Don't Get Eaten by Polar Bears

I'm not sure why, but the warning I hear most from friends back east is "Don't get eaten by polar bears". "Pola bears," I say. "are MARINE mammals and Fairbanks is in the INTERIOR!" No matter, I hear the warning often.

HOWEVER, David had a great desire to get near enough to a polar bear to be eaten, so off we went to Kaktovik on the Arctic Ocean for an overnight polar bear viewing trip. (Quite expensive)

We took a 6 person propeller plane to Kaktovik and David was quite perplexed that there was absolutely no security and the pilot doubled as a baggage carrier. It was also a bit disconserting that the folks who checked us in weighed our luggae as well as US!

We stayed at the home of the brother of one of the students in the RAP program who is a guide for polar bear viewing and all things Arctic. He is also a passionate advocate against drilling in ANWAR which led to some interesting discussions.

The village of Kaktovik is in the North Slope Borough which benfits from North Slope Oil taxes and land leases so it is a small, but reasonably wealthy village with no trees and right on the sea.

Robert, our host, met us right on the tarmac and took us in his truck to his house where we would stay overnight. Quite ironic that we have to go to an Arctic village to have indoor plumbing! Quite nice since Kaktovik was very windy and an icy wind blew off the sea which made it more uncomfortable than Fairbanks. Robert's grandaughter and her cute baby Athena lived with him.

Robert arranged for us to hop onto a motor boar and go out to a barrier island close to the mainland where the polar bears hang out during the day. It was freezing and windy! We were lucky enough to see a mother and two cubs. David's new camera has a healthy zoom because we were not able to get very close, but his camera let us see great detail.













Look at those paws!



Robert drove us around Kaktovik, seeing the sites and allowing us to experience a landscape without trees.







This graveyard, one of several, was near the sea. Notice the whalebone arch.

One of the places that polar bears gather is the "bone yard" where the whales are cut up and the bones are left. It is purposely away from the town to encourage the bears to keep away from people. There is an area where the new bones are and then an area where last year's bones are left. The bears come at night to feed on the remains. When we were there, we saw 6 bears, which is a low count. Robert thought that there was a dead whale about 20 miles up the beach that was keeping the bears satisfied.







The gulls in the place are huge!!!! Don't call them sea gulls! I was corrected several times!

There are two hotels in Kaktovik that cater to researchers and the tourists that come to see the bears. Waldo Arms is by far the one with more character, but dubious comforts. It is made of a series of Atcos and looked quite derict, but had a cozy gathering area and quite genial hosts (Waldo and his wife).

At night Robert took us to a high point where we watched brilliant green auroras swooping across the sky from horizon to horizon (no treeline to obsucre the sights). The night was so clear and the auroras so bright that they lit up the sea with their reflections! No photos, alas.

We had a great time at Robert's as he was a wonderful host. Even though the quilt that was to cover us never made it to the drier we were cozy because he was careful to turn the heat way up at night to keep us warm. And we had huge meals: breakfast of pancakes, eggs, fruit and spam; lunch which included beluga muktuk and dinner of caribou ( which, unfortunately was a little tough because Robert accidentlaly defrosted a big hunk of beluga instead of caribou roast, so he quickly defrosted a caribou haunch and made it into a stir fry which probably wasn't what that cut of meat was meant for).

We were to leave at 3 pm the next day and although the morning broke windy but sunny as the take-off time neared the snow was swirling and the sky lowering. Luckily our plane came in. We got to the airstrip early and the pilot loaded the plane, and because all 6 of us were in our seats 15 mintues before take-off...up we went! No one even asked our names...they figured out who we were because the pilot seemed to know everyone BUT us!The pilot is loading the baggage, which in our case included a cooler full of beluga for Robert's sister in Fairbanks.

The hairy thing about the landing strip is that it doubles as a road to the boneyard and at one point we actually pulled off and let a plane land while we were travelling around Kaktovik!