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.
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| 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.
