Churchill

We just got back from a 5 day trip to Churchill. Jo got us this trip for my birthday last year, and it included some nights' stay at a B&S&B, Bed & Sled & Breakfast. The owners are dog sled operators and so our stay included a day of dog sledding. The weather turned out to be amazing and we had a great time.

It also happened to be the final weekend of their Aurora Winterfest celebrations, and part of that was Parks Canada's 100th anniversary kick-off which included a guided walk across the frozen Churchill River to the Prince of Wales Fort which was built over 30 years in the mid 1700s. It was an important part of the Hudson's Bay Company history.

As part of the Winterfest, they also put on a Social (an infamous Manitoba Social, no less) - the first one we were able to go to since we've been here. Here's a little low quality video that we filmed of the band playing. We left before things really started to pick up because we were pretty tired from the train ride in, but apparently it went till about 2am and was completely packed. 

Here we are on the Muskeg Express train heading to Churchill. We drove to Thompson, then got the train there. It was about 19 hour train ride, great sunsets and sunrise.

This is the group with Parks Canada (there were more people behind us, about 30 in all) just heading onto the frozen River. The snowmobile tracks kind of ruin the mystique of it all, but you get the idea.

The grain elevators seen from the river. They were built sometime between the world wars.

Arriving at the opposite side of the river, there were some small icy puddles which the group had to maneuver around. Cracks in ice are caused by rising and falling tides on the river, caused by the Hudson's Bay.

That's the grain elevators in the far back left there.

Here we are with the Hudson's Bay and ominous looking rocks in the background.

When we arrived at the Parks Canada cabin, they had a fire and food all ready for us. Hot dogs, bannock cooking, coffee, hot chocolate etc. It was really nicely organized. The fort is in the background there.

About half the group took the second trip to the fort.

The front doors of the fort only open in, and can't be opened because of all the snow on the inside, so they leave this ladder up so that visitors and Parks crew can enter the fort.  The walls are 24 feet deep/thick (!) so we could jump over the top there without falling to our peril.

Here's the actual fort part of the fort (I'm standing on the wall, technically.) Those rooms in front are for the Woodworkers, Baker, Blacksmith and the Cooper (barrel maker, important so they could send things like whale oil to England).
The rooms on the left were the sleeping quarters.

Hudson's Bay in the background.

All the flags nearby were ripped in half like this Canadian flag. For wind reasons I guess, I'm not sure. It was a very warm and beautiful day, we both got tans/burnt.

Heroically hiking through the 5 inches of snow.

Heroically getting a sun tan, while standing in 5 inches of snow.

We learned that these ice 'things' are caused by big rocks in the river and should never be referred to as icebergs. Parks Canada will shame you if you do call them that.

This is at the Blue Sky Dog Sled yard where we met the 24 dogs that the owner, Gerald, owns. Some of which took us on our dog sled ride. When we drove up, the dogs were VERY excited to see us.
They also were very excited when they were picked to go for the ride.

They all seemed very happy. Some of them enjoyed sitting like so on top of their dog houses.

This white dog is named Pepsi and is the biggest and strongest dog in the group. Sometimes he hid away in his house like so if you approached. The strong, silent type.

Pepsi and Jet, brothers. Strongest dogs of the group.

Our host and dog sled guru for the trip, Gerald.

Pepsi and Jet awaiting orders to get going again. They're at the back of the dogs because they're the ones that are doing most of the actual pulling.
Here we were riding on Goose Creek, and it was really beautiful and peaceful. Once things get going, it's actually very quiet. With only the pitterpatter of the dogs' feet within earshot.

The two teams.

This is Two-Two, or originally Santa's Little Helper because she looks like The Simpson's dog of the same name. She was one year old and VERY excitable.

Sound and Hawk, taking a little breather. Cooling off by lying on the snow.

 This is Coffee. He is aware that he is very handsome. 

Jo taking the reigns on this one. The only commands you really needed to know were 'WHOA' (said over and over again while pushing the break into the snow) and "READY, HIKE" for when you wanted to get going. But you didn't really need to give them much encouragement to get going, they were off before you could even say READY...

A Whiskey-Jack that was flying around the yard.

Jo getting friendly with Via, one of the two true Siberian Huskies that they owned.

Here's an indulgent video of the dog sledding and dog yard:




 

Back on the train, heading home. Right before we got on the train, we walked by a house with a sign that said "Cookie Lady" and two teenage girls were exiting the house with cookies. We thought we'd see what it was about and went and knocked on the door. An older lady came to the door and we asked if we could buy some cookies, she said no but she would give us some. We asked why she did this and she invited us in and we sat and talked with the lady for 45 minutes. She'd been living in Churchill since 1961 and everyday, would bake cookies for the local kids to come and get. They would have to ask nicely and if not, no cookies for you. (She said one kid inexplicably swore at her once and she told him he couldn't have a free cookie for two weeks. He now says please and thank you every time.) She said she also made what she called Amish Loaf for some of the local workers, dropping them by the work sites now and again. She had just made some loafs and so gave us this one. We ate it on the train on the way home and it was delicious. A fortuitous and delightful meeting with the Cookie Lady.

tony&jo.

Trappers Festival

On February 14th - 19th, The Pas held its annual Trappers Festival. Shona (Jo's sister) came up for a visit and we all enjoyed all the different events and competitions: Tea boiling, bannock making, chainsaw wood carving, leg wrestling, dog sled racing, and flourpack carrying which was not for the faint of heart (the winner carried 950lbs on his back!).  Some photos below!

The beginning of the bannock making and frying.
This gentleman is making some kindling for his fire.

Bannock fryling. This one looked particularly delicious.
I like the guy in the back too, taking it all in. He looks like he has a good centre of gravity going on.

Jo doing her best impression of the guy in the background. I think her mustache needs a bit of work.
Quite a few characters like this walking around the festival.

Three gentleman were doing chainsaw wood carving, they had 5 hours I think. I'm pretty sure this guy won, it was impressive.

We went on a Bombadier (pronounced Bomb-ba-deer up here) ride, these old 1950s/60s vehicles used to transport things up in the north.

We rode in the on the right, which broke down multiple times on our 7 minute ride. The other yellow one was in much better shape, but it was quite a lot of fun.

This man was our driver, and looked to have been driving these things since the 50s. He had a really good face and attitude.

Here's Shona meeting a local man who was proudly walking his dogs around town during the festival.

Here's Shona and Tony's eyes. Standing around waiting for the sled dog races to begin, it was pretty cold.
The wind on the river wasn't tropical, to say the least.

Jo had the privilege of shooting one of the guns to start one of the sled dog races. She represented the University and did admirably.

Most of the dogs racing were skinny little greyhound crosses. They are raced for speed not for practicality.  They looked pretty cold and we felt bad for them.

Here's a video of Jo with a gun. And the dog races:

We rented some cross-country skis and from outside our door, we followed the groomed ski path. It was beautiful.

 

Classic shadow puppetry! These were done with only our hands!

Shona gets creative and reminds everyone where we are.

We drove out to Clearwater Lake and had a look around. This is said lake.

  

Shona at the end of the world! (Not really, just kidding.)

We went to the OCN Blizzard hockey game, I don't think they won, but we had a good time.
Don't be misled by Jo's facial expression. 

We drove to the river at sunset and Jo (ok, Tony) got the car stuck on the little road heading down to the river. She (he) had seen someone the day before drive onto the river so thought it would be possible.
After 15 minutes of trying to get it back to the road, Shona was able to use her stealth driving skills to return the car to its proper driving surface. Hurray for Sho!

Ice shacks at sunset.

Joanna and Shona take in the sunset on the Saskatchewan River.