Day: 123

Polar bear in camp!

Temperature: 15F

Location: Committe Bay

Latitude: 67deg 36' 59

Longitude: 86deg 17' 16

Distance Traveled: 18 miles

A pretty exciting day for us. In the morning we had a visitor come into the camp, about five minutes before we were going to exit the tents. Timber, who is our bear alert dog, started growling. We looked out of the tents and about ten feet from the dogs was a large male polar bear. The tents were fairly close to the bear, and it was amazing how silent it had approached.

The bear was more curious than anything. It took a little bit to chase it away. We shot some flares in the air and shot the gun over its head and made a bunch of noise. The bear just sort of lumbered away, looking back, letting us know that this was his territory and we were on his territory.

There was really no danger, though there could have been if the bear was hungry. But this time of year they are pretty full, as there are a lot of seals in the open water.

I’ve been in a lot of situations where polar bears have been around. And the big problem with them is their curiosity. They are most curious about the dogs, and if you let them they will come bat the dogs around, or play with them. And that is when they start getting themselves into trouble. Although I never trust a bear, not even a black bear, and we always have the proper protection. A rifle, just in case their is a charging bear or a real emergency. I’ve never had much of a problem with a polar bear, other than its curiosity.

But I have had problems with grizzly bears, a couple of close calls in my life. And I am more afraid of the brown bears and the Barrenland bears than I am of the polar bear. But today was very exciting, especially for Aaron and Eric, for this was their first encounter with a polar bear.

That was the start of the day. We then traveled about eight miles across Committee Bay, the ice gradually getting better and better. Then we entered into a very narrow canyon. High walls and very steep snow drifts on either side. I am outside now because I couldn’t get any reception in the canyon. So I walked up to a knoll, and am looking down on the camp with the three tents, three sleds, and the dogs all stretched out. It is really quite a beautiful sight.

We have perpetual light now. The sun is about 20 degrees above the horizon, at nine p.m. There is a little bit of a high fog, kind of clear blue above it. The temperature is about 15 degrees Fahrenheit, which for us is very warm. There is now wind blowing, and it is an absolutely perfect evening. The dogs are very still, most of them are sleeping, though a few are up and kind of poking around.

We are right at a fork in this canyon, and we will try to take the smaller fork that goes to the northeast tomorrow. If we can’t get through it we are going to have a major problem. So tomorrow will be full of adventure. And if we can get through the mountains here, we should have pretty clear sailing to Iglulik.