BEAR-ly the Numbers

16 Hours on the Tundra (in Buggy # 16)
23 Humans on the Buggy
19 Adult Polar Bears
3 CUBS!
1 Nursing Mother
2 Sparring CUBS!
1 Turkey Vulture
3 Snow Owls
8 Ducks
1 Arctic Fox
1 Canadian Goose
2 Arctic Hares
2 Good Mates
-5 degrees Celsius (+ wind chill)
32 Latitudinal Degrees South of the North Pole
1832 Photos
1 Giga-awesome weekend
Zero words to describe it

There Be Bear!

There she was. My first polar bear. She was lying on the ground, having a nap. We didn’t seem to disturb her, despite all the flashing, clicking of cameras, and continuous “ahhs” coming from the buggy.

Then there was movement. A head lifts up, alive. She slowly assesses the situations, hearing the clicks and shuffling of snow pants inside the buggy. She decides it’s time to stretch. Out comes a paw, a long drawn-out yawn. More clicks of the camera, more “ahhs.” She’s bored. She lies back down. We are hungry. We move on.

My first polar bear.

Dog Sledding Without Snow

So, I’ve managed to make my way up to Churchill, Manitobe, Canada. It’s a small town (approximately 1 km long) situated halfway up the western bank of the Hudson Bay. It’s quaint with approximately 600 year round residents. I’m here for the day as part of my polar bear safari adventure. We have all day to explore the city, which took all of 10 minutes before we were bored. We need to kill 3 more hours before we trek out to the arctic tundra.

It’s only mid-October, and snow has fallen, but has melted. That’s right…I’m on my way to view polar bears without snow. There’s something less romantic about this notion, but I’m going to view polar bears nonetheless. For those of you back home…if you really want snow, that’s what photoshop is for.

There’s a group of us single travelers who have banded together. Dog sledding seems like a good idea. We sign up as all the spots are not taken. The company is ran by Inuit descendants and it is obvious they care for both their dogs and the land on which the live. We get to the meet the 18 dogs they have on staff and learn about the four different positions the dogs take while on the lead.

The dogs are full bred Canadian Eskimo dogs. They prefer to run in temperatures that range from -17C to -35C. Today is far too warm for them at -1C. We can only sled for 2 miles before they are wore out. The dogs are kept outside, as they need to be kept cool, and can attract bears. It’s a bit of a problem for locals who sled, as they do not want to attract the white bear, but they cannot keep their livelihood indoors.

The owners get the sled ready and the dogs start to go nuts. Never have I heard such raucous created by a group of animals. The owner explains that the dogs are excited and are playing a game of “pick me.” Finally, we are ready. Kris (fellow traveler) and I hop on and we’re off. Remember, there’s no snow, but we do have muddy trails and every once in awhile, we are happily greeted with a splattering of mud on the face. It’s not quite what one would expect from a dog sledding experience, but, I can officially say that “running a dog sled race” is now on my to-do list. Mush on!