Polar Bears - Trip Log
Chapter 1: Getting to Bear Country
Day 1:
- Fly from ATL-Winnipeg
Day 2:
- Board the train
- Single track, shared with freight, built on permafrost; delays are very common
- 6pm. Delayed due to a broken down freighter in front. Will need about 5-7hrs for an engine from the town ahead to come pull this broken freighter
Day 2.5:
- 12am, midnight. Someone has taken it upon themselves to crash their car into the train ahead. Yes. The broken down, STATIONARY train that was sitting at an intersection with barriers and lights.
- Police involved, union laws for railway workers kicked in, so estimated time till we get moving again is now “morning”
Day 3:
- We finally start moving again at 9am - a total delay of 18 hours. Explore more of the train, chat with more passengers, back to bed.
Day 4:
- Planned stop at Tompson was reduced from 5hrs to 5mins, so we made back some time from the delay.
- Arrived at Churchill no issue.
- Picked up by my buddy Drew from Discover Churchill
- Sleep
Part 2: The Bears
Day 5:
- Absolutely ridiculous day. Had over 20 close encounters with bears, probably saw about 30-40 total bears that day.
- Mostly moms and cubs, many with two cubs.
- Few single males here and there
- Tourist season ends at the end of Nov, so most restaurants have closed for the winter or it’s the last week that they’re open.
Day 6:
- White out conditions today, lots of sea ice forming so many bears have already left for sea
- Mostly single males, few moms with cubs
- Saw a male try to mess with a silver fox
Day 7:
- Pure insanity. We followed three young males who were sparring for about 4 straight hours.
- They’d wrestle, walk somewhere else, have a nap, repeat. Unbelievable!
Day 8:
- Found a sleepy cross fox
- Momma bear brought her two cubs for us to see!
- Found a momma bear and her cub nursing
Day 9:
- Snowshoe hares! Found two of them, one in town and one outside by some rocks
- Saw an extremely rare event, a collared mom with two cubs, one of them is adopted!!
- Researchers have tracked over 4600 bears across 40 years in this area, only 13 confirmed cases of bear adoption!!
Day 10:
- Blizzard like conditions again today
- Attacked by the Ptarmie army!
- Lots and lots of bears out on ice, very far away
- Saw a Rock Ptarmigan!
Day 11:
- Arctic fox sighting! Dude was zooming across the ice!
- Lots of bears on rocks today
Day 12:
- Hardly any bears today! Saw a couple, but they were just sleeping and resting so not much going on
Day 13:
- Last day of hanging with the bears. Blizzard-like conditions again, hardly saw anything
- Another arctic fox sleeping
- Saw the polar bear jail program - only program of its kind in the world. Naughty bears get put in jail for 30 days, and flown out north when they get released. If the sea ice has formed, they get released directly onto the ice!
- Boarded the train later in the evening!
Episode 3: The Return
Day 14:
- Back on board. In the private sleeper cabin this time!
- The radiator in our cabin broke overnight and was starting to smoke, apparently the fire alarm triggered and everyone had to evacuate, but I was dead asleep in my cabin and no one work me LOL
- Delayed for 5 hours
Day 15:
- It’s kinda lonely in the sleeper train. Spending most of my time outside with the other passengers.
- Editing photos and videos!
Day 17:
- Back in Winnipeg
Day 18:
- Back in ATL
Bye bears!
This looks amazing! The shot of the mother and her two cubs is just astounding.
What an incredible trip! Every photo you shared was even better than the last. Like literally it kept getting better and better, holy cow. Loved reading about it as always 😁