October 28 – November 4, 2021

At last! We're on the road again – for a long-awaited trip to Churchill, Canada, to see polar bears in the wild.  We made this trip with Natural Habitat Adventures, along with some of our favorite travel companions:  Dennis and Vicky Shepard, Jo Wilson, Carol Bennett, Dale Bundrick and Carol Brownson. 

 

 

Winnipeg, Manitoba’s capital city, is located on a vast prairie with few natural barriers to protect it from the winter winds that sweep down from the Arctic.  The average January temperature is 2.5 degrees (F), but with the wind chill it feels like - 40 degrees.  Thankfully, it was a balmy + 40 degrees for our visit in late October. 

The Fort Garry Hotel was our home in Winnipeg.  It was constructed in 1912 as one of a series of hotels built by Canadian railways.  These Chateau-style hotels feature gabled rooflines reminiscent of French Renaissance palaces.  We’ve stayed in several of these railway hotels across Canada – they’re elegant and very comfortable.

The city of Winnipeg was founded at The Forks, the intersection of two rivers, the Assiniboine River and the Red River.  This is the historic heart of the city, where people have been gathering for 6,000 years - trading among Aboriginal nations, European fur traders, Scottish settlers, Metis buffalo hunters and anyone else looking to do business.  (Ed. Note: The Red River flows north, defying laws of nature we learned in school!)

Today the center of activity is the sprawling Forks Market, an eclectic collection of food vendors and chic boutiques.  Other attractions include a world-class skate park, an inn, children’s museum, rail museum, children’s theater, and a children’s play area and water park. 

Winnipeg is still a large transportation hub and the railroad still operates in its original terminal, Union Station. 

Canadian Museum for Human Rights is the first museum solely dedicated to the evolution, celebration and future of human rights.  It is a striking landmark at The Forks.

The Forks Historic Port and Riverwalk follows the curves of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers in both directions, on both sides of the rivers.   In winter, the ice is groomed for skating, walking and cross-country skiing on the world’s longest river trail.   Winnipeg’s trail system is a small part of the very impressive cross-Canada trail, The Great Trail.

The Esplanade Riel is a pedestrian bridge over the Red River.   Its superstructure is a fan of cables, spreading from a single pylon that towers high above the center of the bridge.  A restaurant at the base of the pylon is hanging over the edge of the bridge, suspended by another fan of cables. 

Stepping off the bridge, we were in Winnipeg’s French quarter.  It is the cultural center for French-Canadians in western Canada.  With its own culture, food and language, this neighborhood was a separate town for almost a century. 

St. Boniface Cathedral, the Mother Church of Western Canada, is the oldest cathedral in western Canada, founded in 1818.  The building was considered Manitoba’s best example of French Romanesque architecture, but it has been rebuilt several times due to fires.  The current modern cathedral incorporates the remains of the historic façade.

The Manitoba Legislative Building is the meeting place of the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba (originally known as the Parliament).  It is perhaps best known as the home of Manitoba’s number one citizen, the much-loved “Golden Boy,” who is perched atop the building. 

We were curious about the hundreds of small orange flags set up in front of the building - and learned that they were meant to honor the children who died in former residential schools throughout Canada.  As in the US, many indigenous children were forced to attend residential schools which attempted to teach them to abandon their culture and live like white people.

Hundreds of unmarked graves have been discovered at school sites and the First Nations people want the Canadian government to recognize the actions of the schools as genocide.  An indigenous encampment has been established on the ground of the legislature as about 20 people have set up teepees and tents.  They have made a fire circle and offer sacred medicine to anyone grieving the lost children.

On the back side of the legislative building, facing the river, stands a statue of Louis Riel.  He was one of the founders of the province of Manitoba and a leader of the Metis (aboriginal) people.  He led two resistance movements against the government of Canada and ultimately was convicted of treason.  He was executed by hanging.

Bears on Broadway was a community fundraiser that featured 67 seven-feet tall polar bears decorated by local artists.  Today the bears are scattered all over town, but a few remain in the park between the legislature and the river.  There’s also a bear-themed inuksuk. 

After walking all over Winnipeg, we got geared up – large warm parka and cozy boots – and boarded our charter flight 700 miles north to Churchill.  Note that Churchill is the very definition of “isolated” – there are no roads leading to its remote location – one travels there by train (2.5 days) or by plane (2.5 hours).

Churchill, Manitoba, is known as the Polar Bear Capital of the World.  This small town, population 900, sits on the shores of Hudson Bay, just below the Arctic Circle.  In October and November, the town plays host to the annual migration of polar bears onto the sea ice.  The normally solitary bears, who have been lazing about all summer long, start to gather along the shoreline as the cold weather descends.  They’re hungry and eager for the sea ice to form so they can resume hunting for seals until the spring thaw. 

We arrived on October 29 and settled into the Churchill Hotel to prepare for day trips out in search of bears.  More later about the town of Churchill, but first a few words about polar bears …

Polar bears are found throughout the ice-covered waters of the circumpolar Arctic. In Canada, there are approximately 15, 000 bears; about 1,000 of these are in the Churchill area.  Polar bears are largely marine animals, preferring to remain on the sea ice where they hunt their main prey of ringed seals.

In many parts of the arctic, polar bears are able to hunt on the ice year-round. It is only in areas where the ice melts in the summer, like southwestern Hudson Bay, that the bears are forced ashore until the ice refreezes in the fall.  Churchill lies at the southern limit of where polar bears can live year-round. The ice throughout Hudson Bay melts completely by July and does not refreeze until November. This means that all bears must come ashore for several months during which they are not hunting and must survive on fat reserves that they have built up through the winter.  The bears lose two pounds of weight every day that they spend on land. 

In the fall, the sea ice forms first along the western coast of Hudson Bay and runs north along the coast from Cape Churchill. As the bay begins to freeze, increasing numbers of bears move toward the coast. Here, they congregate until they can move out onto the frozen ice of the bay and begin feeding again for the next six to eight months. 

With a warming climate, the sea ice melts earlier and freezes later, placing the bears at great risk.  Studies show that bears’ condition and productivity has declined steadily over the last decade. Fall weight has declined for all ages of both sexes.  The reproductive rate of females has declined, as well as the survival rate of cubs.  The Province of Manitoba lists the polar bear as a threatened species. 

Polar bears are the largest land carnivores in the world! An average adult male weighs about 1200 pounds and reaches maximum height of 12 feet.  An average adult female is nearly half the size of a male, weighing about 550 pounds and reaching a height of about 8 feet. Cubs weigh only about one pound at birth--that's about 15% of the weight of a new-born human baby.  Cubs remain with their mother for about 2 years.  In wild populations, lifespan for males is over 20 years and for females over 25 years.

 At the time of our visit, the polar bears were hanging out along the coast, mostly resting on the rocky, barren tundra.  The tundra is a cold, treeless plain - open and spacious, awesome in its immensity - it seems as vast and lonely as the sea.  Winters here are long and dark, with average temperatures below freezing for six to 10 months of the year. Temperatures are so cold that there is a layer of permanently frozen ground below the surface, called permafrost.  During our visit, we watched the landscape change as snow began to fall and shallow pools of water began to freeze – a transformation happening later every year. 

Our bear-viewing took place east of Churchill, in the Churchill Wildlife Management Area, near Wapusk National Park.  These two areas combine to protect one of the world's largest polar bear denning sites.  

We traveled in massive vehicles known as polar rovers.   The rover is 50 feet long X 14 feet tall X 14 feet wide.  Its tires are 5 feet tall, 3 feet wide, with air pressure of 12 pounds.  Seating capacity is 32 people, but we had only 16 in our group, so everyone had a window seat.  There also is an observation deck for cold but unobstructed viewing. 

Our guide and rover driver were knowledgeable as well as entertaining.  Special costumes for bear-viewing on Halloween! The sign is a reminder that we were never out of their sight - most of the bears are near the coast, but they might pop up anywhere, anytime. 

We traveled out on the tundra for two full days and part of a third day.  Thanks to our skilled driver and guide, we saw at least twenty bears – we might have seen more, but some were recognizable, and we didn’t want to count them twice.  Here are some photos of polar bears in the wild.

Single bears - the most common sighting - a single bear wandering around or just resting.

Mother and cubs - next most common sighting - cubs are almost two years old, sometimes hard to distinguish from mother bear.  

Bears curious about the polar rover - uncommon, but exciting.  

Four bears in one area - two mothers and two cubs - rare sighting as females with young usually avoid each other.  

Sparring males - rare and exciting to watch - young males playing, practicing survival skills needed later in life.  

Other wildlife - polar bears aren't the only inhabitants of this hostile environment.  

Birds:  ptarmigan, snow goose, snow bunting, and Clark's nutcracker.  Two red foxes, one silver fox and an arctic hare.

 

Mission accomplished – we saw lots of polar bears!  The bears definitely were the main event for this trip, but the Churchill areas offers other things to see and do. 

Churchill

The town is located at the junction of arctic tundra and boreal forest.  Having seen the tundra, we were happy to spend some time exploring the boreal forest.  Dominant trees are white and black spruces, balsam fir, and tamarack. The trees have shallow roots as the permafrost lies only a few feet beneath the surface.   Poorly anchored and pushed by sub-soil ice, the trees sometimes lean crazily, and many lie toppled; botanists call it ‘the drunken forest.’

Nomadic peoples were the first inhabitants of this area, dating back to 1700 BC.  They adapted to the harsh arctic conditions by living off marine animals and caribou, constructing snow houses and crafting small tools from stone. Other peoples arrived from the west, including the ancestors of the modern Inuit.

Europeans first arrived in the 17th century, and since then Churchill has developed as a fur trading center, seaport, military base, and more recently, an ecotourism center.  The town’s modern history revolves around the arrival of the Hudson Bay Company in 1717.  The company’s fur trading post, a log fort known as Churchill River Post, led to Churchill’s first permanent settlement.

 

Some points of interest around town:

The inukshuk is the iconic symbol of the Arctic and the Inuit people of the northern regions. The Inuit meaning of inukshuk is “in the likeness of a human.” Used as a communication beacon in traditional times, these unworked stones compiled in rough human form signaled to others that someone had been there or that followers were on the right path. These landmarks also were built to mark a place of respect or as memorials for loved ones.  The Churchill inukshuks welcomes visitors; one stands on the shore of Hudson Bay, while the other is on the town square.

The Itsanitaq Museum contains Inuit, Cree, Dene and Metis relics.  Though the museum is small, it features one of the world’s finest collections of contemporary Inuit carvings.  Its collection of artifacts includes works that date back to 1700 BC.

 

The Town Centre Complex is a major hub of the Churchill community.  It houses health facilities, a public library, elementary school, swimming pool, theater, ice rink, gymnasium, fast-food restaurant, and government offices.  Quite an array of services under one roof.

The Churchill Heritage Railway Station was built in the 1930s.  Today it still functions as a train station, but it has been renovated to also house the Parks Canada Visitor Center. 

 

Near the station, there are a couple of colorfully painted boxcars:

The boxcars were just the prelude to Seawalls Churchill, a project that brought a team of artists together to learn about the challenges a remote community faces living on an ocean coast – and then have them create a series of large murals to change the visual landscape and inspire conversation about healthy oceans. Here are a few of the nineteen murals around town:

Human Nature – a play on the phrase ‘human nature,’ the universal excuse to justify everything we’re doing wrong in this world.

 

The Rope – describes the present-day situation of living in a remote coast area that is both dependent on nature and suffering from a man-made tragedy.

 

The Bear – calling out amid extinction, his silent roar dissolves into the fog of memory.

 

The Power of Nature – reconstructed bear using pieces and fragments as a way of trying to fix what we have destroyed in nature.

 

The Last Winter – represents the forced journey of a family of bears and belugas during their last winter on earth; the cub grabs its treasured iceberg, hoping to escape from the human impact on Earth.

 

We Swim in the Same Waters – spirit in the water, spirit in the sky, spirit on the earth, all are connected.

 

The Final Destination – pays homage to the more than 250 species of birds in the Churchill area.

 

Encounters at the End of the World – three bears watching over main street, presiding over Churchill’s fate; as the bears weather and disappear, the beluga whales emerge to take their place.

 

Know I’m Here – Churchill has been struggling through melting sea ice, blizzards and flooding; we value the people of Churchill, and we all need to nurture the world around us.

 

Pump – Water is life (building is the town pump house).

 

Peace / Circumstance – focuese on conservation and respect for the polar bear, using the building’s architecture and location (on the highest hill in the community) to portray a polar bear sleeping peacefully as the world operates around her.  This building is the polar bear jail or Polar Bear Holding Facility, where polar bears that are troublesome or dangerous are isolated until they can be relocated.  Bears do wander into town, sometimes by accident, sometimes looking for food.  These are captured, tranquilized and jailed for 30 days – no food, only water.  They then are tranquilized again and transported by helicopter far from town.      

One more mural, not part of the Seawalls project - handprints representing the indigenous children who died in residential schools across Canada. 

 

St. Paul’s Anglican Church was built in 1890 when Reverend Joseph Lofthouse acquired prefabricated building materials from England to construct a church here.  In addition to being the first prefabricated building in North America, the church is even more remarkable because its frame is made of iron.

Miss Piggy is a crashed C-46 aircraft that sits on a hill near Hudson Bay.  She was called Miss Piggy because she was able to hold so much freight and once did have pigs on board. On November 13, 1979, she lost engine oil pressure shortly after departing Churchill. The crew of 3 tried to return the aircraft to the Churchill airport, but they crash landed on the rocks near the bay.  Today the plane still sits where it landed; the cost of removing it would be astronomical.  The same hold true for old cars, dilapidated houses and abandoned buildings – they will be there forever.

   

Cape Merry is the point of land bounded by the Hudson Bay and the Churchill River. This is where a fur trading post was built for the Hudson’s Bay Company in 1717.  A cannon battery was constructed to guard the river and the river mouth, and to prevent enemy occupation at Cape Merry, by providing crossfire.  Today we were guarded by Parks Canada staff - polar bears are in the area - if they get too near, shots are fired in the air to scare them away.

This is a good place to see the rocky tundra along the edge of Hudson Bay.  We visited on a rare sunny day and enjoyed a short rest on the rocks – with Hudson Bay in the background. 

The grand finale of our visit to Churchill was a wonderful dog-sled ride at Wapusk Adventures, an indigenous owned and operated company.  The “Big Dog” here is Dave Daley, who oversees a team of 38 sled dogs and manages the Hudson Bay Quest, a dog sled race that serves as a qualifier for the Iditarod. 

Our ride was dubbed the "Ididamile" - an exhilarating run through the boreal forest.  It was only a mile, but what a thrill – the dogs were wildly excited, and the snow was just deep enough to allow the sleds to run.

 

At the end of the ride, the dogs were watered and then they were ready for some petting.  A great ending to a great adventure in the frozen north!