Day 10

Life at Churchill will now just be a memory. I have arived back on American soil. This has been the experience of a lifetime. Vivid in my memories are afternoon bike rides looking for polar bears with Luann. Working in the fields with Luann and Lisa collecting data that may help our society see the movement of the treeline which is further proof of our warming cliamate. Angela and James making their mosquito video(can be seen on facebook). Waking up in the morning after feeling like we had never slept becuase it is always light out. Hearing the interesting stories and lesson idea of Cathy, Carol and Angela my roommates. Listening to Sheryl, Kevin and Carol in the field doing their puppet shows. Riding the rocket with Rob and having a crash landing. Five pin bowling where Kevin and I beat Sherly and Rob. Julie fully dressed for the polar plunge. Pete and Carley with their Canadian saying and phrases. The memories may soon fade but the friendships made will hold a special place in my heart. Thanks to all that read the blog. I hope you learned about life at the Arctic edge. Also thanks to Horthrop Grumman for allowing this trip to be possible for me.
Until the next trip.
Sindy

Day 9

The polar adventure is slowly coming to an end. I thought you may enjoy some of the highlights of the trip through pictures.
Our last day of seedling counting. A popular phrase by Peter is givin'r. That means lets get'r'done. He also would say "these seedlings are not going to count themselves." After 7 days of counting seedlings in random sites, I feel pretty confident that I know the difference between a black spruce, white spruce and larch.
Tonight Peter will reveal the meaning of our many days of data collection.
You may have noticed the plaster footprint of a polar bear in the picture above. Last nights presentation was given by a researcher at the station named Mike Goodyear. He showed us this footprint to help us realize the size of a polar bear. A male can weigh between 900-1200 pounds and stand over 10 feet tall. They come into Churchill on the ice and stay here until around November or December. They depend on the ringed seals for food. There are approximately 935 polar bears in this region. However, we all find this hard to believe since we have seen none. I guess October and November are the best time to see bears. They are waiting for the freeze to go back on the ice.
One of the highlights of the trip was to go on the zodiac tour. The picture above is the beluga whales that we saw. There were 10 to 20 pods of whales all around our zodiac. It was difficult to film these white friendly creatures that seem to think we were most interesting. They appeared to be shy because when they were within one foot of the boat they would not surface. My video of these massive mamals resembles long brown shaddows in the water.

Day 8

wow! What a day. I don't think I have ever been in such a remote place with so many mosquitoes. We looked like a deep woods off commercial. I tried to give you an idea of the number of mosquitoes we encounter on a daily basis by showing you the top of Rob's head (fellow earthwatch volunteer).
There are 4 teams of teachers that group together to do the daily research. My group consists of Luann a teacher from Georgia and Lisa a teacher from Tennessee. The three of us have a great time and get along like we have been friends forever. We are known as the clean up crew because we get done and go help other finish collecting their data. However, today did not get off to a stellar start. We were collecting data in a fen. Very swampy wet land area. Luann had her boots on and took a step toward our collecting sight. Low and behold to Luann the water and muck (scientific word) sucked her in like quick sand. I reached out to grab her and the force pulling in the fen was too great. We both fell forward with Luann landing in the middle of the muck and both of us laughing until we were in tears. Poor Luann had to be with wet boots, pants and socks for the rest of the day. We had planned to be at this ecosystem all day and had brought our lunches because the site was 40 minutes from the research center. Luckily the temperature climbed to a balmy 10 degrees Celsius which is about 50 degrees Fahrenheit.
We were ecstatic to finish the research today. We have a lecture on polar bears and ring seals tonight and then we are going for a polar dip. The pictures tomorrow may be interesting another chance to see a bear or bare bodies.

Day 7

Hi to All
A typical day at the research center consists of getting up at 6:00. We meet with Pete the research scientist at 7:00 for a briefing so we know what we are doing in the field and how to dress. Each of us are responsible to journal one day of the trip so we here clever writings of the past days events. Breakfast is at 7:30 and then we are in the van to go to the research site by 8:45. We gather data all morning and return at or before 12:30 for lunch. We are back in the van by 1:30 and go to another site or finish the site from the morning. Usually we are back to the center by 4:30 and have time to bike or walk before supper at 6:15. At 7:30 we meet with Pete for a lecture on landforms, animals, or permafrost at Churchill. This is a gruelling schedule because we still have to blog, face book or write lessons before bed. That is part of the reason we looked forward to our day off yesterday. The first picture shows me at the tundra site randomly throwing a stake to get our plot. The other photo is the Earthwatch volunteer teachers on an ice pack in the middle of the Hudson Bay on our day off. We are told tomorrow the pack ice is coming in with the change of the winds. This gives us new hope to see a polar bear.

Day 6

Yeah! Our day off. We got to sleep in and are to meet Carley's friend for the Nature tour at 9:00. Sheldon our tour guide shows up promptly at 9:00 in a school bus. How appropriate for a group of teachers. We get on the bus and first thing we see is a gun rack and gun above the drivers seat. I think if you live in Churchill you don't leave home without your gun.
Off we go bumping on the gravel roads. Where is Sheldon going to take us? First stop is the Hudson bay. The rocky shore displays formations of ice in the bluest water I have ever seen. Large formations of ice are scattered in the sea of blue. Excitedly we race on to the beach and begin our photo shoot of iceberg like formations which make great pictures. Each of us see how far out in the water we can go to stand on the ice statues. Our guide Sheldon stands watch with gun in hand searching for bears while we frolic on ice and rock mounds doing photo shoots. We see a pipit bird nest strategically built amongst the rocks along the beach. The eggs of the pipit look like milk duds.
The views from the rocks are magnificent in every direction. We all decided a group photo was needed at the top of an ice formation that had beached itself as the tide receded. Many glamour shots were taken and we all slid off the ice. Two steps away we heard a crash and realized our iceberg was no longer standing. Luckily for us we were not on ice when it decided to crumble.
Sheldon took us all over Churchill to fulfill our desire to see the great white polar bear. No luck with Sheldon. However, we had one more chance.
We also were signed up for the zodiac tour to see seals and beluga whales. Maybe A polar bear could be floating on the ice pack. That is what some locals had seen the day before. With life jackets adorning our body we hopped in the zodiac and set off to the Churchill River and the Hudson Bay. In our amazement Mike, our guide and owner of the boat, took us out in the bay and proceeded to ram the top of the ice plateau and dock us safely on top of the floating ice pack. We were reluctant to climb aboard this floating snow drift. Seals played in the water with interest wondering why we were on their floating home. It is getting late more info tomorrow.

Day 5

There is nothing more exciting that getting up at 6:00 in the morning putting on 4 layers of clothing and going out to a mosquito filled tundra looking for white spruce seedlings. This has been our research calling for the last few days. We have an armed guard named Carley that protects us from polar bears. However, I think these polar bears are a Churchill legend.
Speaking of Carley, she is my new idol. We went to her cabin in the woods and she is a true mountain woman. Her cabin has a broken window where a bear tried to get in. She has guns all over the house which are all loaded. She has two huge dogs that are trained to bark when a password (watch-um)is given to them. She knows the wild like we know the favorite restaurants in our town. One day a bear came to her house and he would not leave. Carley did not mess around. She shot the gun and put a bullet through her wall. We all stand with our mouths open when she tells her stories. You would all love Carley. (her picture is on day 4 blog)
After leaving Carley's place we went to watch the sunset, Numerous pictures were taken each as beautiful as the next. Every chance we get we continue to look for the elusive bears. So far no bear sightings but tomorrow is our day off. We are going on a nature tour to look for bears. Don't miss tomorrows blog to see if a polar bear is in our future.

Day 4

Question of the day: What is the difference between a fen and a bog?
We went to 4 different ecosytems today looking for spruce trees. We would plot a 1meter by 2 meter area and count the number of trees in each quadrant. If a tree was found in the area we would take down statistics such as number of lateral branches, total height, number of buds etc. You get to know the spruce up close and personal. We will be doing similar work tomorrow.
We finally had some down time today. Luann and I went for a bike ride. This is not an easy task. We had to find 2 bikes in working condition as well as have someone go with us with a gun. We even have someone in the field with us at all times while we are collecting data. We also had to take a walky talky to make sure we were safe from bears. If I do not blog tomorrow you know that I may have been eaten while on the ride.

Day 3

Question of the day: What is the estimated population of polar bears in the churchill area?
Breakfast was eaten in a hurry so we could dress for Arctic weather. Once out on the plantation the mosquitoes were no longer a problem. However, hypothermia was in the back of our minds. We soon became engrossed in fondling the delicate trees and forgot about the cold. Lisa said this activity gave new meaning to being a “tree hugger”. With palm pocket in hand we counted our way through 50 or more trees before going to lunch. Well maybe that was a little exaggeration. I can’t forget we did see a ptarmigan and an arctic fox.
The trek to Churchill was one of beauty. Every turn of the road seemed to present an amazing landscape. The pack ice in the Hudson was like clouds floating in a crystal blue sky. In our minds bears and seals seemed to lurk around every bend in the road. Our First sight of interest was the school, church, hospital, swimming pool, curling, and yes that was one building. We took a back road (they are all back roads) and followed the Hudson Bay in search of beluga whales, seals and the notorious polar bear. The van filled with excitement when the snowy white back of a beluga was sighted by Lisa. Peter slowed down so we could get a quick glimpse. The van continued to roll along the Hudson Bay until Peter pulled over for a “photo op”. Unfortunately for me and others we had so many cute tree pictures that our batteries were dead on our memory card were full. Those tree pictures will impress our students much more than beluga whales and pack ice. With sun shining on the partially frozen bay we all took numerous pictures of Arctic beauty. Once again we piled in the vehicle and in a short time the van pulled off the road for a seal search. Peter spotted some seals and binoculars were passed around. Luanne was sure she had a polar bear sighting. We thought that sighting might be as good as it gets so we just all agreed with her.
Supper was good as always. A quick bite and off to hear Peter speak about Peat lands. I am glad we get the notes because I am trying to trace the memories of the day. Well, signing off. Don't forget to answer the question of the day.

Research at the Arctic Edge

Hi to All

I arrived at Churchill Canada on June 20. The flight was amazing. I always meet interesting people. The guy I sat with on the plane has been on 65 cruises. The flight attendant was so nice on the flight from Winnipeg to Churchill. She fed us every hour. We were lucky to be right on time. Once landing in Churchill we were greeted by the state insect (the mosquito). A gravel road led us to the research site. We walked through a maze of rooms in the center. I am not sure I will find my way to my dorm room tonight. I have 4 roomies that will help me fine the way.
Nice group of teachers which is going to make this an exciting week.

Day 2
Up at 6:00. We learned about sampling trees. The whorls are the branches around the tree. Each set of whorls represents one year of tree growth. We have a series of items we are looking for when evaluating the trees. We just returned from being in the drizzle, wind, and cold analyzing 20 trees. We are only half done and will continue tomorrow. Now I know why I became a junior high teacher and not a researcher.
Well signing off for today. Stay tuned and learn what adventure awaits at Churchill.