Nov 14 2008
Day 2: Cold and Windy
Today was a little different from yesterday. The thermometer was only 5 degrees colder – about 20 degrees – but the 25mph winds made the wind chill about 8 degrees so we never lingered longer than we needed to with the windows open. The light snowy conditions from yesterday also turned into a lot of blowing snow today. We had some good bear sightings at the start and end of the day that weren’t washed out though. Afterwards we came back to the hotel around 5, we had dinner, then headed out to hear some local history from, well, a local.
That’s it for the full day trips out in the buggies. Tomorrow we do more activities around town and then at 3:30 we head out for a nighttime buggy ride. Here are a few pictures from today:
Above, the bears would sit in some strange positions or contort themselves as they got up from a rest
Above, this guy took a while to get his front legs working
Above, with the strong winds, bears hid on the leeward side of small rises which made it tough to see much of them. This guy raised his head just long enough to check us out.
Above 3, bears walking
Above, let’s play find the polar bear. He’s the snow-covered lump in bottom center. Sometimes they allow themselves to get completely covered with inches of snow. Their fur can keep them very warm in spite of it.
Above, a view of other tundra vehicles from ours
Above, this bear heads to the Hudson Bay with a tundra vehicle in the background
– Dave
2 responses so far
Dave;
These pictures are inspirational. Can’t wait for the snow to fly so I can play in it. I hope you find a way to publish these. I thought immidiately of a children’s book about your trip. Somethin like the POLAR BEAR EXPRESS.
As far as the individual pictures there are a couple that look like me the day after a full round of golf. Thank goodness Nan doesn’t have the house equipped with monitoring devices, although I think she suspects.
Keep on snapping.
Russ