Our first day of exploration in Churchill

August 5, 2011


It was refreshing waking up well rested, on a bed, on solid ground. Although we miss the train, we are all excited to start our journey in Churchill!

Today was a rainy, windy, cold day but everyone was hyped to go exploring. Suited up in our rain jackets and lots of layers (except for Greg and Harry :P) we headed out to our first site: the twin golf balls. The twin golf balls are a structure used by the military as a radar base for rocket research in the 70s. It’s called the twin golf balls because of the large, golf ball-shaped canvas structure protecting the radar dishes from the elements.

The twin golf balls

We stopped here to begin our instruction on plant identification.



Trying to identify plants

Here are the few plant species that we can identify:

Fireweed

Alpine Arnica

Mountain Aven

Our next stop was Miss Piggy. Now before you think it is a big structure of Miss Piggy from the Muppets, take a look at the picture below.

Miss Piggy

Miss Piggy turned out to be a cargo plane that had crashed because it was overloaded. The story goes that the pilot realized during his flight that the plane was overloaded and tried to turn around to land on the tarmac but it was too late and it fell from the sky and landed where it sits today, on the rocks. Even though they crashed, the pilot and co-pilot were unharmed and, amazingly, the cargo was undamaged.

All of us in front of Miss Piggy

Next we moved on to the beautiful but small town of Churchill. There we stopped and acted like the tourists we are by taking lots of pictures and visiting gift shops.

Here is Greg getting eaten by a ceramic polar bear,
all of us feigning shock

After we explored the town, we had the chance to explore a beach that was behind the town community complex.

Posing for a picture on the beach - Shaughna, Eric, Emma, Liam, Troy and Shawna

Next we were off to Cape Merry, one of many national park sites around the Churchill area. Cape Merry was a gun battery defending Fort Prince of Wales. From here, we had a good view of the bay area where belugas usually swim during high tide. Unfortunately, we were unable to spot the ridges of the belugas due to the wave crests being the same colour as them. 

Standing around the cannon at Cape Merry

The next stop was a more somber one because we visited the memorial of to the Dene Village. The Dene people were relocated in 1956, away from the caribou lands to Churchill, where they lived in tents and shanties. The removal from their native lands and their loss of lifestyle took its toll on the Dene.

Looking at the memorial, seeing all those names, seeing that some of them were mere infants was upsetting. After the relocation, the population of the Dene was decimated by more than a third. The memorial was established in remembrance of this tragedy. Since this tragedy, the Dene have returned to their ancestral lifestyle in a new village outside of Churchill.

Next we got to see the bear jail were they keep the bears that are causing trouble in order to relocate them in the wild. Unfortunately we did not get to see any of the inmatesL!

The polar bear traps

Warning sign

After a full day of exploring Churchill, we returned to the centre to continue our lessons.


By Shawna and Eric

Day One

Today is August 4^th of 2011. This year’s Far Northers got in to Churchill earlier today after a gruelling 48 hour train ride, 3 hour flight, and varying lengths of car rides immediately prior to the flight. That adds up to a minimum of 51 hours. When was the last time you spent 51 hours doing the same thing? (Personally, it was when I watched all eight Potter movies back-to-back-to-back-to-etc.)

The train ride was exciting once it got started, but looked dull and boring from the outside. The hot muffins were especially delicious, though some enjoyed them more than others. Same with the cheese. Regardless, the flatness of the land was intriguing for the first while but lost its lustre after the next while. The scenery changed overnight- both nights- and thus we saw the results but not the transitions. It was certainly surprising to see such diversity and variation in a land that we all thought was going to be boring. ­­At the end of it all, we were very disappointed when a certain porter refused to take a souvenir photo with his biggest fans.

The entire group minus Harry, the generous photo-taker, in Thompson, Manitoba.

Most of the group was taken aback by the reality of Churchill as opposed to their preconceptions of the town. It was smaller than expected to some, bigger than expected to others, and more modern than expected to the rest. Since we haven’t explored the town yet, that’s about all we know.

Working together on the train- Greg, Emma and Shawna.

The Northern Studies Centre could easily be compared to a jail- we are locked in, get food at a certain time, and on the old building the windows had fencing on them- but we have found the new facilities here to be cutting edge and quite simply NEW. It is a very environmentally friendly building, and one in which the showers are indescribably marvellous after 51 hours of travelling.

As an aside, I just looked outside and saw, no word of a lie, 50 mosquitoes buzzing right in front of the second floor window. With that, the day comes to a close- though it will be hours until the sun goes down.

Greg and Troy

(or Troy and Greg. We don’t know which should come first, me or him.)

Emma is SUCH a Sleeping Beauty. (An eyes-open, drooling, sleeping beauty.)

First Assignment

Before the trip starts I wanted you to read a few articles and get your response to them. Over the last few months I have been tagging articles in the popular press on Arctic Ecology and Global climate change. Most have been coming from Science Daily News, and Canadian media outlets etc.

For this first assignment I want to you look at two issues. First a brief review of the community we will be visiting. I want you to get a sense of the history of this place. Considering the European contact started in 1610, Churchill has a long history in Canada. Read the tagged articles at http://www.delicious.com/doug.isaak and give me a summary of what your reaction is to the place. I have tagged the wikipedia article with "Churchill" tag. If you search my delicious site for that you will find it. I am looking for a personal response to the place. Don't present facts but tell me about perhaps what you are expecting to see.

If you are unfamiliar with delicious.com, you can just click on one of the tags on the right hand side of the page and it will bring up all the articles tagged by me. Follow the link to the article.

The second part of this assignment is to review at least 5 articles on climate change or arctic ecology that I have tagged at the same above website. It doesn't matter which web pages you review but include the web page reference to the web page in your discussion. You can stick to a theme if you wish (i.e. animals, ice, etc.) Give a brief summary of the article and give your personal response whether you agree or disagree with it or its possible implications. No more than a paragraph per article.

Please have this completed before the trip and emailed to me. If this will be a problem please contact me for alternate arrangements.

Summer is starting and Trip is coming

Just a quick note to let you know that I will be sending the instructions out for the Pre-course work soon. Make sure you receive the email sent from me on July 4th.  Please send me a email in return to ensure that your email is getting through. If you have any questions regarding equipment or packing please let me know. Hope you are getting exciting. Less than a month till the trip starts......
Doug

New Churchill Northern Studies Centre coming along

The new Churchill Northern Studies Centre is under construction and these are the latest pictures. Yes I know there is snow still there but this is the sub-Arctic. Picture was taken May 3rd. Only 2 and half months till we show up!

Welcome to the 2011 Blog for the Far North Expedition

As we start the new year I just wanted to get things started. As the trip moves forward this year, this will be the place pre-trip items get posted and once the trip is underway this is where students will post daily (hopefully!) updates.