Churchill, Manitoba Polar Bear Helicopter Tour

We had now seen two of the three advertised adventures on this trip. We still needed to see some polar bears. On our third day, we were treated to a helicopter tour in search of those bears. During the summer, the bears are spread out all over this northern area of Manitoba. As winter gets closer, they migrate closer together and head out onto the ice flows to hunt seals. There are tours later in the season focusing mainly on the bears and northern lights. I chose this time to tour because the beluga whales were also still here. 

Our pilot, Marcel

Neither of us had ever been in a helicopter before. The pilot asked if anyone wanted the front seat, and I had my hand up immediately. Kevin and another man were in the back seat. The rest of our group were in other choppers. It was a rather windy day, but the trip was actually quite smooth. Our first stop was to see a polar bear den. As we were approaching, I saw my first polar bear (or at least a polar bear shaped pond)!

Our pilot circled the area before landing making sure there were no bears in the area. He also had a shotgun with him as we got out and walked to the den. They keep a covering of orange snow fence material over the den. If that's been moved, they know a bear may be inside. The pilot crawled into the den to show us how big it is. Not very big for a mama bear and her cubs. 

There were lots of wild blueberry plants. I tried some, and they were quite tasty. The bears eat these during their waking hibernation time in the summer. 

The ground was very marshy and squishy, but our feet didn't get wet. This area is called taiga, the border before the tundra. Tundra doesn't have any trees. Taiga has mainly spruce trees, but they are rather scrawny. Most of them only have needles on one side, as wind strips them on their north sides.

Back up in the air, we were flying over some incredible scenery. I've never seen this type of landscape. But, still no bears.

As we approached, the coastline of the Hudson Bay, our pilot started pointing out some bears. What, where??? They were very hard to see. There were lots of white rocks along the shore. He did circle around, but by the time I saw them, we were moving on. I wish he would have hovered or circled several times. I did get a few pictures. Again, group members shared their pictures. It was so great to have several people taking pictures of the same scenes, so we could share the best of them with each other. I saw everything in these photos, but I didn't take them all. Luckily, this was not the only time we would see bears. We had one more adventure that took us to bears coming up!

As we headed back, we flew over this rusty shipwreck. The Ithaka was a cargo ship caught in a storm with 80 mile an hour winds in September of 1960. The captain dropped anchor, but the chain snapped, and the rudder was torn off. The ship ran aground, and the bottom was ripped off. It was determined to be a total loss, and has been sitting out there ever since. At low tide, you can walk to it. 

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!