A magical Day in the Canadian Arctic: Polar bear "madness" - Fort Ross, Bellot Strait, Conningham Inlet

September 16, 2015

A magical Day in the Canadian Arctic: Polar bear "madness" - Fort Ross, Bellot Strait, Conningham Inlet

Adventure Canada informs us:

Day 13 — Tuesday September 1, 2015
Fort Ross, Bellot Strait, Conningham Inlet
Fort Ross was the last trading post built by the Hudson's Bay Company in Canada's Arctic. Established in 1937 it was meant to bridge the eastern and western Arctic fur trading districts through the Bellot Strait, a narrow 32-kilometre passage separating the northernmost tip of North America from Somerset Island. Rising out of the vast Arctic wilderness, Fort Ross had two buildings — a manager's house and a store — and was also home to a number of Inuit families. It was operated for some 11 years, but eventually abandoned because ice constantly choked the strait. When Fort Ross was finally closed in 1948, everything was moved some 250 kms south to Stanners Harbour, establishing the town of Spence Bay, now known as Taloyoak. Bellot Strait marks the first meeting of the Atlantic and Pacific tides north of Magellan Strait. Surprisingly, the strait was missed by John Ross and wasn’t discovered until 1852 by William Kennedy, who named the strait after his second-in-command, Joseph-Rene Bellot.
Conningham Inlet offers us an opportunity to sight Beluga Whales and the bears that are hunting them.

Inuktitut word of the day:
Ikkiinaqtualuk — It’s very cold

"There is no solemnity so deep, to a rightly thinking creature, as that of dawn.” —John Ruskin

This was our most full day adventuring in the Canadian Arctic. A great morning ashore at Fort Ross (see above), followed by cruising through Bellot Strait (on our left was the northernmost point in mainland north America) including a polar bear and musk oxen siting, followed by a two hour very successful zodiac ride in search of polar bears and belugas. I was in Stefan's zodiac (our expeditionary leader - late 60's Swede, who was a member of the Explorer's Club, and leader of numerous Arctic explorations). There was a very shallow inlet into the back bay where the belugas were, and the tide was going out - he was debating whether to chance it going in..and he radioed the other zodiac drivers - "we've got beluga, we've got bears - we're going in". We just barely were able to motor in with the motors tilted way up. He counted 19 bears in total - we saw a fresh beluga kill, and I captured a lousy picture of a polar bear swimming amongst the beluga, but ma y great bear photos. An amazing evening! We got back tired but exhilarated - had a late dinner - they skipped our nightly recap. All in all a fantastic day in the Canadian Arctic!