TRAVELING Magazine

As far as I know, there is no current magazine called TRAVELING. And so I have named my personal Photography Magazine TRAVELING, with issues dated July and August of 2008 as our trip fell into both months. Each issue, by design, has no other pages, just a cover. And I had such a fine time doing the two issues that I retrofitted one from Manhattan and dated it to July 2007.

Working in Photoshop, learning how to handle layers and cutouts and how to resize and rework: it is all so interesting and it continues to open my mind to further experiments. Here I started with the base layer photo of Mt. McKinley and superimposed Wado, Richie Beattie's lead dog. The UPC code was borrowed from a Google image site, but since it will never be scanned it should suffice.

A poem about the piercing eyes of Wado and perhaps about politicians and athletes:

EYES OF THE LEAD DOG

Adventure in Alaska is built on the base of the intrepid dog teams:
Pure power to pull food and supplies or competing racers through the Yukon,
Sleeping in makeshift places well below the zero mark,
Finding trails hidden under drifting snow, avoiding obstacles,
And always lead by one dog, the lead dog, with the piercing eyes.

The lead dog will show you the eye of leadership, not just in the color,
But in the apparent ability to see past the drifts, through the darkness of
Twenty-two hour night, around or over the obstacles, always sighting on
Goals of the team, finish lines, towns or villages, where we need to be.
Eyes of the lead dog may not actually see all that the team needs to know
But the team needs to have confidence that the eyes of the lead dog see victory.

Whether he does or not.

Going to the Dogs

Our first cruise stop was at a quaint town called Skagway and the featured event on our schedule was a ride with the sled dogs. It turns out that the mushing teams need exercise in the summer and some mushers move to a camp near such a town. They then offer enjoyable educational opportunities for the tourists.

The full team is attached not to a sled but to a buggy. With seating for six it is a comfortable ride and the musher stands on back using the reins to direct the dogs. Our musher Richie Beattie has competed in the famed Iditarod winning Rookie of the Year honors. And among the educational things involved in the event was to hear him say that his team would no longer participate in the Iditarod. When asked why, he responded that it is not as much a challenge as the Yukon Quest. The Quest runs a month earlier, so it is considerably colder and darker; it also runs further east through wilder country.

It was interesting to hear him talk to the dogs, always in a calm and supportive voice. They are a true team, man and dogs, working together for survival when competing and training for it when they are not competing. Upon our arrival the dogs were ready to run, straining at their reins, but after their workout they were wonderful, powerful animals who appreciate petting and attention.

Beattie's lead dog, Wado, is shown above. He runs next to his predecessor as lead, his own dad. And we had an exciting ride, and educational afternoon, and a chance to pet and hold several outstanding dogs. Wado's picture seen above is one of my favorite images from the entire trip, as you will see in the next post.