Dave & Meredith's Travel Blog

Today was our last day and, aside from logistics of packing up and checking out, the main event for me was the optional dog sledding. Four of our group did this and it was really fun. When we showed up, the dogs were chained and not in their harness. Once they saw us, they went nuts, jumping and yelping, moaning and whining in a desperate way. They definitely knew why we were there. The owner took each dog one at a time and hooked them up to the sled’s harness:

Once a dog was hooked into the harness, it calmed down with only a whimper here and there. These are working dogs in the most pure form: they just want to get hooked in and run with the pack. Here are the two lead dogs ready to go:

Once all the dogs (about 8 of them) were rigged up, off we went, one of us at a time on a trail that was about a 7 minute loop. Here are the dogs a second after “launch”:

Since there were only 4 of us, we each got to go twice. This was great for me since I could take my regular camera the first time and my video camera the second. Here’s a view from the sled as we went around a curve:

This next one shows me in the home stretch sitting in the sled. Look at the expressions on the dog’s faces. This is pure play-time for them.

After we were done, we went straight to the airport for our flight back to Winnipeg. That was it for Churchill and the polar bears. We’ve all discussed how we’ll do our next trip here.

– Dave

My window looked out behind the hotel. The hotel is at one end of the town and polar bears can come close to the hotel if they enter the town. We were warned repeatedly not to ever walk behind the hotel since bears are frequently back there. I haven’t seen any yet from the window though. Bummer.

– Dave

– Dave

Today we started with a tour of Churchill. Here is our stylin’ set of wheels:

One of the places we went was the “Bear Jail.” It’s a big Quonset hut that has traps/pens for about 30 bears. There were 13 there when we went. When a bear just won’t stop coming into town or somehow continually causes other issues, it is labeled a “problem bear” and is trapped and put in the bear jail. They stay there until there is enough ice on the Hudson Bay that they can release it. With that in place, it will instead then go out to the water for its food. Here is a sample bear trap:

And here is yours truly under the sign that gives the jail’s official name:

We also saw more sled dogs and puppies. They are very vocal dogs. Here’s a howler:

After the tour, we started our night buggy ride. It went from about 4pm to 9pm. There wasn’t much if any photography since it was so dark but under the moonlight, we were able to spot a bear, a few arctic hares, and an arctic fox. Not too shabby. On the drive back to the hotel the Northern Lights came out so we pulled the bus over and all got out to watch them. They formed a long green ribbon from one end of the sky to the other, swirling and dancing around. It was my first time seeing them and they were amazing. No photos of that either but now that we’re back at the hotel, they’ll wake us up if they see them again. Maybe I’ll have something to share in tomorrow night’s post.

Tomorrow (Sunday) we need to pack up to fly back to Winnipeg in the afternoon. Right before the flight though, a few of us have signed up for dog sledding. It sounds great but sounds very cold.

– Dave

– Dave

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

Here is a picture I took today. Let’s have some fun with it. Submit your best caption via the comments section here by the time I get home late Monday night. Whoever writes the best caption (e.g. most clever, funniest, etc.) will get an unframed print of any one picture of their choice in the blog’s photo galleries.

– Dave

– Dave

On our first day out on the tundra, we were pretty lucky and saw a lot of activity. We left on the buggy about 8am and returned about 4pm which correlates pretty well with sunrise and sunset here. During that time, we saw many polar bears – probably a dozen or so. Two of them came up to the tundra buggy and checked us out, two young males sparred a bit, and there were a few mothers with cubs. The weather varied a bit between bright overcast skies to blustery, snowy , and dark gray but overall, it was cold but it wasn’t too cold. Here are a few pictures.

Above, a curious bear approaches from a distance to check us out

Above, looking down on the bear from the back of the buggy which has a small open deck

Above, looking to the side at the bear who stood up to get a closer look at us

Above, the bear got bored with us and went to check out the buggy behind us

Above, a cub leans on his mother as they approach the buggies’ path

Above, another mother and cub in the foreground with two buggies in the background

– Dave

– Dave