October, 2019 and our next destination is Churchill, Manitoba to check out the polar bears. What can we say about Churchill? You have to go. Save your money and go, or go now and pay off the card. We chose to take a tour provided by Frontiers North. It’s not the only tour company but it likely is one of the best based on what they provide, customer service, food, equipment, and guides. Our tour started in Winnipeg, the first night at the hotel beside the airport where we checked in with Frontiers North, met our guide, and were given a briefing on the tour.
Our guide was David Reid. Dave was one of the last Hudson Bay Company trading post recruits from Scotland. He came over to Canada’s arctic in 1989 and has been part of the arctic since. He has an amazing wealth of knowledge, and stories of his expeditions (including his managing to retrace Frobisher’s ill fated one) and energy. Dave also has a company, Polar Sea Adventures, that plans expeditions for anyone and in places not regularly travelled.
Day 2 we were up at a comfortable hour for breakfast then bused over to the airport for the charter flight, provided by Nolinor Aviation to Churchill, Manitoba. You can also take the train to Churchill but it’s a day’s travel, almost 24 hours of a day, passing through Thompson, Manitoba. That’s well east of Churchill but what scenery we missed. Once in Churchill our bags were collected and taken to our hotel/motel while we piled on a bus for a tour of the town and area. It was cold, snow covered ground, and ice forming; perfect for polar bear viewing in Churchill.
The tour included places we were staying, going to eat, the shops, aircraft crash site, instructions on what to do if a bear is sighted in town as well as don’t go beyond the Bears beyond this sign signs, don’t walk alone, look around for bears when you leave a building, and a huge grain silo complex that is filled each year by train loads of prairie wheat waiting for shipment to the world.
Churchill has an active bear patrol that does a very good job of seeing bears prior to them reaching town, scaring them back out, and corralling them if they won’t leave or keep coming back in. Our first night in town is Halloween and the patrol is out in full force to keep the tricker-treaters safe. Part of the problem is that the Hudson Bay Company built the town right where the polar bears “migrate” each year. Living with them has become normal for the residents and a draw for the rest of us. Each day we were told of a bear that was spotted and chased back out, one just down the short street from kids waiting for the school bus. Approximately 1/3 of the fresh water in Canada flow into Hudson Bay; some rivers starting in the Rocky Mountains in southern Alberta. With that steady influx of fresh water flowing out of the Churchill River, the Bay freezes well before the rest of the Bay. The bears know this and that is why 900 of them show up on the shores by Churchill and wait for the ice to harden and thicken.
The town is just about a 2-3 street town size but it has a lot to offer. Polar Bear international centre, murals painted on several buildings and the down aircraft by extremely talented artists, tours for polar bears in the fall, tours to watch the 1000+ Beluga whales that are birthing in the Bay during July and August, birding from snow melt to freeze, the Itsanitaq museum, the Parks Canada Building that is quite impressive, and the polar bear jail or detention centre. Tours of inside the detention centre are not permitted. The centre was created to hold the nuisance bears (repeat offenders) and is one of the buildings emblazoned with a mural.
Day one was completed by lunch, visit to the museum, visit the Polar Bear international centre, a self walking tour of town, and dinner. Days 2 and part of day 3 comprised of day break risings, tour of the area the bears wait in purpose built tundra buggies, lunch in the buggy, and return before dusk. Once we saw our first bear many more sightings were easier. The bears are not that white at this time of year and blend in. They are also not that active; saving their energy for the hunts on the ice. Polar bears do not normally eat off the ice so these bears have not had a meal since July. The pregnant bears will leave the ice for their den in December and not come out until mid-March with their cubs in tow. Back onto the ice to hunt in order to teach her cubs and to replenish her fat stores.
The buggy, assembled in Churchill, is a monster of a thing. Large low pressure agricultural tires, heated, washroom, lots of windows 9 feet above ground, an open viewing platform on the rear, all on a 3 tonne chassis that is brought in on the train. Pretty much everything is rail freighted into Churchill unless you want to pay air freight. There are cars and trucks and paved roads to drive them on but no roads out of town leading to the rest of the world. Licence plates and car insurance purchased for a vehicle in Churchill is only valid for Churchill. As for the bear sightings – lots. Mothers with cubs, solo bears walking, sitting, sleeping, as well as fox, and ptarmigan – amazing. Check the gallery page for the some of the 700 photos we took.
The second half of day 3 we went dog sledding at Wapusk Adventures. We met long distance racer Dave Daley and each had the opportunity to take an intro dog sledding ride, the Ididamile, with an action photo. We’ve dog sledded before and enjoyed this run, bought the photo, and decided to go back to the Halliburton Forest to do the overnight sled run. We also met one of the local trappers who explained his trade and the economics of trapping. It left us with an appreciation of trapping.
Day 4, our last day way back on the tundra buggy with our driver Jim-Bo who, if one has a slogan, his was “Buggy 9, Buggy 9, you’re so fine my Buggy 9”. Jim-Bo is only in Churchill to drive the buggies during bear season. In warmer weather he is guiding river rafts or snow skiing. There are so many interesting and adventurous ways to live other than tying yourself to a job, mortgage, car payments, … Around 4 PM we were bused back to the airport for the flight back to Winnipeg. Again, our bags were taken care of after breakfast and were taken to the airport and loaded onto the aircraft for us. We had time to check out the art work and cultural displays in the airport prior to boarding. The engraving skill in the below cabinet was impressive, not to mention the size of the pelt it showcased. Not so sure about its ‘smile’. Back at the hotel in Winnipeg we retrieved our bags, said our goodbyes to our guide and the 19 others in our group.
If you have never done this trip, you should. Frontiers North is not cheap and there are slightly cheaper packages that are shorter and have many more guests per buggy to keep costs down. But in favour of Frontiers North, our group was 21 person in a 40 something seat buggy. It was uncrowded on the rear deck or inside and everyone had a window seat. The food was excellent. We expected mediocre fare given given where we were and how the food had to get there. Lastly, the time to go seems to be around Halloween. It has to be cold enough for ice to start forming, snow on the ground cause you’re there to see polar bears, yet not cold long enough to freeze up water along the Bay’s shore. Once that happens 900 bears leave en masse to hunt and the viewing season ends.
