Homeward Bound

It was time to head home. The aurora season's learning vacations had ended, and it was time to say goodbye as we prepared to board the train. I have to include just two final photos from Churchill. The Aurora Festival was just beginning in town, and there is always an impressive snow sculpture. This year, it was a fox with ptarmigan. The other photo below is of a scene that always makes me chuckle. This is the local grocery store in the cereal aisle, where you can also pick up your new snowmobile and a Canada Goose jacket for top notch warmth.

We left Churchill, Manitoba and headed south to Winnipeg on the train. Once again, we camped out at the Hotel Fort Garry, one of our favorite haunts.

The structure on the right is the Human Rights Museum which we visited last year. On the left is a foot bridge across the Red River over to the section of Winnipeg known as Saint Boniface.

This year we rented a car as well, so we were able to get around the city a bit more easily. One afternoon, we did a short walking excursion to a subsection of Winnipeg called St. Boniface which is on the other side of road if you are facing the scene above.. Saint Boniface is the French section of the city with lots of history attached to it. This area has retained a lot of old world charm, and feels like a comfortable place to call your home. As you cross the Red River, the first thing you see is the facade of St Boniface cathedral which was built in 1906 but destroyed by fire in 1968. Within the shell of the old cathedral, there is now a smaller, more intimate church with some very lovely modern stained glass. I just watched a Youtube video which was very interesting. If you would like to know more about this historic church, try out this link. St Boniface Basilica, Winnipeg, Manitoba

Facade of the 1908 cathedral which was all that remained after the fire in 1968.

This model shows the original cathedral

On our walk through Saint Boniface, we found a sculpture garden beside the town hall. The wolf begged us to pay attention. Below are some words written by the sculptor.

Our big outing this year was to the Assiniboine Zoo in Winnipeg. Much to our surprise, we found ourselves back in Churchill- at the zoo's exhibit! There was a fantastic display about life in Churchill including its land, culture, and wildlife.

Of course a big part of this was the polar bear display. Just as you can walk through a shark tunnel at Sea World, here you could walk through a tunnel/cave of polar bears swimming all around you. I was mesmerized. The bears have mostly come from Churchill- bears needing a new home and a second chance. Also in the same area, there was a tank with seals. The polar bears and the seals were quite interested in each other, or at least the bears were interested in the seals. The seals were all rescue animals who also were in need of a special home.

We went into an information room on polar bears, and who did we find but our friend Dr. Nick Lunn! We were so excited to see Nick in Churchill at CNSC to continue is field work  in studying the Western Hudson Bay polar bear population. We were even more surprised to find him in Winnipeg at the zoo! Well, sort of.

With our rental car, we traveled out to Ste Rita to visit our friends Roger and Dawn. We met Roger in 2013 when we first came up for the aurora season. Roger (Starman) Woloshyn was leading the groups and troops that year. On the first day I met Roger, I told him about how surprisingly drawn I had felt to the northern landscape. Roger told me this is the "Lure of the North". He has been so right on that! Once we found Ste Rita, which did not seem to exist on our rented Garmin, we were treated to a feast of home made ribs, coleslaw, and two types of pierogis.

Looking for beauty in the delay

More packing and we were off to the Winnipeg airport very early on Thrsday morning. Due to an unexpected ice storm in Toronto, we ended up extending our journey for two unplanned days. Many of our friends gave us wonderful ideas for our day exploring Toronto. We made a valiant attempt to reach the CN tower and almost got there. I have to say that Toronto seemed a very beautiful city with lots of glass towers around every corner. How do they keep them all looking so clean? Unfortunately, we were underdressed for our city excursion. We underestimated the cold and wind, and so we headed back to our hotel. Evidently we learned nothing about dressing appropriately from our time up north.

Our first glimpse of the CN Tower

Once again, we are left with the gift of so many special memories- auroras, Hudson Bay, dogsledding, boreal forest excursions, and so much more. The landscape and the auroras may have lured us back to the north, but it is the people we've met that keep us coming. We'll be back, one way or another.

Just thought it was fitting to end with a favorite aurora scene- 2016! CNSC back yard (northerly view)

More Memories (and photos) of Northern Lights

Thanks to digital photography and wonderful cameras, we are able to come home with some incredible photographic memories. I’ve shared some in earlier blog posts, but I’ve found so many more that are worthy of sharing. Some of these are mine and some are Brian's.

First, I should say that on nights when the aurora is less active, I am a much more successful photographer. When it suddenly becomes very bright or starts to move very fast, I can never get the camera settings changed quickly enough! So there is a trade-off. The camera allows me to capture the color and movement of the lights when they are building up to something special. Without the camera, I would not be able to see the layers of light in the ribbons, and the billowing waves of energy in the tall curtains. 

At times there are faint auroras. These might be as the lights begin or calm down at the end of the show. Sometimes there is a hint of aurora, but then it dissipates. With the camera's eye, I can glimpse the structure and color of the aurora just as a microscope opens up a world we cannot see.

This was on a night of full moon, wispy clouds and a slight aurora- still beautiful!

When the light show really starts, I tend to put down the camera and just enjoy the moment, for the experience of standing outside under the aurora to see the silent beauty of the moving lights is awesome in the true sense of the word. I hope you will all get to stand under the aurora to see the dancing northern lights.

This view of the aurora is to the southeast. In Churchill where we are located right under the auroral oval, you might see the aurora in any direction! Throughout the night it usually changes.

Although this radio tower is seldom the focus of my photos, on this night the aurora literally seemed to be swirling about it, even more so to my own eyes. 

Hudson Bay Memories

The town of Churchill sits right on Hudson Bay with the town beach being my favorite and most accessible spot.  CNSC is about 14 miles out of town with the whole drive being along the coast. On any trip to town, I soak in the view. I also try to get to the beach for what I call “a beach day”. This year’s visit was on a day of blue skies, reasonable temperatures, and very little wind. The Inuksuk which sits on the edge of the town beach is always one of my favorite sites. Above you see it at sunset, and below you see it on our sunny beach day.

On one of our last days in the town of Churchill, our friend Laura let us use her vehicle for the day. We took the opportunity to take a leisurely drive along the bay. Brian let me stop and get out as many times as I wished so I could get my fill of the stark beauty.

I'm standing next to this peak to give a bit of perspective to the size of these ice/snow hummocks.

Brian liked the pattern created by blowing snow.

All the while, he was keeping his eye out for polar bears as we had found these tracks the week before! Yes, a polar bear was on his/her way to the ice. After coming up for 4 years, this is the first time I have ever seen the tracks of a bear. They are very unlikely to be anywhere other than the sea ice hunting for seals.

We also got to attend the Hudson Bay Quest, a dog sledding race from Churchill to Gillam. It is a 220 mile race over tundra and through boreal forest terrain. This year there were 10 teams, and the race was set to start in Churchill right across from the bay. The start time was scheduled for about 9:30am and each team was set to leave two minutes apart. Doing the math, this was going to be a short send-off and it was. It was all over by about 10:00. The weather was perfect this year for the race with a little bit of new snowfall in the previous week. We all were very excited about getting out to see the start of this impressive race. For those unfamiliar with the race, it is a qualifier for the Iditarod.

Race Marshall

I'll end this post with two weather related photos that are directly connected to Churchill's location on the coast of Hudson Bay. First, Hudson Bay freezes over completely each winter as well as melting completely each summer. During winter, it is a regular occurrence for a lead to open up in the ice on Hudson Bay. I believe that in Churchill, a lead (open water) is likely to open up after a period of persistent southerly winds. With the open water, a great amount of moisture is released into the atmosphere, causing these clouds referred to as Ice Smoke sometimes. The photo below doesn't look exactly like it, but it was the best opportunity for the photo.

And finally, on one of our last days in Churchill, we woke up to find a heavy coating of hoarfrost on every tree branch and bush. It was spectacular. I hadn't realized it, but evidently the beauty was due to both the extra moisture in the air from an open lead plus an unusually wind free evening. Here is a bush we passed on our walk to breakfast at Gypsy's in town.

Bonus Night of Northern Lights

After the amazing lights on Monday night March 14th, we said goodbye to our last Arctic Skies group. On Tuesday night, there were only a handful of us left at CNSC- a very quiet place now. According to aurora forecasts, there was a stream of solar wind hitting Earth and probability was high for a great night of auroras. We kept looking out at the clear skies, until eventually everyone went to bed. Three of the younger crowd headed out to sleep in an igloo, and Brian headed to sleep.

Phil and two others slept here

I took one last look near midnight and the dancing lights appeared. No one left in the building wanted to get up, so I had the moment completely to myself. I did a little photographing outside, but I decided to opt for the comfort of the dome. As the colors started to dance and dart, almost like a beam of light from above, I had a 360 degree view of the heavens in complete comfort.

I brought the camera to the dome, something I've never done before. This is usually not a practical or polite thing to do with anyone else trying to share the space, but that night it did not matter. It was so much fun to experiment with ISO and with shutter speed with warm fingers. My photography skills are sadly lacking when it comes to a fast and active aurora, so usually I just look up and take it all in without fussing with the camera. In these photos (except for the ones at the top of the post, you see the lights dancing from the highest point at CNSC in the aurora dome.

Snow sculpture outside the igloo