Judd, Bears and Belugas

July 12, 2019

Today was a good day to be oriented to Churchill.  We did not have any tours or excursions planned until the early afternoon.  We felt this would be a good time to roam through town and get to know Churchill better. It was also an opportunity for Debbie to visit the various gift shops in town. 

We enjoyed a great breakfast in the resort and then set out to explore the town.  The Lazy Bear Lodge is near the end of main street and is sort of on the edge of the town. Directly on one side is a large building that is used by Lazy Bear Resort for some of their equipment.  On the other side is the helipad for Churchill Helicopters.  It provides aerial tours of Churchill and area as well as polar bear sighting.  The conservation branch in its transportation of problem bears and general polar bear research also uses them.

We walked slowly down mainstreet, looking at the various sights and stopping at the shops as we went.  We stopped into the local RCMP detachment to visit with the members, however, the only member on duty was out on patrol.  We spoke to Kim, the civilian employee there and she explained that Churchill is relatively a calm community and the members are not overworked.  One gets that impression as we got to know more about the community. 

 One interesting feature is that main street, has an interlocking brick sidewalk beside the street on one side and the other side is dedicated for the travel of ATVs and quad’s and in the winter, snowmobiles.  The majority of the travel about town is either by vehicle or ATV. They are not driven on the street, but rather alongside the street.  Several of the other motels, hotels and lodges have small transit type buses for their tours.  We learned that there are only two licensed mechanics in the town and one is over 70 years old and not interested in fixing the computer equipped newer models.  If your vehicle breaks down you can take it to the local shop but it may take weeks or months for the new part to arrive and to be fixed.  Parts etc. are shipped by train from Winnipeg.   The locals take this in stride as part of the normal life in Churchill.

At one point we walked to the edge of town and I wanted to go to a point of high land to look out on Hudson Bay and look at the landscape. Debbie became quite adamant that we should not go any further and we had a bit of a discussion about that.  I was to learn later that she was absolutely right, as there are warnings for folks not to go to certain areas alone without an armed bear sentry. I apologized for that idea….

We walked to the community beach and looked out over the Bay. You could see the white bodies of the beluga surfacing all over the bay.  It was simply a constant sighting of white whales.  Hudson Bay has a population of approximately 60 to 80 thousand whales and their favorite summer place is the area around Churchill and the Churchill River estuary.  Belugas are a northern whale and they migrate to Churchill to have their babies and rear their young before migrating back north in the winter. We learned that the ice came off of the river in the last week of June.  Canada Day in Churchill is celebrated with a “polar bear” swim and the folks go for their first swim in the bay!

We stopped in to the Eskimo Museum.  The Museum is dedicated to the Inuit life and culture. It features many indigenous carvings and the many interesting tools, clothing and hunting weapons of the Inuit. The curator gave a very informative presentation about the various aspects in the museum.  

It was time for lunch and we walked back to the resort. The resort divides the guests into groups and gives them a northern animal name.  Our group was called Red Fox.  Our tour this afternoon was a cultural and heritage tour.  We met in the lobby and there was approximately eleven in our group.  We were to be driven to the various places on a converted school bus.  

Our guide dedicated to our group was an energetic lady by the name of Judd.  She burst into the lobby and announced herself by saying, “Hello Red Fox, I’m Judd, your guide for the week!”  Judd is 40ish, with long brunette dreadlocks with a small conch shell entwined in them, dangling earrings, beaded bracelets, wearing capris, a long sleeve shirt rolled up ¾ length and wearing open work boots without laces.

Judd has lived in Churchill for eight years.  She is a qualified guide, and after her first impression on me drifted away, Judd became an absolute joy to have as a guide.  Her interest in life, culture, animals and plants of Churchill was infectious.  Besides being a guide for Lazy Bear Resort, Judd has several other jobs that keep her employed and she is basically a fixture in Churchill.  Before coming to Churchill Judd lived in Vancouver, guided in fishing camps on the west coast and worked on fish boats.  Her parents live in Nanoose, B.C.

Our tour consisted of a slow drive through the Port of Churchill, where Judd explained the development of the port back in the 1930s to today.  We drove past some of the left over relics of the residences of the workers and builders of the port.  She explained that although these relics look “untidy” the fact is that it costs too much to clean up or remove so they are left to disintegrate naturally.   

We visited the site of Cape Merry.  Before we exited the bus, Judd explained that everywhere we go this week she would be carrying a shotgun.  It is loaded with flares and “bear bangers”. She explained that polar bears are very hard to see on the tundra.  Even though they are large, they are not generally white.  She would go out first and scope the area before calling us out of the bus.  She did this at every site we visited.  

Cape Merry is at the mouth of the Churchill River.  It had been built by the Hudson’s Bay Company to protect the actual fort that was situated across the river.  There were several cannons placed in the thick rock walls of the cannon battery.  Judd explained that the battery was actually built by employees of the Hudson’s Bay Company and as a result was not really an effective security as the employees were not soldiers, and did not think like soldiers.  The result was that one of the cannons was actually placed pointing at the Trading Fort across the river!   The site overlooks the Bay and you could see the belugas swimming.   Judd stopped many times on our hike to show us the many tiny flowers and plants that grew out of the rocks and lichens.  The growing season for these plants is about six weeks. She explained how some were used for medicinal purposes and which ones were edible.  (Judd did mention that before she arrived in Churchill she was a vegetarian, however she quickly had to change her diet for lack of vegetables.) She was so informative and interesting.

At one point she stopped the bus to point out an Arctic Hare.  It was sitting on a rock and looked at us for quite a while before scurrying off.  Judd told us that these hares change to a pure white color in winter. When you approach them they stay completely still because they think you don’t see them.  In the summer they turn a grey color and they still think they are camouflaged and you can almost walk up to them.  Later, she suddenly stopped the bus when she saw a Ptarmigan sitting in the bushes.  As we watched, Judd became very excited because the Ptarmigan had four chicks with her. She said that she had never seen Ptarmigan chicks before.  

We then visited the site of a plane crash.  The wreck is affectionately referred to as “Miss Piggy” as the nose cone is missing.  She explained that the plane was a transport plane that was fully loaded and had just left the Churchill airport when it experienced mechanical difficulty and the pilots where successful in belly flopping the plane onto the rocks.  No one was injured and most of the cargo was salvaged.  A mural has since been painted on the side of the plane and it has now become an attraction that tourists can clamber onto.

We then visited the Polar Bear Holding Facility, commonly known as the Polar Bear Jail.  The building is a converted airplane hangar.  It contains 25 holding pens inside.  Judd told us that when polar bears come into town, conservation officers chase them out. There are also four employees of the town who are full time polar bear sentries.  When a bear is spotted, alarms are set off and the team goes into action. The bear is tranquilized and transported to the “jail”.  They are keep in custody for about 30 days or more and then transported many miles north and placed back on the ice floes.  With the receding ice, bears are commonly found in Churchill, (200 last year!).  They are usually not white but a brown color because they lay in the mud and dirt. They do not eat, as they live solely off of their accumulated winter fat.  Although they are dangerous when confronted they are basically very lazy, and just want to “veg out” and wait for the return of the ice. All attempts are made not to destroy the bear.  Canada has 2/3 of the total world polar bear population. 

Judd pointed out the different murals on the buildings throughout Churchill.  In 2017, eighteen mural artists came to Churchill to paint these murals.  It was called “Seawalls Churchill”.  On one building the words “Know I’m Here” is painted on the side.   It refers to the documentary about the project, called, “Know I’m Here, Reason to Smile”, produced by CBC.

We returned to the resort for the evening.  We walked to the Tundra Inn, about three blocks away, to meet up with Traci and Max, and had dinner with them. We also met Ron and Chris from Ontario who were on the same tour as them. We compared our day’s events. They had one more day with their hotel and would be leaving by train the next day.  We said farewell to them all and walked back to the resort.  It had been a very interesting day.