adventure Archives

Some of you may remember that back in 2012 I went on a “Quest” to photograph those clowns of the sea, Puffins.

I went to Maine, joined a boat tour and headed off to Machias Seal Island. It was cold, the sea was rough and just about everyone on board (except me) got sea sick, but I did see Puffins. That trip showed me how hard getting that “Nat Geo” picture was going to be.

Those birds are small and the ocean is large and you can only get so close to an island with waves crashing against a rocky coast.

Then I went to Alaska in 2013. That trip promised Puffins, eagles, bear, moose , caribou, otters, sea lions and on and on. Our timing was a bit off and although we saw some of these animals whales didn’t breach for us, the bears were in the distance, just waking from hibernation, and there were no Puffins or otters.

Since then, wrapped up in a new job (career?) I’ve been really busy and not thinking about much wildlife photography. In spite of having a new camera and an awesome new lens, I haven’t been out roaming the woods much.

So now another opportunity has presented itself and I jumped at it. The Mass Audubon Society is planning a trip called Puffins and Peatlands in July 2016. As soon as I heard I called and made my reservation. This trip we are to actually to set foot on the island and there are blinds set up to allow close up photography. Be still my heart!

I’m really excited, then they sent me the itinerary. Oh Oh. I’ve been less than athletic since my fall off the airplane two years ago which started the downward spiral of health problems. Although I’m feeling much better these days my knees still hurt,my left hip is arthritic and my back still hurts occasionally.

Their first consideration. You must be able to walk on beaches and through spruce forest where exposed roots and rocks can provide difficult footing for 1/2 to 1 mile in length. I used to be able to do that but can I still? Some days walking to my car is a challenge.

But the 2nd consideration is the one that really strikes fear in my heart. “The landing onto Machias Seal Island can be difficult. Participates must be able to get in and out of a smaller boat. We may need to walk over rocks that are wet and slippery.” OH MY WORD! I nearly fell into the fake canal in Las Vegas getting in and out of the gondola. Will I be able to pull this off?

I remember when I quit smoking. I wanted to lean to scuba dive but no one would accept a smoker in the class so I quit. Cold turkey. I wanted to do something and I did what was necessary.

But how do I get my creaky, aching joints in shape? I’ve got 9 months. October – July.

I need some advice quickly!

We stepped off the bus to pandemonium! Barking, squirming dogs everywhere it seemed but they were actually under control…sort of. You see this wild eyed, happy, manic look on the face of the dog on this card…yup we were surrounded by dogs with the same expression. The handlers, excuse me , “Mushers” said the dogs just love to run. They get excited when they hear a car or bus come down the road because they know they will be hitched up and off to do their favorite thing.

While the mushers wrangled the adults into the harness we were led to another pen to see the “puppies”. Now I use the word puppies loosely because I was expecting little balls of fluff. Even when they said they were 11 weeks old I wasn’t prepared for how big they were. Before I knew what was happening or even got close enough for a look a 25 lb. bundle of energy was plopped into my arms. I heard someone say this little girl is Emma and then they were gone. What a cutie.

Sandy had another similar sized pup in her arms.

It took all of my concentration to be sure mine didn’t wiggle out of my arms and get away. I’m sure it happens sometimes with these energetic balls of fur but I didn’t want it to be on my watch! Eventually one of the employees asked me if I’d had my turn on the dog sled ride. When I said no, he told me to go get on but made no move to relieve me of Emma.

After I asked about 3 times what he wanted me to do with the puppy it seemed to get through to him. With an “Oh! Yeah.” He scooped Emma up and pointed me toward a really strange contraption.

This monster had a sturdy metal frame, rubber tires and 3 bench seats that had been rescued from some old junk cars. It even had a roof and a front windshield of scratched Plexiglas. It looked awful heavy for a bunch of dogs to pull.

I grabbed the front seat. In spite of the scratches I wanted to be up front where I could see what our dogs were doing. Our young lady Alaskan was our musher and hopped on the back just as if this were one of the light weight dog sleds. With just a word the dogs were off with us right behind. They got us going pretty fast too until one of the dogs decided he wanted a break for some snow from the snow bank. That brought the whole line to a halt while he broke formation for his little snack.

Lady Musher got down and untangled the traces and got them all lined back up. Before she had time to even get back on the rig our little trouble maker was rolling in the dirt and getting everyone tangled up again. Back to the mess our intrepid musher went and, in her words, had a little talk with him.

This time when he was straighten out he stayed in line and we were on our way again.

We went around one last corner and there was the camp where we started. It was a short ride but it was fun.

The dogs in the front are the lead dogs and he ones in the rear are the steering dogs. They are the strongest dogs on the team. They get you out of that snow bank if you get stuck. Even through the Plexiglas window it was easy to see they were having fun and so was I! 🙂

Tag Archives: adventure

Chasing Puffins Again

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Puppies and Mush

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