On March 7, 2002, Arden, Ken, Bob Hummel, and Jim Blair (Arden's father) went to Churchill, Manitoba to see the northern lights (aurora borealis). Churchill is on the west coast of the Hudson Bay, about the same latitude as Juneau, Alaska, in what we consider the far north, but is still well below the Arctic Circle. The region is generally flat and open, with taiga forests and tundra. The locals are used to wide open spaces, and some get claustrophobic when in a city or a temperate forest. We heard the half serious statement "the problem with the Rocky Mountains is that they block the view". In the photo above, the flat white area is the Churchill River.

We happened go to on Ken's 40th birthday, but Arden was the person who most wanted to go. The early March timing was due to Arden's research to find the best viewing conditions: highest probability of clear weather, no moon, and medium length days. Also, we chose to not wait another year because the 11 year solar cycle peaked last year, so the auroras will be decreasing over the next few years.

Here we are by the sign on the hardware store, Ken, Bob, Arden, and Jim. Temperature at the time: -23°F, -31°C. All five days were nice and sunny, and one day the temperature even got above zero, to +1 or +2°F. Ken went out for a walk one morning when it was -32°F (the walk only lasted two minutes).

Arden's trip timing worked perfectly. We had four clear nights for viewing the aurora, which is unusual even this time of year. The weather prediction was for cloudy skies the whole week, but each day the forecast was revised for clear weather that day. The hosts of our hotel, the Tundra Inn, run another operation called the Aurora Domes, a few miles out of town (getting away from the city lights). The building used to be a research station for studying the aurora, and they have two 10 foot (or so) diameter clear domes in the roof. The domes are now outfitted with seats and heated, so you can watch the aurora in comfort. Although when the aurora gets particularly spectacular, it is still worth running outside in the -30° to -40° cold to fully appreciate the view.
The solar storm activity that causes auroras was relatively quiet this week, so we spent most of the time sitting around waiting, watching dim teaser auroras fade in and out, or drift slowly across the sky (and seeing a few shooting stars each night). When there wasn't much to watch outside, we watched videos explaining auroras and showing Churchill attractions. Although the aurora can happen at any time, we happened to have the best show between 10:30 and 11:30 each night. We had good shows three of the four nights. The second night, the aurora never did much, although our hosts said there was a quick bright aurora display just after they dropped us off at the hotel at midnight.
Pictures of aurora only capture a small part of the experience. The most wonderful part is when the aurora starts dancing across the sky, with streaks of light shooting down, one after another, making a flowing curtain. We had the best show of motion the first night. The last night we had the best sky full of aurora, with parallel ribbons waving across from horizon to horizon.

This picture is from our third night, the only night that Ken took pictures, because you can't fully appreciate the show while tending a camera. This is an 8 second exposure on our digital camera.

On our first full day in Churchill, we took a four hour driving tour with a local named Paul. Churchill is not connected by road to any other towns, and only has about 50 miles of roads, so we went on most of the roads which were not closed for the winter. Paul says that there are no high speed police chases in Churchill, because the police just follow slowly until the road runs out. Obviously car thieves are not a problem, which is good because people leave the engine running when they are parked anywhere without an outlet to plug in their engine heater. The tour took us to the shipping port, the polar bear jail (empty this time of year), the "polar bear dining room" (the dump) and SpacePort Canada, a failed commercial attempt to launch satellites into polar orbit.

We took a walk by the Hudson Bay (back left horizon in the photo). The stunted trees here only have branches on one side, due to the wind coming off the bay. The tree next to Arden may be older than her.

Our tour guide Paul (back left in the photo) had a friend who was out of town, so he made a little detour to check in on her puppies. Their breed is Canadian Eskimo Dog. They don't mind the cold. A store near our hotel had puppies this age and much younger for sale out front, with nothing more than a doghouse for protection. Even on the coldest nights, they would come to the edge of their pens to beg for attention as we walked by. Arden hasn't finished her film roll yet, but I suspect that half the pictures will be of puppies.
We also saw some cold loving birds, including ptarmigan, Even on the coldest windy days, the ravens and sparrows were flying around town just like any other nice day.

Although the area has a profusion of wildflowers in the summer, there is not much color in the winter, except for the lichens (left).
We saw fox footprints, but not the animals. Paul showed us the difference between arctic fox tracks and red fox tracks. The red fox leaves all prints in a line, while the arctic fox leaves a more typical left/right footprints (center).
Moose are not usually around this time of year, but we saw two crossing the Churchill River, far away (right).

On a warm day (-5°F), Bob and Ken went for a 2 hour walk to Cape Merry. Look closely to see Bob's icy mustache, and frosty hat and glasses. On a colder day, Bob's eyelashes frosted, and tended to stick shut when he blinked.
We walked through the port of Churchill, dominated by the grain elevator. The barges in the picture are in dry dock for the winter. They park the barges in the cove at high tide, wait for the low tide to drain all the water, then quickly bulldoze in an earth dike to isolate the barges.

The Tundra Buggies are used for Polar Bear tours when the bears are around. The vehicles are tall to keep the tourists out of bear claw range. In winter, the bears are out on the pack ice catching seals, so we didn't see any. We will have to come back sometime in bear season, best in October and November. Beluga whales are another popular tourist attraction; thousands of the whales come up the Churchill River in summer to feed on fish.

This time of year, only three restaurants are open in Churchill. This is the Gypsy Bakery, run by a family from Portugal. We sampled their char and pickerel fish, and the picture shows Jim trying the caribou. They also had enough good vegetables to keep Arden happy.
If you look closely at the TV in the background, you may recognize a curling match. A tournament was going on all week, which we watched on some of the colder mornings when staying inside the hotel seemed like a good idea.

Our last adventure was going for a dogsled ride. That's Jim sitting in the sled (right). The first half of the ride was downwind, which made the return trip back upwind rather brutal. If you want to experience a dogsled ride without the wind chill, you can watch this two second QuickTime movie of Ken's view. ("Unless you're the lead dog, the view is always the same!")

		Here we are by the sign on the hardware store, Ken, Bob, Arden, and Jim. Temperature at the time: -23°F, -31°C. All five days were nice and sunny, and one day the temperature even got above zero, to +1 or +2°F. Ken went out for a walk one morning when it was -32°F (the walk only lasted two minutes).
Arden's trip timing worked perfectly. We had four clear nights for viewing the aurora, which is unusual even this time of year. The weather prediction was for cloudy skies the whole week, but each day the forecast was revised for clear weather that day. The hosts of our hotel, the Tundra Inn, run another operation called the Aurora Domes, a few miles out of town (getting away from the city lights). The building used to be a research station for studying the aurora, and they have two 10 foot (or so) diameter clear domes in the roof. The domes are now outfitted with seats and heated, so you can watch the aurora in comfort. Although when the aurora gets particularly spectacular, it is still worth running outside in the -30° to -40° cold to fully appreciate the view. The solar storm activity that causes auroras was relatively quiet this week, so we spent most of the time sitting around waiting, watching dim teaser auroras fade in and out, or drift slowly across the sky (and seeing a few shooting stars each night). When there wasn't much to watch outside, we watched videos explaining auroras and showing Churchill attractions. Although the aurora can happen at any time, we happened to have the best show between 10:30 and 11:30 each night. We had good shows three of the four nights. The second night, the aurora never did much, although our hosts said there was a quick bright aurora display just after they dropped us off at the hotel at midnight. Pictures of aurora only capture a small part of the experience. The most wonderful part is when the aurora starts dancing across the sky, with streaks of light shooting down, one after another, making a flowing curtain. We had the best show of motion the first night. The last night we had the best sky full of aurora, with parallel ribbons waving across from horizon to horizon.
		This picture is from our third night, the only night that Ken took pictures, because you can't fully appreciate the show while tending a camera. This is an 8 second exposure on our digital camera.
On our first full day in Churchill, we took a four hour driving tour with a local named Paul. Churchill is not connected by road to any other towns, and only has about 50 miles of roads, so we went on most of the roads which were not closed for the winter. Paul says that there are no high speed police chases in Churchill, because the police just follow slowly until the road runs out. Obviously car thieves are not a problem, which is good because people leave the engine running when they are parked anywhere without an outlet to plug in their engine heater. The tour took us to the shipping port, the polar bear jail (empty this time of year), the "polar bear dining room" (the dump) and SpacePort Canada, a failed commercial attempt to launch satellites into polar orbit.
		We took a walk by the Hudson Bay (back left horizon in the photo). The stunted trees here only have branches on one side, due to the wind coming off the bay. The tree next to Arden may be older than her.

		Our tour guide Paul (back left in the photo) had a friend who was out of town, so he made a little detour to check in on her puppies. Their breed is Canadian Eskimo Dog. They don't mind the cold. A store near our hotel had puppies this age and much younger for sale out front, with nothing more than a doghouse for protection. Even on the coldest nights, they would come to the edge of their pens to beg for attention as we walked by. Arden hasn't finished her film roll yet, but I suspect that half the pictures will be of puppies. We also saw some cold loving birds, including ptarmigan, Even on the coldest windy days, the ravens and sparrows were flying around town just like any other nice day.

		Although the area has a profusion of wildflowers in the summer, there is not much color in the winter, except for the lichens (left). We saw fox footprints, but not the animals. Paul showed us the difference between arctic fox tracks and red fox tracks. The red fox leaves all prints in a line, while the arctic fox leaves a more typical left/right footprints (center). Moose are not usually around this time of year, but we saw two crossing the Churchill River, far away (right).

		On a warm day (-5°F), Bob and Ken went for a 2 hour walk to Cape Merry. Look closely to see Bob's icy mustache, and frosty hat and glasses. On a colder day, Bob's eyelashes frosted, and tended to stick shut when he blinked. We walked through the port of Churchill, dominated by the grain elevator. The barges in the picture are in dry dock for the winter. They park the barges in the cove at high tide, wait for the low tide to drain all the water, then quickly bulldoze in an earth dike to isolate the barges.

		The Tundra Buggies are used for Polar Bear tours when the bears are around. The vehicles are tall to keep the tourists out of bear claw range. In winter, the bears are out on the pack ice catching seals, so we didn't see any. We will have to come back sometime in bear season, best in October and November. Beluga whales are another popular tourist attraction; thousands of the whales come up the Churchill River in summer to feed on fish.

		This time of year, only three restaurants are open in Churchill. This is the Gypsy Bakery, run by a family from Portugal. We sampled their char and pickerel fish, and the picture shows Jim trying the caribou. They also had enough good vegetables to keep Arden happy. If you look closely at the TV in the background, you may recognize a curling match. A tournament was going on all week, which we watched on some of the colder mornings when staying inside the hotel seemed like a good idea.

		Our last adventure was going for a dogsled ride. That's Jim sitting in the sled (right). The first half of the ride was downwind, which made the return trip back upwind rather brutal. If you want to experience a dogsled ride without the wind chill, you can watch this two second QuickTime movie of Ken's view. ("Unless you're the lead dog, the view is always the same!")