November 7, 2022 - Winnipeg , Canada to Fort Collins, CO - WRAPUP

Our bags were packed and ready to go, but I'm not sure I was! It was cold, however, and VERY windy, so I am counting my blessings that we had an amazing week in Churchill with pretty mild weather and lots of wildlife sightings. Our shuttle dropped us at the airport around 8:30 this morning for our flights back to Colorado. There were three other women from our group on our flight to Toronto so we had a chance to visit a little while longer. We had a schedule change, so our flight didn't arrive into Toronto until 2:20 and our connection was boarding at 2:50. Doesn't sound bad, but we had to clear US customs and it's a LONG walk from our arriving gate to a different concourse! They had already started boarding by the time we ran and got everything done, but we did make it. We got back to Denver and picked up the car around 5:30 and home by 7:30.

We are both tired and feel like we have colds. We will test for COVID tomorrow, just to make sure we don't have it. Ugh.

Again, I can't tell you how much we enjoyed our adventure with Natural Habitat Adventures, https://www.nathab.com. They do an amazing job! This afternoon Amanda, our representative in Boulder, called to welcome us home and ask about our trip. They probably do that for everyone, but it is the first time we have had a tour company contact us after a trip to see if we enjoyed it! To wean myself off the excitement of the trip I am still watching the live feeds from the webcams from Polar Bears International explore.org.
https://explore.org/livecams/polar-bears-international/polar-bear-cam

ANYWAY, I am just going to post pictures and some videos with brief descriptions.

Miranda took this picture of the red fox at the top of the rocks as we came into Churchill from the airport on our first day.
The trash / recycling station which wasn't built until 2006! Before that there was a dump which attracted many polar bears.
Prices in Churchill are extremely high. Everything is imported either on the train or by air. Natural Habitat Adventures, which we booked our tour through, flys all of their trash and recycling back to Winnipeg! A 12-pack of soft drinks is $13.99 CAD - about $10.50 USD!

Sue driving the tundra rover with Tobey's help.
Miranda got a shot of our group taking pictures of the bears off the back deck.

In you were ever wondering if bears do .... in the woods, I'm not sure, but they do on the tundra!

If you look closely, you can see a bear swimming in the water! Miranda got these shots with her super long camera lens! Did you spot it?
Here's a hint ...
This is a picture taken by another rover guide of bears at our rover!
Checking each other out
Let's rumble!

I think I will take a break!

Do you want to know a secret?

I told you I don't want to play!

Big yawn

Just slippling along the snow.
Hey, look at me!

Our group at the Inukshuk

Dog sled adventure

Miranda got a shot of Tobey and me on the dog sled, November 5 at Wapsuck Adventures https://www.wapuskadventures.com/.

Flag Trees - the pines tend to grow only on one side because the wind is so strong.

Miranda's shot of the mom and cub - November 5Bear Crossing

VIDEOS - the link will open in a new window.
November 2, 2022 - hard to see, but a fox on the way into Churchill
https://youtube.com/shorts/uNz7vS9piQM?feature=share

November 3, 2022 - Bear checking out our rover video
https://youtube.com/shorts/BF9Xlfs9LHk?feature=share

November 3, 2022 - bear coming under our rover
https://youtu.be/l_gIEsqwwGs

November 3, 2022 - Bears rolling in the snow video
https://youtube.com/shorts/UgRk-TVkjyY?feature=share

November 3, 2022 - scooting along the snow - Miranda took this video
https://youtu.be/9wDUnMJa4Z0

11-4-2022 bears sparring
https://youtu.be/Dfv6dYTJU3Y

11-4-2022 - bear walking near rover
https://youtu.be/pOw8LWyo2qA

22-4-2022 -Bears digging for kelp
https://youtu.be/yw47k8nXSxM

November 6, 2022 - Churchill to Winnipeg, Canada

We turned our clocks back last night but wished we could have rolled them back more than one hour. I was not ready to have this amazing trip end, although we awoke to snow, strong winds, and bitter cold temperatures and we were thankful this wasn't the start of our trip. A couple of the women in our group went out early and made a snow person just outside the hotel.

After a late breakfast, our group took a short drive by the Polar Bear Holding Facility and the "Miss Piggy" plane crash site.

On our way, Krista spotted a cross fox on the hill.

The holding facility is kind of like a polar bear jail. It can house up to 26 bears that are considered troublesome or dangerous. They have been caught in town in live traps and then isolated here in individual "cells" before they can be relocated. It is not open to the public, but we were able to get out of the shuttle and read the signs and see some of the live traps. The first picture is the bear holding facility which is part of the mural project, as well.

The "Miss Piggy" plane, a Lamb Air C-46F, crashed shortly after taking off from the Churchill airport on November 13, 1979 due to a mechanical failure and an oversized load. It was attempting to make it back to Churchill aiport, but fell short and crashed on a rocky patch of land. The three occupants of the plane were only slightly injured, but the plane was badly damaged. It rests in the same spot and became part of the mural project from Churchill!

Back in Churchill, we had a wonderful presentation by Sandra Cook, a local indigenous artist. She had slides of her work and told us her story. I had tears listening to her talk about her life.

The garage door is one Sandra painted on her husband's garage! It's beautiful.
We made a few more stops in town to see some of the other murals.


As if we hadn't eaten enough, we had an early lunch before our flight back to Winnipeg! It was still snowing and the wind was really blowing. Once we took off, we couldn't see anything because of the clouds.

We arrived back at the Fort Garry Hotel about 5, turned in our heavy winter coats and boots and had a little time before our farewell dinner. Our tour guide, Miranda, put together a small photo show that ran throughout the dinner. Krista introduced us to "air drop" on I-phones as a way to share our pictures. It's pretty funny watching a group of 50+ year olds attempting new technology on our I-phones. (me included!)

Natural Habitat provided us with some really cool coffee mugs to take home with pictures from Churchill and the bears on them. We have some amazing memories and they will give us that visual reminder of this wonderful trip. We are off to bed because we have an 8 am shuttle to the airport so good night!

November 5, 2022 - Churchill, Canada

Well, today marks the last day of Polar Bear Week, 2022 (October 30 - November 5) - Not just our adventure, but the OFFICIAL Polar Bear Week! Polar Bears International created Polar Bear Week to coincide with the annual gathering of polar bears near Churchill, Canada, as they wait for sea ice to form on Hudson Bay so they can return to hunting seals. Sea ice loss from human-caused clamate change is the single biggest threat to polar bears. Polar Bears International wants to bring awareness to the dangers facing the dwindling polar bear population and help people figure out ways to reduce our carbon footprint.

We started out day with breakfast and our morning departure to Wapusk Adventures and our dog sledding adventure. Dave, the owner, met us and gave us some background information about him and his life in Churchill. He was so interesting to listen that I would have liked more time there! They have 47 dogs and almost all of them are rescue dogs! After an introduction to dogsledding, we met a couple of his dogs, then outside to give it a try! There were four sleds, so Tobey and I were in the second group to go. The first group was off and running so while we waited, our shuttle driver, Bob, gave Tobey some bird feed and one of the gray jays came swooped in and ate from his hand. Pretty fun!

 

Our turn was next. I sat in the front, Tobey stood on the second runner which also had a seat, and our musher was in the back.

It was really fun! Here is a link to the start of our "I Did A Mile" ride. https://youtu.be/_dYHMhxbFOk

Our lead dogs did not want to follow her instuctions at one of the turns, so we ended up staying in the third position instead of passing one of the other sleds!

The picture below is Dave, the owner and our musher. She came from New Zealand and loved it here and stayed.

Our lead dogs – one is 13 years old and the other is just a puppy! After our “I Did A Mile” run, we had a small wrap up session before heading out.

On the way back to town, we spotted a red fox. He was running down the road then crossed back and forth a few times. Miranda and Krista have called them a “Cross Fox” because they are a mix between a red fox and a silver fox.
Back in town, a couple of the women went off to do a helicopter excursion while the rest of our group went out to Cape Merry. It is now part of the Parks Canada system so we had an interesting guide who gave the history of the fort and some fun stories of settlers in the area. The fort and Cape Merry are located where the Churchill River enters into Hudson Bay. It dates back to 1717 when the Hudson Bay Company began construction of its fur trading post. The Prince of Wales Fort is located on the peninsula across from the battery where we were standing.

Because there are bears in the area, the park systems has two armed spotters that are out when people visit the site. We heard shots in the distance so that meant that somewhere nearby a bear had been spotted and was being scared off.

Tobey and I took advantage of the beach chairs to “chill” for a while!From Cape Merry we attended an interesting presentation at Polar Bears International by a post-doc student from Ireland who is studying the caloric intake and expenditure of polar bears while they are off the ice. (summer season) We have learned so much about the bears while we have been here!
We passed Churchill’s weather station, too!

After lunch we had a couple hours of free time so Tobey and I took a walk around town. We stopped back at the train station to look at more of the displays the park service has there. We took some pictures of the murals around town and did a little shopping.

In 2017, the town planned a huge mural project called SeaWalls Churchill. The intention was to educate and inspire the community to protect the oceans. It turned into something much bigger. In 2017 two powerful March blizzards contributed to extreme flooding which destroyed a huge section of the railway line that leads to Churchill. Many of the supplies and equipment that was supposed to be used for the project were unable to reach Churchill. The community figured out a way to make it happen anyway. The murals spans 30 km (18.5 miles) along the Hudson shore. We had the opportunity to see some of them.

At 4:00 we headed out for our last tundra visit to see the sunset and maybe the aurora borealis. We didn't know if we would see any bears or other wildlife. Our good fortune continued! We saw a single bear and then around the corner was a mother and cub! It was so cool.

Out in the rover I was still beaming from everything we had seen so far.

We could look across the bay and see the town of Churchill. The tall buildings are the grain elevators at the port.

The bears somehow knew that we were not ready to say goodbye and we were lucky enough to have a few more wander by the rover.

We did get a little video of another bear that was heading back out toward the water. It's a bit dark, but still fun to see! https://youtu.be/jDIcXhqYjEI

And soon it was too dark to see any more bears, but the sun setting over Hudson Bay was spectacular!

We enjoyed a lovely dinner, spent time on the back deck looking at the stars and watching the moon rise over the tundra lodge. Our group on this trip has been amazing and we've enjoyed meeting everyone and getting to know them.

We didn't see the aurora borealis, but we wanted to think the light clouds could MAYBE have been some of those northern lights! Not really, but that means we will have to plan another trip!

We ended our evening and headed back to the hotel around 8:30. This is our last night in Churchill and it has been absolutely amazing.