Crystal violently shook Justin out of bed at 02:30.  He was wondering what the problem was, and trying to get his bearings, when he heard her ask “Hey, are those the Northern Lights?”  Groggily he walked over to the window, looked out and said “Yeah, I think so.”  We quickly got dressed, went down the hall, and grabbed the radio to tell Jess (the guide who was on “Northern Lights” duty tonight).  She was responsible for waking up others who wanted to be awoken (which was everyone).  While Jess was doing this, we went outside, and Justin went up the observation tower while Crystal stayed in the middle of the compound.

Slowly others started to come outside, but we had total darkness and total quiet for the first couple of minutes.  As others came outside, there was a general sense of giddiness.  It was our first time seeing them, and we assume the first time for several others (most others?) as well.  There was much more movement, and much quicker movement, than we expected.  The aurora was kind of stringy and “danced” around the sky, waving almost like one of those giant ribbons in rhythmic gymnastics.  Crystal chatted with Amy most of the time, and Justin moved around a bit more.  It was bitterly cold because of the wind, and this wouldn’t have been so much of an issue except for the fact we needed our fingers out of the gloves to take pictures and videos.  Crystal’s brand new iPhone was especially good at taking photos (and even video) in low light.

After 45 minutes outside we came back in, and we had a hard time getting back to sleep.  To our surprise, we were actually more excited about sharing the aurora photos with friends and family than the polar bear photos from the first two days.  Along the same lines, when we woke up (for the second time) at 07:30, Justin saw a polar bear walking by our window, told Crystal, and her reaction was “oh, okay.”  This most certainly would not have been our reaction 48 hours ago.

There were two polar bears by the dining room at breakfast.  One was up on its hind legs near a flag, but sadly it went back on all fours just before the photo.  We noticed that the wind was blowing in the opposite direction (south to north), and wondered if maybe that blew the clouds away in the middle of the night.  It was a nice sunrise with the sun illuminating the bottom of the new clouds.  Everyone was thanking Crystal for seeing the lights last night.  We joked that her insomnia had finally become a positive.  It was interesting to see people taking pictures of the sunrise, eating breakfast, and basically ignoring the two polar bears about 100 meters away out the window.  At the table we were discussing the movie “Charlie Wilson’s War” and somehow that indirectly led to a comment about “Hamas and Hezbollah coming through the open southern border,” so Justin pointed to something with the bears outside and steered the conversation away from imminent chaos.  We spent quite a bit of time then discussing how and where to see Grizzly Bears in Katmai, and a peaceful breakfast was saved.

We met at 09:15 for our morning excursion.  Just north of the Lodge there was a super chill male; after-the-fact examination of the photos allowed our guides to determine it was Scarbrow, one of the most famous bears in the area, particularly near one of the other Churchill Wild properties, Dymond Lake.  He popped his head up when a helicopter flew by - it was carrying a polar bear in a net underneath.  This is not altogether uncommon, as repeat offender bears that continually wander into/through the town of Churchill are first put into “Bear Jail,” and if that doesn’t work, they are relocated far from town via helicopter.  We walked north towards Two Bear Ridge, going through some low marshy areas in the “intertidal zone.”  The tides come in quite far, and when they are out, there are a lot of exposed rocks and marshy areas.  In one of these areas Crystal almost got stuck; Justin helped her extricate her foot (and boot).

We walked past Bob’s Pond, and Boomer told us a poignant story about Bob.  Several years ago, one of the larger males in the area was named Bob, which was an acronym for Big Old Bear.  Bob frequented the area around the Lodge, and around this particular pond.  One day Boomer and the guests saw Bob in distress, having a hard time getting comfortable.  Seemingly out of nowhere, another large male came over to the area and quietly laid down near Bob.  The next morning, before going out with the guests, the guides went back to the pond and saw Bob had passed away overnight, and the other male was nowhere to be seen.  The guides wondered (admittedly perhaps anthropomorphically) whether the other male had come to spend time with Bob in his final moments so that Bob wouldn’t die alone.  The guides buried Bob near the pond, and now it bears (no pun intended) his name.

Jess showed us an incredibly poisonous plant, water hemlock, which grows in the very marshy areas.  We wondered why no one had pointed out this plant in the first two days we were at the Lodge.  As we continued walking towards Two Bear Ridge, Justin spotted two different bears at two different times, and the guides made him an honorary guide for the day.  [Truth be told, it’s easier to see things from the ground when you’re taller than everyone else.]  Once we finally got to Two Bear Ridge, there were no bears, but there was another Arctic Hare.  Justin couldn’t help himself, and told the group a joke his Dad told him over 40 years ago: “How do you catch a unique rabbit?  You neak up on it.  How do you catch a tame rabbit?  Tame way, you neak up on it.”  Perhaps fittingly, the Arctic Hare ran away right after the punchline and the groans (you can watch him running away in the compilation video on tomorrow's entry).

We walked back to the Lodge on a different route, going inland past the runway and circling back from the southwest.  At one stop Jess told us about space lichen, a type of lichen that literally went to space and came back with seemingly no ill effects.  We commented that this sounded like the beginning of innumerable sci-fi and horror movies.  Jess is a huge fan of lichen, and it apparently is a running joke amongst her and the other guides and staff.  Everyone looks for bears and wolves while she looks for different lichen varieties.  

Back by the Lodge there were two bears right by the front gate, so we had to meander around to a different gate.  We thought we were being followed for a bit by Scarbrow, but he was going around clockwise instead of counterclockwise, and we didn’t yet know it was Scarbrow - if the guides had known, they likely wouldn’t have been so wary.  Back inside, the guides were psyched once they found out it was Scarbrow, and he’s not commonly seen at Seal River.  His name comes from his conspicuous scars on his face around his eyes and nose - apparently he was attacked by a wolverine when he was a cub, and guides didn’t think he was going to survive, let alone keep both eyes.  But then he just showed up again the next year, and the year after that, and so on, until he was one of the largest males in the region.

We had lunch with Neil and Denice and Jess.  There was a lot of discussion about Antarctic cruising, but also about Maui and Phuket and the fine line of informing tourists right after a natural disaster that a vacation isn’t possible right then, but not scaring off tourists for too large an area or too long a time.  The afternoon started off a bit slowly, looking for bears.  None of the bears from the morning were especially close to the Lodge, and so we just waited.  The guides looked around on the observation deck, and we stayed inside in the warmth and watched through the various windows of the lounge, dining room, etc. 

Two came towards the lounge from the runway area, one walked around the perimeter of the fence and stopped right next to one of the viewing decks, and then one plopped down right outside the front gate.  It had been “chased” by another bear, and apparently it found hanging out by us more palatable.  Then another one showed up on the east side, kind of antsy.  We kind of forget what happened, but at some point there were bears everywhere, moving all around the fenceline.  Marko was directing traffic from the observation tower, Jess was up front with guests who wanted to be there, and Boomer was in the back with the guests who wanted to be back there. 

Boomer was going to start a photography talk, but the bears kept coming.  In fact, we saw a Mom and cub from the lounge, out on the runway.  The cub was tipping barrels marking the perimeter of the runway.  They were coming right towards the Lodge, but then they got spooked by Two Tags and turned around.  The whole afternoon had become a “choose your own adventure” - some people were inside, some were out front, and some were out back.  With so many around, the bears were inadvertently coming right upon each other, which led to lots of “prairie dogging” to see who was where.  The lazy afternoon had become very hectic.

We told Boomer to try to start his presentation again, just so the mom and cub would return.  He did start, but sadly they didn’t come back our way.  The sun was going down, and Justin and Jess helped pin up some sheets over the window so the glare didn’t disturb Boomer’s presentation.  Two bears were visible from the front window the entire time Boomer was talking, and Justin watched through the window while also trying to pay close attention to the photography tips.  Two Tags came right up to one of the bears out front and more or less took her spot in the wind break west of the shop right around sunset.

We had Happy Hour appetizers and wine around 18:00.  Justin gave Jess some photos for the ending slideshow that was going to be the next night.  With how much we’d seen and done since arriving, he hadn’t really vetted the photos, but whatever, they were better than nothing.  At dinner, our table was just us and Boomer.  He’s a hockey goalie, and his dad was/is a goalie as well, even at 83.  We talked about hockey (such as Patrick Roy and the Canadiens), Bolivia, Utah/Arizona, and how the staff tries to feed him sugar against his will.  He’s a really interesting nice guy, and it’s clear that he loves what he does and takes a lot of pride in his work and making sure people get the most out of their trips.  After dinner, the two of us, and most of the group, went into the lounge to watch a presentation by Marko about his time during the summer in Ellesmere Island.  It looked amazing, but it also looked way too remote and off the grid for the two of us.  

Just as Marko was ending his presentation, Boomer walked in and told us that the Northern Lights had returned.  So we threw on some extra layers, grabbed our cameras, and went outside.  There was more color in the sky, including some red as well.  They told us that the green color comes from oxygen in the air, and the pink and red come from nitrogen.  We hadn’t seen any red the night before (technically this morning).  While there was more color (and colors), the lights were a bit more static, with less dancing.  Crystal noticed that the Big Dipper was right in the middle of one of the most colorful parts of the sky, giving the photos a very cool effect.  After seeing the Northern Lights to bookend our day, we got to sleep a bit after 22:00.