Day 3 - Helicopter Plus

The weather clears on Friday, Day 3. We are scheduled for a chopper flight first thing in the morning. While twelve of the group are on helicopter tours in three helos, the remainder of the group is touring a nearby museum and getting a lecture from a local naturalist.

This is our chopper warming up in subzero weather. Do we really want to get on it?

Liftoff over the train line. There are no roads to Churchill. One either takes plane or a multiday train.

First bear found on the emerging sea ice.

The ice cover is beginning to form. In a few weeks the bears will be gone from Churchill having left for a winter on the ice catching and fattening up on seals. This bear approaching the forming sea ice is more difficult to see. It is almost dead center in the image, a white spot lumbering along toward the edge of the ice.

National Geographic had a research station at Churchill. At the base of the tower and in the lower right corner are two bear cages they used for their research. There are now more humane ways to conduct the same research.

Emerging sea ice and Hudson Bay in the background.

Wreck.

More emerging sea ice.

Carol's view from the front. Lowest weight gets front seat.

With the instrument panel, the taking of pictures from the front seat is not good.

I missed a pair of bears. The other couple spotted them and when the pilot orbited the site for me to see, it took me too long to pick up their location in the brush to get a shot.

Our group joins the others near the end of their presentation. CJ photographs the museum. The first the inside of a tee pee.

We have some time to kill on the way to lunch so they show us the Hudson Bay side of Churchill. There are fresh bear tracks, hence the purpose of the sign.