Day 4 - Dog Sledding & Helicopter Ride
Monday, November 11 (Rembrance Day)
Today we spent the morning in and around Churchill.
First we went out to Cape Merry where the Churchill River (fresh water) meets Hudson's Bay (saltwater). It was the coldest it place we’ve been yet (mostly because of the wind). The bear monitors were out wearing their orange vests as is typical this time of year.
Murals
In 2017 there was a flood that took out the railroad tracks right before an art festival was to take place featuring the work of mural artists. Since there are no roads in or out of Churchill, this limited their ability to get art supplies and participants to the town for the festival. As different government agencies argued over whose responsibility it was to fix the railway, the months passed, the town began to feel forgotten, and their quality of life suffered. And so the mural art festival became important as a morale boost for the town. The CBC made a documentary about it.
Dog Sledding!
We went to Wapusk Adventures to meet “Big Dog” Dave who began and still runs this amazing place. They have 43 dogs they care and train who pull sleds and win long distance races all over Canada. Mom and I were on a sled together and this was such a highlight for me that I might have cried a little when we took off into the boreal forest behind those six sweet doggos with our musher, Emma.
Helicopter Ride
After lunch mom and I and two others from our group went on an hour long helicopter ride over the tundra. (There were 3 of us in the chopper plus the pilot.) And while we did see 16 bears from the sky, they were really just small dots on the land and difficult to see, and nearly impossible to photograph. What I most appreciated about the flight was seeing the terrain from above, and how the ice was beginning to form in the bay. The tundra has a lot of small bodies of water - ponds, small lakes - now frozen, and the shape the snow and rocks and shrubbery among the water gave the effect of a painting.
Our flight got a little spicy when mom’s door flew open while we were in the air. I quickly unbuckled my seat belt and reached across her to grab the handle to try to re-latch it. The pilot was telling me which way to turn it, and it just wouldn’t latch! So, I held it closed as best I could while reaching across her while the pilot looked for a place to land that was free of bears. He brought the heli down onto a little spit of land, got out and came around to our side to close and latch the door for us. We then took off to continue our search for wildlife! Thank goodness Mom and I are both calm in a crisis!
In the evening we went out in the rover for a little dinner party on the tundra; after which we went in search of the aurora borealis again. All in all, a pretty spectacular day.
Tomorrow we have one more day out on the tundra before returning home.