We woke up early and packed.  As a bit of symmetry with when we arrived, there was a bear right outside our room as we finished packing.  We had breakfast with Glo, Barb, and Gary.  We talked about the Dual Lodge Safari - how we chose it, what we expected at Nanuk, and whether we’d feel a bit let down relative to Seal River after the amazing experience we’d had here.  It was a very nice sunrise again, with the sun illuminating the underside of low clouds.  Marko headed out before us, as he (along with his wife and child) were going to set up the Dymond Lake Lodge for its fall season.  We asked one of the staff members how they keep the windows at the Lodge so impeccably clean - apparently they use Aqua Blade.  Seriously, the windows at Seal River were cleaner than any windows we can ever remember seeing, which made taking pictures through them easy (aside from glare/reflections).

The plane that was set to take Marko to Dymond Lake came in and spooked the bears.  They do not like the loud noise at all.  One went back on the runway right after the plane landed, but then it ran off a second time as the plane circled back to park.  We settled up our bill, and everyone waited in the lounge to hear what the flight schedule would be to Nanuk.  Some people were chatting, some were engrossed with their phones, some people were just watching out the window for whatever might occur.  There wasn’t a ton of action outside, aside from two bears inadvertently walking right towards one another, and the smaller one running off when it realized there was company. 

A little after 09:00 it started to snow, and not lightly like the prior couple days.  It was coming down quickly, and horizontally, blowing north to south.  The guides told us we could go out on a short walk, not far from the Lodge, while we waited for our planes to arrive.  We didn’t have our boots or rain pants or jackets, so we couldn’t/shouldn’t be out too long, or walk on any muddy areas.  Crystal decided she’d rather stay warm and dry and read in the lounge.  Several others in the group made the same decision.  

On the walk we saw a couple bears, and it felt a bit more authentic to see the bears in the snow.  That being said, it was much more comfortable being out in the elements yesterday afternoon when it was sunny with no wind.  We didn’t stay out too long, but once we were back at the Lodge, we almost immediately went back outside, into the back courtyard area, as there were a couple bears out near the dining room.  There was also an ermine (or at least that’s what we were told), which resembled a marmot.  We stayed out there a while, but it was quite cold (and windy), so one by one everyone came in (Michel and Ken were the ones that lasted the longest).  

Sometime around 10:30 or 11:00 Ben gathered all of us and gave us news that wasn’t entirely unexpected.  Because of the snowstorm, we were going to be at the Lodge a bit longer, until the storm passed.  So the new plan was to eat lunch at Seal River, then head to Nanuk right after lunch.  So we just kept watching all the bear interactions from inside, through the windows, with people meandering back and forth between the lounge and dining room, depending on which bear was going where.  One bear was grazing, and when it got up and walked off it had a lot of grass hanging from its mouth, which was pretty comical.  

A little after 11:00 we noticed that Big Boy (the one that was panting yesterday) had finally gotten up and was moving a bit - this was the first time we’d seen him move at all in the 24 hours since we first spotted him lying in the grass and willows.  The guides were kind of shocked at his size, with Boomer stating it most succinctly; “that is one big bear.”  He wandered behind some scrub and we lost view of him.  But a little before noon we noticed him walking towards the Lodge (and additionally, as we knew, all the bears around the Lodge), and we wondered how those interactions might go.  Not surprisingly, everyone scattered.  By the time he got right by the Lodge, he was almost jogging, definitely doing more than a fast walk.  The other bears were kind of freaking out, running off to the north as fast as they could.

But then someone noticed that Scarbrow was actually approaching from the north (the two pictures immediately above show Scarbrow approaching from the north, Big Boy from the south, maybe 10 meters apart at the time of the photos).  We hadn’t seen Scarbrow yet today, but he’d apparently come in as we were all watching everything to the east and south of the Lodge.  Everyone was on edge as these two behemoths walked right towards one another, just 10 meters or so outside the lounge windows.  All of a sudden all of these 45-75 year old guests were 5 years old again, faces (or cameras) right against the glass.  Best.  Zoo.  Ever.

Basically right at high noon, Scarbrow and Big Boy faced off.  They slowed their walks as they got closer, until they were literally face to face.  No one had a clue what was going to happen next.  They sized each other up (probably literally), smelled each other nose to nose, opened their mouths…and then playfully sparred with each other, like two puppies.  Cameras were clicking everywhere, and others were taking video.  They moved a little to the north and most everyone migrated from the lounge to the dining room.  Pretty much everyone at the Lodge except the chefs (sorry guys!!) was right by the window, watching for what might happen next.  Justin had left his small camera (better for video) in the lounge in the rush to get to the dining room, and at some point he rushed back to the lounge to grab it.

Right as he grabbed his camera and started recording, the tenor of the interaction changed.  They sort of pushed each other with their heads at the same time, Big Boy made a little nip at Scarbrow, and then Scarbrow got up on his hind legs, which then made Big Boy get up on his.  Kathy narrated the interaction, as she was still in the lounge as well whilst Justin took the video.  Justin immediately ran back into the dining room with most of the rest of the group, and Crystal asked if Justin had seen what had just transpired.  After the males dropped back down to being on all fours, Big Boy slowly circled around to the left, such that he had the high ground, and then he slowly but surely kept walking towards Scarbrow, who slowly but surely started walking in reverse.

Around this time someone asked if we could go outside, and Boomer was happy to oblige.  Justin and a couple guests went outside, whilst Crystal and the majority of the guests stayed in the dining room.  There was a détente for a couple minutes - enough time for the outside group to set up on the viewing platform - and then the boys were back at it.  Big Boy was again forcing Scarbrow backwards, and he wasn’t happy about it.  At one point there was literally dust flying as they squabbled.  Eventually Big Boy backed Scarbrow all the way into the water, at which point they paused again.  For a couple minutes they sort of stared at one another, Scarbrow with his head down.  Then Scarbrow slinked away through the water, looking over his shoulder every so often to ensure Big Boy wasn’t coming after him.  Truth be told, it was kind of sad.  He probably hadn’t lost a fight in over a decade.  Time comes for all of us, we suppose.  All told, the interaction was about 30 minutes, and one of the most amazing things we’ve ever seen on any of our trips across the globe.

So then it was lunchtime.  Everyone was buzzing, recounting what happened, asking each other where they were when this happened, if they saw that happen, etc.  We also commented that we wouldn’t have seen any of this but for the weather delay, and that this was the best flight delay ever.  But then out of nowhere Deb fainted at her table, and we all forgot about the bear interaction.  People helped stabilize her, then moved her to a recliner that we laid flat.  Most of us were ushered to the lounge, and the staff, Eric (who we found out is a doctor), Amy, and a couple other people stayed in the dining room with Deb.  In the lounge, people attempted to lighten the mood, as appropriate.  The lounge was very hot, as the horizontal snow had been replaced by bright sunlight midway through the morning.  We even opened a couple of windows.  

Then, without any prior warning, Ben told us that we had 10 minutes to get ready for our flights, as the planes had just taken off from Churchill.  We weren’t expecting to have to get ready so soon, but in fairness the staff was dealing with more important things than giving us constant flight updates.  Our things were kind of all over the place, as we’d unpacked quite a bit with the long delay this morning, going outside to take photos, wanting to upload our photos of the Scarbrow-Big Boy interaction onto the computer, etc.  We re-packed as well as we could under the time crunch, then went outside to wait.

Deb, Amy, and the others in rooms 1-4 took the first plane.  We were on a plane with Eric and Denise, Neil and Denice, and Michel and Catherine.  The plan was that the first plane would stop briefly at Churchill to take Deb to the hospital to get her checked out, and then would continue on to Nanuk, and that our plane would just go straight to Nanuk.  But shortly after we boarded our plane, Justin (the pilot) told us that we might not be able to make it, as the snowstorm that had gone by earlier this morning was now between Churchill and Nanuk.  The flight seemed fine, and we got 2/3 of the way there without incident, but then we entered some gray clouds, ice formed on the windshield, and Justin immediately turned the plane around.  Ice was a total non-starter.  On the way back to Churchill we went past a herd of Caribou, so at least there was that.  [We had no idea until later that this is an extremely rare occurrence.]

We landed in Churchill around 15:45.  We got on a bus with Stephanie, meeting up with everyone from the first plane besides Amy and Deb.  Stephanie told us we were going to be the first overnight guests at the Blueberry Inn, a hotel the Churchill Wild folks had built for situations exactly like this.  But before going to the hotel, we went to a small museum in town.  There were lots of pelts of the local animals, and the Arctic Fox was definitely the softest.  Surprisingly, the ring seal skin was very coarse.  One of the guides told us that oils (from human fingers, for example) are necessary to maintain things.  The museum found this out in 2020, when the pelts started drying out when the museum was closed for Covid.  So, unlike most museums, touching is encouraged.  The museum also had a mockup of a Polar Bear maternity den, which was interesting since we hadn’t seen one out in the wild.

From the museum we went to the hotel.  It wasn’t quite ready for primetime yet, and the floor wasn’t completed, so we had to take off our shoes upon entering.  There was super fast wi-fi, so that was good.  We checked out all the photos of the “battle” from earlier in the day.  The group headed over to the Tundra Pub at 17:40.  It was kind of a Charlie Foxtrot in there, as the servers claimed to have not received our orders (which Stephanie had taken hours earlier and had given to the restaurant) - we hoped we weren’t going to receive two of everything.

We were at a table with Barb, Gary, Glo, Denise and Eric.  We were able to get actual cocktails, and took advantage of that.  On the TVs in the pub were hockey and then baseball.  Glo’s dish came out late for some unknown reason, but she was kind enough to tell the rest of us to eat in the meantime.  About halfway through the meal Ken told us that he’d heard from Amy that Deb was diagnosed with Covid, and had been put on Paxlovid, but that she should be fine.  When we came back to the hotel, we found out Michel and Catherine weren’t going to go to Nanuk, and instead head back early, as they were worried about contracting Covid in the middle of nowhere.  Someone (we’re assuming Stephanie or Christine, the host at the hotel) got several bottles of wine for all of us.  

Many people went to sleep, but Eric, Denise, Neil, Glo, Michel, Catherine, plus the two of us, enjoyed the wine.  After building up enough liquid courage, we asked Denise if she was familiar with the TV show Key and Peele, and she said yes.  We then asked if we could call her D-Nice to make it easier to keep her and Denice (whose name we didn’t know actually had a C) straight.  She laughed and said that would be great, so Denise became D-Nice for the rest of the trip.  We asked Michel and Catherine about a viral video we’d seen last year about a bunch of French words all sounding the same, and a sentence with all of them together sounding utterly ridiculous, and Michel confirmed it was all legit, which made us laugh even harder.  

We also heard about how Eric wants to be an Australian Rules Football referee just so he can make finger guns after successful kicks.  And Glo apparently wants to become a boneless skinless chicken farmer (we have this in our notes, but candidly don’t recall it aside from our notes, so maybe the notes were recounting a joke rather than a serious comment).  Finally, we heard that Lark Whisky has won some awards, and we should order some.  Thankfully there wasn’t any at the Blueberry Inn tonight, as we didn’t need any more booze.