Many of my readers are aware that I have numerous websites, and several email newsletters like this one, on various topics covered in my books. One such newsletter is The History of Sled Dogs, based in part on the books I’ve written on that subject. In that newsletter I’ve detailed the current book I am working on, which is the history of the founding of a 1,200-mile sled dog race between Nome, Alaska and Anadyr, Chukotka, Russia.
The book came about during a visit with the Alaskan artist Jon Van Zyle last December, when I commented on an unusual sled displayed on the ceiling of his studio. That led to Jon happily telling me stories about the race, which led to pulling out a photo album, which led to an hour or more of poring over the photos, more stories, more artifacts from the adventures, and only two weeks later the genesis of a book. We’re in the final stages of wrapping it up now, and I’m hoping to have it in print before summer.
Working on this book has been quite unlike any of my others, and it has taken me into realms I never imagined I would visit. I have now learned more about the geography of eastern Russia than I ever thought I would want to know, and I find it a fascinating land; if I were 20 years younger I would want to go there and see it for myself. But I am content to do my ‘traveling’ online, and I’ve visited some very interesting websites, such as these on Kamchatka and Chukotka. I’ve learned that the Chukotka Autonomous Region covers almost 300,000 square miles of the Russian Far East, has a population of merely 55,000 people, no railways, and under 400 miles of road, making it truly one of the last untamed frontiers in the world.
It was into this wild land, thirty-two years ago, that my friend Jon Van Zyle and a handful of mushers and race volunteers embarked on an incredible journey. For me, one of the unexpected joys of working on this book has been discovering gems like this excerpt from a classic book by Barry Lopez, which was quoted in an article about the race, and is now framed and on the wall of my motorhome:
Safe travels, wherever life leads you.
Helen
I have been to Far Eastern Russia, to Markovo on the Anadyr River in 1983. I wish I could have gone to the city of Anadyr but at that time, it was not permitted. I was an assistant on an expedition of two from UAF as guest of the Institute of Biological Problems of the North in Magadan to collect butterflies.