equal parts swashbuckler and metaphysician. With the Earth already mapped by the likes of Magellan and Marco Polo, she set her sights on the stars: she would become a scientist and go to Mars. But in between studying at Oxford and MIT, she set off by bicycle with a childhood friend down the fabled Silk Road, where, pedaling mile upon mile through some of the remotest places, she realized that exploration-in any day or age-is the refusal to live between the lines. Forget charting maps, naming peaks: what she yearned for was the feeling of soaring completely out of bounds. The farther she traveled, the closer she came to a world as wild as she felt within.