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.