The grid across the top of the page has one photo for each day of the trip. This page tell you what happened when.
In the fifties, the polar bear at Denver zoo was a great favorite with me. Too young then for the complex questions of the role of zoos.
At the start of August, there were three places to go on my "bucket list"... with Churchill Manitoba by far the one that had been there the longest.
August 20th started as an entirely ordinary day. I was coming up to a busy time in the normal routine of my year, but things were as close to under control as they ever are.
And then I got the email
(More on it later... in a nutshell... did I want to go to Churchill... on 4 September?)
At first, it was a possibility of a place on the trip. Thankfully, the people organizing it are very good about quick email turn-around, and we went from a possibility to something being planned very quickly.
What was this trip to be? Some of you will know that early September is not the time to go to Churchill. More on the bears' annual cycle later. But I was accompanying a film crew: Presenter, primary cameraman/ director, and camera "B" cameraman. They were going to Churchill to film it before the ice and snow... I'm liking this plan!... and to film a bear biologist doing his work... much more on that later.
3 Sept: 08:25: Left house.. nice civilized hour!
3 Sept: 14:30: Takeoff from Hartford's airport, en route to Toronto. Changed to a plane for Winnipeg. Overnight at airport there.
4 Sept: Woke 04:50... not unusual or hard for me to rise early. I may not be "rested", but getting up beats tossing and turning, frustrated that I can't get back to sleep.
Good omen!.... walking though parking garage, from hotel to terminal, I encountered this magnificent creature... 
4 Sept: 05:45: Met up with Chris, Karel and Dean at the check in desk, where they (and a very nice lady from the airline, Calm Air) were struggling valiantly with getting the extensive and expensive gear on board our plane to Churchill.
4 Sept: about 07:50: Takeoff from Winnipeg. The adventure begins.
4 Sept: 09:50: We'd been flying over and in overcast for some time. Significant icing on wing. Plane descending into ever thicker overcast. When we came out, the ground seemed awfully close. I was trying to allow for the fact that trees up in the arctic are stunted, and there was nothing "human" to give the scene scale. We seemed very low!
4 Sept: 09:55: Landed. Entirely safely, I'm, sure. But the weather was not propitious for film making! However, it wasn't raining. (Slight drizzle on and off, though. About 50 degrees, and stiff wind.)
4 Sept: 10:00: Met by a very nice lady who handed over a suburban to us... and undertook to start spreading word of my shareware gift offer around town. I met her again when going out (and remembered name, job!) I assumed she was meeting another vehicle renter, but discovered she was a fellow passenger on the flight "out". If you want to rent a vehicle in Churchill, you could do worse than Tamarak!
4 Sept: Morning: Into town. Bags to rooms. Polar Inn and Suites. Lunch at THE Gypsy Bakery... more on this later!...
4 Sept: Afternoon: Chris and Karel to helicopter office, to discuss needs, meet pilots, etc. Dean and I hung out, and later went on to helicopter office, met with the pilot who would be flying the four of us, and had our safety briefing.
4 Sept: Afternoon, continued: Drove out Point Mary, to the NW of the center of town. Beautiful, even in... even more so in?... overcast and fog. Occasional breaks in the cloud brightened the scene and our already high spirits. The point is open, remote country, but with places bears could be lying up out of the wind. Even in Churchill, at this time of year, you need to remain intelligent, and not forget that you could meet a bear.
Chris had been a guide for several years in Churchill until 2005, so knew his way around. He is a warm, positive, friendly person, so many we met knew him and welcomed him back like "family".
On this outing, and constantly thereafter, Chris, Karel and Dean were always watching for the good things to photograph, the right locations for the various things they want in the film.
They will be back in November, to film other segments of the movie, so in addition to the usual needs, they were looking for places they could create good transition shots.
4 Sept: 21:30: "Home" to bed, after a nice dinner at the Seaport. We had made two stops at Gypsy Bakery, "The Place To Be" in the course of the day. Chris is blessed with a metabolism which allows... and the local weather requires... higher than usual caloric intake. The bathroom scales have just given me good news: The extra exercise and burning of calories to stay warm canceled out my extra indulgence. Whew. (It was never bitterly cold. I needed the clothes I'd brought, and was a little cold one particularly windy afternoon... but never uncomfortably so. And Chris noted that I was wearing all I had, and loaned me an extra parka, "in case".) If you come in October... come prepared. It can be very cold then. Temperature was around 50 on "cold" days... but with a stiff wind.)
5 Sept: 07:00: Woke easily, as indeed I did every day of the trip. Weather still overcast. Dramatic... but not ideal for filming!
5 Sept: 09:00: Set off with local guide Paul Ratson. I'm sure there are many good guides in Churchill, but Paul is certainly one of them. Lots of driving about, to the west of town, doing filming, planning filming. Paul very accommodating. Chris and Karel explained what they needed, and Paul took us to the right places.
And kept us safe. We didn't see bears... but were in places where we very well could have seen bears, and if inattentive or foolish, seen them up close and way too personal.
5 Sept: Early afternoon, we said goodbye to Paul, and had a late lunch, Gypsy Bakery. Then off around town. The film will not be just "the bears", but also the lives of people in bear country. Visited Eskimo Museum (very good), to talk with someone. I broke off and "invaded" school. to pass on software.
Re-connected at hotel, set off doing location shooting around town.
5 Sept: Late afternoon: Our first long session on the beach behind (north of) the civic center. My job: Bear watch.
5 Sept: 20:15: A tot of scotch... interesting "oaky" taste... to celebrate a very successful day, then off to Gypsy Bakery, my favorite, to recover calories, and enjoy ambience.
5 Sept: 22:00: Bed. Not exhausted, this night or any other... but didn't read book for long before passing out!
6 Sept: Early... My room overlooking a side street, and with the high latitude long twilight, slept behind good drapes. Got up, pulled them back, and saw, first (looking SW, to the right).....
... and, by turning to the left from first view...
Hurrah! We had a clear day! Not only would the images in our cameras be better, but we would be able to be out and about in the helicopters... which was, oh by the way, what we'd come for. Huge relief to the team. No one had whined, but the poor flying weather of the previous two days had been a worry. The weather remained good for the rest of our time.
6 Sept: By 10: We were out at the Northern Studies Center, east of town, meeting up with Nick Lunn, the bear biologist who was allowing us to film his work. I'll expand on that when I can! And the pilot and grad student working with Nick.
Set off east, going from "remote" to "very remote". Great fun just being in the helicopter! Let alone the landscape around us, the sea to the north, etc, etc.
6 Sept: 10:59: Over the radio, a call to our pilot, "Where are you? We've got a bear picked out. We'll wait for you.". (That "Where are you" was a request for information. We weren't "lost"!)
We soon saw the biologist's chopper up ahead, at the "corner" of land, east of Churchill. I'll write much more about this in due course.... for now... it all got very confused! Too many bears to keep track of them all. Six in the immediate area. These were the first we'd seen. One successfully darted, all according to plan, processed, or as it us usually called "handled", process filmed, etc, etc... done by about 13:00.
We knew... oh, did we know... more on this later... that at least one, probably several, other bears were close at hand. So Nick (wildlife biologist) and John set off to dart another. And they didn't go far! As I recall... I'll have to check notes better... we walked to where second bear was down, once the tranquilizer had taken effect.
Sept 6: 14:35: Nick darted the third bear of the day, after we'd made a refueling stop.
Down... but only just down. The first thing we did, once bear was safe to approach, was to put in a "recovery position". The bears' welfare was paramount at all times.
I had to "move" the bear on the right, for photographic reasons. And I can tell you... moving them with photo manipulation software is a lot easier than moving the real thing. One that was handled weighted slightly over 1000 lbs. (458kg)
Sept 6: 15:12: All of us but Nick, John, Allissa, just getting airborne after bear 3, when radio call came that bear 4 had been located.
Sept 6: 15:21: Waiting for tranquilizer to take effect.
Sept 6: 16:14: Camera chopper just lifting off, other chopper already on bear 5
Sept 6: En route home: Did aerial shots of the town, which took us to the west of town, over mouth of river... and so saw the belugas...
(I'm going to skimp a bit here.. you have the idea? And I want to get to adding photos.)
There's a story to go with that last picture. That is the full frame, from a 300mm lens. No... the bear is not very far away. And yes, he is taking an interest. No, he hasn't been tranquilized. And I, and the rest of the party, are on foot, out of the helicopters, miles from anywhere.... (No: We didn't have to hurt the bear, and he didn't hurt us. But it was a lesson in staying alert. We were alert... but this little encounter made it easy to stay alert.)
Sept 7th: Much like 6th, in broad terms... details later. Did three more bears. Why so few? We filmed the handling of one in great detail, consolidating work of prior day. The last two bears were done side by side, not separately.
Sept 8th: Much happened this day, too... story to come. Didn't involve flying for Dean or me. Quiet morning enjoying area around Northern Studies Center on my own, with vehicle to use. Afternoon to just after sunset: Wonderful driving around, filming. Ending up back at beach north of town for wonderful time of "smelling coffee".... and watching for bears... while more work done for transition shot.
Sept 9th: Last day! Boo hoo.
Overnight, Dean had captured superb photos of a stunning display of the aurora borealis. By 10:35, I was at airport, awaiting my flight. Rest of party had until the late afternoon flight. That worked okay for them as they were headed west.
This photo taken at the airport, awaiting my flight. Once more, I escape the Arctic without feeding the legendary legions of voracious diptera so fearsomely portrayed in Farley Mowat's Never Cry Wolf.
Easy trip back to Connecticut: 9th: Churchill/ Winnipeg/ Toronto.
Sept 10th: Toronto/ JFK/ Hartford... home by 16:10, with memories very few who've "done" Churchill could savour.
(Sorry... I will tidy this later... you want photos, don't you?)
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