Polar Bear Alley

This is a collection of northern stories - polar bear, arctic and otherwise from churchill, manitoba, canada - the polar
bear capital of the world.

It follows the polar bears of western Hudson Bay during their season on land from mid-July to November.

Churchill Travel Guide
Hotels in Churchill, Manitoba
Travel to Churchill, Manitoba
Polar Bear Alley Expeditions

Polar Bears of Churchill Book
Polar Bears of Churchill Facts

Polar Bear Photo Gallery
Beluga Whale Photo Gallery
Polar Bear News 
Polar Bear Attack Page

Munck's Cafe Publishing

Weather in Churchill, Manitoba

Hudson Bay Sea Ice Update

Tide Table for Churchill

Churchill Aurora Forecast

Polar Bear Blog

Today's Blog 
December 1-10, 2006
November 20-30, 2006
November 5-20, 2006
October 27-Nov5, 2006
October 19-26, 2006
October 9-18, 2006
October 1-October 9, 2006
Sept 24-October 1, 2006
Sept 15-23, 2006
Sept 1-8, 2006
August 20-31, 2006
August 8-17, 2006
August 1-8, 2006  
July 25-31, 2006  
July 18-24, 2006   
July 12-17, 2006   
July 2006   
June 2006  
May 2006 
Archived articles

Polar Bear Blog - Cold Snap - January 12th, 2007

Back in Churchill and back to cold, around -30C today.We are expecting a winter storm tonite that is bringing a -57C windchill with it, the kind of cold that makes vehicles feel ill. Probably a good night to stay home and keep the woodstove cookin'. There are worse fates.

Still a few hoary redpolls flittering around - tiny little birds, only five or six inches long, a mix of brown and grey with a little splash of red on the top of their little heads. They spend most if not all of the winter here. Pretty incredible to think that they can actually stay warm on a day like this...

Polar Bear Blog - PS128 is Great - January 10th, 2007

So, winter is kind of my time to really catch up on work and set up the schedule/plans/pies in the sky for the coming year so updates to the polar bear blog are going to be a bit erratic, shall we say.

I am still in Winnipeg, having recently returned from Jamaica! Jamaica New York that is... still quite exotic to me (and traumatic and claustrophobic and exciting). We travelled down south to do a school presentation at a couple of schools and then travelled around 'the city' for a bit. It was very neat but exhausting - there are a lot of people doing a lot of things all the time there.

Finishing up a few more tour itineraries for next summer and writing the next edition of the Hudson Bay Post so things are crazy as usual - but in the meantime, check out the Prairie Pathfinders website to see our first tour listing for 2007!

Polar Bear Blog - The Real Polar Bear Alley - January 2nd, 2007

I finally walked the length of polar bear alley on New Year's Eve, basically walking to town from the cabin. It is still as nice as ever, a few new tire tracks but that is hard to avoid when people are around. Its just such a neat feeling to spend a day walking along the Arctic Ocean, frozen or not.

Winter is pretty awesome here, especially this year with temperatures being as moderate as they are (they are predicting a high of -3C today which besides being 20C above normal would also be a new record!).

I set out around 2pm for a four hour sunset hike. Hiking in the rainforest was kind of a scary thing at sunset, the jungle closes in as the sun hits the horizon, variably moving, howling, screeching and farting its way to life. This new and more nefarious level of activity and a drastic decrease in visibility was a sure sign to head back to the safety of home, or in our case, ecolodge.

In contrast, there is a strange sense of freedom that sunset brings to the arctic. We have a long sunset up here, one that ploddingly chases shadows back over the horizon, during which they highlight a variety of animal tracks, ice ridges and snowdrifts. After continually changing through the day, the landscape settles into a uniform expanse of white (actually blue) as night finally returns.

With so much snow and ice, the moon and star light is easily reflected and makes hiking pretty fun after dark. Ravens perform one last fly-by, heading back to their roosts, to sit and gossip about today's carrion; a fox or two emerge and tag along, waiting for you to stir up some prey or simply exercising their rite of curiosity.

Of course, today I am still a little sore from my first real winter hike and most of the winter, I am chained to this computer... so here is a link to the flood map for Churchill, for your digital amusement. A friend of mine emailed it to me after watching an 'Inconvenient Truth', its fun... you can see how much the coastline will flood if the sea level rises (as is predicted by several global warming computer models). You can even control the sea level yourself! Who says global cataclysm isn't fun?

Of course, he also observed that investment property at 'The Flats' along the Churchill River is probably not a great long-term investment. (It is located at the spot on the east shore of the Churchill River - just south of Cape Merry and Churchill itself) Don't get too worked up though computers have been wrong before.

Although... the radio just announced that it is going to be +4C in Winnipeg today which is pretty unheard of... considering they just got 20cm of snow and now its melting maybe investment property in Churchill is not such a bad idea. I'm going to head out, find a nice high spot around here and stake my claim. Or maybe just start building my ark.

Polar Bear Blog - Walkin' the Dogs - December 30th, 2006

I think every year I head out for my first winter hike without my snowshoes. I get them ready and then just inevitably do not put them on. Of course, I also cut short my first good winter hike because I keep forgetting that not all of the snow drifts are hard enough to walk over.

So, I did not make my twenty kilometres today. Of course, if you include trudging horizontal, vertical and zigzagonal through snow, I may have come close. The trail is still not mapped today but it was a nice walk nonetheless. The snow is really getting sculpted by the wind, leaving long, straining vee-shaped drifts along the tundra. Any blip on the landscape creates a drifts, some are twelve feet deep, some twelve inches.

A good south wind is pestering the trees and pushing the snow back to the bay that the last north wind pushed into the trees and will likely do again once the south wind dies down; an inverted tug-of-war that carries on through winter up here, a struggle that the north wind inevitably wins.

With prevailing northwest winds up here, our trees all lean south; today looking like determined commuters, stooping against the breeze. Of course, they are not moving, I may hear voices but I don't think the trees move. They are just clinging to the peat with shallow, gnarled roots, waiting for the north wind to return and make their lives even more miserable.

Polar Bear Blog - Feeling Threatened - December 29th, 2006

Christmas chaos is over and I am back at Camp Nanuq. Getting ready to map out our hiking trails for next year, heading out on a 20km hike tomorrow (theoretically) and try out my new GPS. There are a few foxes and arctic hares still around and the weather is pretty awesome - cold and clear - so it should be a good day.

Been hearing a lot about polar bears being officially listed as a 'threatened' species these days. Of course, I have mixed feelings about that. On the one hand, it is good because it is raising awareness about climate change and the arctic and the importance of sustainable living. But on the other hand, this listing is really going to hurt many of the northern communities that rely on hunting as a means of revenue.

I am not a hunter but after living in the north, you come to understand its role up here and that it is as much a fact of life up here as Wal-Mart is down south (I am not a Wal-Marter either). The problem with this listing is that sport hunters will likely no longer be able to hunt polar bears in the Canadian arctic. This sounds good on the surface but really will not make a difference for polar bear populations at all. Inuit communities establish hunting quotas for polar bears and then decide whether the 'tags' will be used by local hunters or made available to sport hunters.

The threatened status will eliminate sport hunting in Canada . It will not affect the number of bears harvested but will prevent any part of a threatened species from crossing the border. Polar bears are still a status symbol and a part of Inuit heritage to hunt polar bears and quotas will still be filled in each community except now they will have less opportunity to make much needed revenue from these hunts. Strange to write a pro-hunting, anti-'conservation' entry but there are not many options for these communities.

What exactly is this listing going to do other than take more revenue opportunities away from small, northern communities? Not much it seems, they have identified that 'subsistence hunting' is not a threat and that 'oil and gas exploration' is not a threat (it never is) but melting ice due to global warming is the real threat.

So what now - strict industrial emissions controls, mandate public transit, ban the car? (hey, its possible, New York banned transfats...). Well, first there will be a twelve month review and then more consultations and then hopefully the ice will have disappeared by then and we can deal with something else. Maybe, we could hold off on Saddam's execution and somehow blame global warming on him - he did set fire to all those oilfields... In the meantime, the only real result of this listing will be less money for Inuit communities unless, of course, an oil exploration company sets up in their neighbourhood.

PBS Interview With Dirk Kempthorne and Andrew Wetzler

Voice of America Report

CBC Article and Your View

Polar Bear Blog - Solstice, Mental Blocks and the Revenge of Camp Nanuq - December 21st, 2006

It is 4:27pm on December 21st, the winter solstice, and the last sliver of sunset is slithering over the horizon. The sun officially 'set' at 3:22 today but thanks to our northern location, the sunrises and sunsets are always unbelievably long up here - a nice treat when it adds two hours of sunlight to the shortest day of the year.

The shortest day of the year gets even better when you get your internet back up and running after two months!!! Yes, we are transmitting from Camp Nanuq Cottage Subdivision, 20kilometres east of Churchill, 1000 kilometres north of Winnipeg, Manitoba.

We lost signal in a windstorm in mid-October and since I have this incredible mental block against all things accounting and techonological (into which Telesat internet dishes fall), I managed to put off actually attempting to reconnect the dish for two months. Don't ask me why.. although the fact that my frustration level goes from 0-60 in about 9.79 seconds as soon as ANYTHING goes even partially not right may have something to do with it.

Anyway, I'm back (although I am headed to Riverton on Saturday for Christmas - maybe I'll do a Pickerel Blog for the few days I'm there, hard to say) and I should have a bunch of Churchill, Camp Nanuq and Costa Rica updates updated by the end of tonight.

Official darkness at 4:41pm. Official song for the winter solstice is the Hidden Cameras' title track 'Awoo', because that's what I said when my internet came home.

Also, check out the new Polar Bear Alley Frequently Asked Questions Section for tips on how to shoot polar bears without being decapitated or mauled!

Polar Bear Blog vs. Poison Dart Frog Blog - Old Wives Are Right - December 19th, 2006

Update from the cabin - still no internet out here but I might as well write this anyway and post it tomorrow. Looks like old wives or I guess technically, it would be old sailors' tales are right. Our red sky in the morning is turning into a blizzard at midnight a day later.

The red sky in the morning saying comes from the fact that if the sky is red in the morning it usually means there are clouds reflecting the sunlight and weather moving in, usually from the west - if they were moving in from the east, you probably wouldn't see the sunrise too well because clouds are covering it. Got it? Good.

So, even though this saying originated with British sailors it is still applicable in Churchill - at least for a few more weeks. The air coming from the west (or even the south) is warmer than the air hanging over the ice on the bay so once those clouds or breeze or whatever passes over Churchill and hits the bay, the wind usually changes and pushes it right back over the land. When that happens, it warms up, turns into clouds and dumps snow on our happy little home. Of course, as winter continues and more ice and snow cover the ground, reflecting back the light and its warmth, this effect takes hold less and less until by February and March, it does not really snow that much. Even this storm will likely be mild compared to the 30cm snowfall we had just prior to our Playa Nicuesa trip.

Down there, this seemed to apply as well (not that we really saw the sunrise with all the trees and leaves and fruit in the way...sigh...) A breeze coming off the water, whose temperatures was 20C instead of 1C, would eventually drag an afternoon rain storm over the mountain tops. The warm air would rise with the mountain elevation, turn into clouds and then head back down the mountain, carrying bundles and bundles of rain.

Polar Bear Blog - Back Up Nort' - December 18th, 2006

This is not the tropics but its good to be back, even if it is -35C windchill and the sun sets at 3pm and all my firewood is buried underneath a cement-like layer of snow. It hadn't really sunk in until a $90 fillup for our Toyota and $25 worth of juice and bacon at the Northern Store, welcomed me home.

If old wives can be trusted, then our red sky this morning should mean snow tonite or tomorrow. Mmm, shovelling snow...

Oh, and plugging in the truck, I forgot about that one. In northern Canada, we plug in our vehicles, not because they are all eco-freako electric vehicles but because nothing will start if you don't have a block heater. A block heater keeps the oil and to some extent the engine warm and easier to start. Of course, once it is started, you have to let it run for twenty or thirty minutes so it will 'warm up'. Then, you can finally head in to town and buy a $6 tomato.

As for everyone else who knows what plugging your truck in means, here's a sea ice update. About 2/3 of the bay is covered (Hudson Bay map), a pretty good indication of the winter territory of Churchill's polar bears. They usually stick around the west half of the bay, only a few miles out looking for seals and waiting out blizzards.

Joe Stover returns to Radio Churchill on this Wednesday at 9:00pm - stay tuned...!

Polar Bear Blog - It was the Blurst of Times - December 11th, 2006

Well, back to reality. Catching up on work in Winnipeg - writing, quoting, billing and getting billed, talking about biodiesel off-road vehicles and dreaming of opening an ecolodge in Churchill. After travelling through Costa Rica, it is very apparent how far away from real ecotourism we are in Churchill. I mean, we have a great product -how can you go wrong with polar bears and northern lights and beluga whales - but in terms of the true tenets of ecotourism, we could do a lot better.

For example, Playa Nicuesa is built from government approved harvested wood and fallen trees, employs 98% local guides and employees, operates on solar power (and is hoping to upgrade their backup generator to biodiesel), uses filtered runoff water and utilizes recycled and organic products throughout as much of its daily operations as possible. Even the neighbouring town of Puerto Jiminez has started a recycling program, a project developing from the grassroots and up.

It is just a simple commitment to spending a little extra money, cutting into the bottom line just a little bit, to make a real difference.