Wildlife Viewing with Arctic Watch for the Active Traveler

By Daven Hafey, Quark Expeditions

Wildlife guide and documentary producer Daven Hafey has a passion for all things related to wildlife, weather, tides and Indigenous culture. He has guided on more than 40 polar expeditions, in the Canadian Arctic, Greenland, Alaska and the Antarctic. 

 

The Arctic. Just speaking the name evokes a wide array of thoughts and emotions, of daydreams, and longing for those who seek wildlife adventures in the tundra and barren lands of the surreal landscape under the midnight sun. It’s this urge to explore the pristine wilderness of the High North that draws visitors to Arctic Watch Wilderness Lodge, an off-the-grid base camp built to withstand the Arctic climate.
Arctic Watch-Lodge- -courtesy-ArcticWatchLodge

 

Located on the northern edge of Somerset Island, nearly 800 km north of the Arctic Circle, Arctic Watch is small, family-run, remote land-based lodge that enables visitors to explore the wilds of Canada’s Nunavut Territory.

One of the most popular draws to Arctic Watch Wilderness Lodge is the prospect of witnessing the annual beluga whale migration to Cunningham Inlet on the island’s northern shores each summer. There, in the waters of Cunningham Inlet, the majestic belugas socialize and reconnect with hundreds of their species in the quiet and pristine waters off Peel Sound. Few wilderness experiences rival the vision of mother belugas and their calves playing in the shallows of Cunningham Inlet.

Belugas_CunninghamInlet-Arctic-courtesy-ArcticWatch

 

I’ve encountered so many other wildlife species during my visits to Arctic Watch Lodge. Muskox abound in the tundra and talus slopes of Somerset Island, along with Arctic hare, Arctic fox, and occasionally caribou. The King of the North, the polar bear, is often seen in the region, as the McClintock Channel on the west coast of Somerset Island is home to one of the more stable populations of polar bears in all of the Arctic. Migratory birds also take advantage of the short Arctic summer, congregating en masse to feed, breed and rear their young before returning south for the winter. Arctic terns and eider ducks are plentiful. The chance to observe such wildlife in their natural habitat is the appeal of the Arctic.

Muskox-Arctic-courtesy-DavidMerron

 

The active traveler has multiple wildlife-viewing options while staying at Arctic Watch Wilderness Lodge:

 

By water: kayaks, stand-up paddle boards and rafts

Sea kayaking and stand-up paddle boarding are popular ways to explore Somerset Island. Imagine gliding through the pristine Arctic waters with sea ice on one side of you and dozens of belugas on the other, or propelling yourself forward on a stand-up paddle board in Cunningham Inlet while watching and listening to the belugas as they congregate in the same waters.

Kayaking-CunninghamInlet-courtesy-ArcticWatch

The expert team at Arctic Watch Wilderness Lodge, operated by Richard Weber and Josée Auclair along with their sons Tessum and Nansen Weber, do their best to ensure guests get a fully immersive wilderness experience. That can mean navigating the rivers upstream of Cunningham Inlet to check out the water-filled canyons and waterfalls while on the look-out for musk ox, Arctic fox, and other iconic wildlife.

 

Exploring faster and further on a fat bike or an ATV

In the absence of developed trail systems, fat bikes provide an excellent means of exploring rocky beaches, hillsides, and ridgelines inhabited by myriad Arctic wildlife. Guests can also hop on an all-terrain vehicle (ATV) to explore a distant ridge or plateau land and then explore on foot. Lodges guides are available to drive should a guest prefer not to operate an ATV on their own.

Arctic-birds-David-Merron

 

Let’s Go Fishing

The team at Arctic Watch includes experienced fishing guides who can equip you with gear if you don’t bring your own.  It’s hard to imagine a more pristine freshwater environment than the rivers, streams, and meltwater ponds of the High Arctic. Thawed and free-flowing for brief periods every summer, the cold, clean rivers and streams of the Far North are paradise for fish, especially Arctic char, which sometimes weigh more than ten pounds.

 

Take a leisurely approach to the Arctic wilderness

Visitors who feel the urge to absorb the wonders of the Arctic at a more leisurely, relaxed pace can go on a hiking or photography-themed outing – or they can simply choose to enjoy the Arctic wilderness in solitude. Joining a guided hike means you have the benefit of listening to staff recount endless stories and northern experiences, which provide historical, ecological, or cultural context. What better way to learn about the intricate, resilient, and delicate ecology of the Arctic wilderness.

 

Interested in learning more about Quark Expeditions? Visit www.quarkexpeditions.com.

Quark Expeditions is the leader in polar travels. Quark Expeditions has been taking global travelers on immersive journeys to the Arctic and Antarctica for almost three decades.

A Safari North of the Arctic Circle

By John Newton, AFAR Ambassador

 

1

Travelers with Quark Expeditions photographing belugas in Cunningham Inlet on Somerset Island

Every year, thousands of travelers head to Africa in the hope of seeing the famous “Big Five” animals—lion, leopard, rhinoceros, elephant, and Cape buffalo—during a stay at one of the continent’s safari camps. Far fewer, only a couple of hundred each summer, travel to Somerset Island, with the goal of spotting the wildlife there. Few places in the world are more remote than Somerset Island, located in Canada’s newest province, Nunavut, carved out from the Northwest Territories in 1999. When I was offered the opportunity to travel there and stay at the Artic Watch Wilderness Lodge on a trip with Quark Expeditions, I knew it was one I couldn’t pass up.

My last trip to the far north of Canada was in 2016, to northern Manitoba, and while I was there I picked up a copy of Barry Lopez’s Arctic Dreams, which I’d recommend to anyone interested in the flora, fauna, and people who live at the edge of the world. Ever since finishing it, I was determined to see the Arctic—and with Lopez’s appreciation for how even the most apparently desolate landscapes are teeming with life, if you learn how to look with a different perspective. Now I would have a chance to travel 500 miles beyond the Arctic Circle, far past the end of the tree line and where the midnight sun doesn’t set from the end of May until the middle of August.

Coming up with a Big Five for Somerset Island is a challenge—there are only three animals that are truly big: beluga whales, polar bears, and musk oxen. My safari check list would be rounded out by some smaller species too: arctic foxes, hares, and lemmings.

My journey to the Arctic Watch Wilderness Lodge required a stop in Yellowknife, where I saw the animals of the Arctic in taxidermy states at the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre. The following day, our group of 23 travelers flew just over three hours north of Yellowknife, to a landing strip on uninhabited though immense (it measures some 9,500 square miles) Somerset Island.

DSC_1117

Our Arctic safari camp consisted of two rows of guest tents, a main tent where we gathered each morning and evening, and another tent for dining. Every morning we chose from different expeditions, and my focus was on the wildlife. On the first day, I headed out with a group of ten to Polar Bear Point, where our guides were able to spot a tiny white dot on the horizon—a polar bear. Despite the name of the point, it’s not teeming with polar bears. We got within 100 meters or so of the young male polar bear thanks to a quick lesson from our Quebecois guide on how to keep low and approach it as a compact group. Once the bear heard us, he stood up on two legs, sniffed in our direction, rolled on his back, and then wandered away. One down.

4
Muskoxen on Somerset Island

If Polar Bear Point is an obvious place to look for polar bears, then Muskox Ridge seems like a logical place to search for muskoxen, one of the iconic animals of the Arctic. Though the beasts are skittish, our group that day was led by Tessum Weber, the son of Richard Weber and Josée Auclair, the owners of the lodge. Having spent his childhood summers on Somerset Island, he brings decades of experience to the challenge of approaching muskoxen, and we got close enough to see one stand up on a small hill, in a Lion King like moment, before it continued on its way.

The belugas were both the easiest animals to spot and the most impressive. Each year some 2,000 gather in Cunningham Inlet once the ice breaks. On our third day at the camp, the sun was shining and temperatures in the low 60s, and the belugas seemed to be enjoying the pleasant weather as much as we were. Hundreds of white dots filled much of Cunningham Inlet, and whether sitting on the shore hearing their chirps or kayaking alongside, the sight was breathtaking.

9

Even when they centuries old, arctic willows grow low to the ground.

While much of my focus was on the animals of the island, the flora is fascinating as well. Exploring Somerset Island was like walking through the early chapters of my botany textbook. It is a landscape of mosses and lichens, the most primitive plants, while other species reflect unique adaptations to the Arctic conditions. Arctic willows that were a hundred years old were still only an inch tall, with no need to grow above other plants competing for sunlight.

DSC_0968

Back on my pursuit of the animals on my Arctic checklist, Tessum also took us to two fox dens, where young pups were playing. With the foxes we had to maintain a significant distance and could only watch them through binoculars—a reminder that not every moment needs to be recorded on Instagram. On my last full day on the island, a hare hopped up just a few meters from me before darting off up a hillside. All that remained was the elusive lemming, and despite the guides looking in every lemming hole, I had to leave without seeing one. My exploration of the Arctic isn’t over yet.

 

Interested in learning more about John’s journey? Read more about it on AFAR.com, the USTOA blog, check out Quark Expeditions Arctic Watch Wilderness Lodge itinerary.

John has almost 20 years’ experience in travel, both on staff at Conde Nast Traveler and Travel + Leisure and writing for other magazines, newspapers, and websites. He is AFAR’s Branded Content Advisor and the founder of Signal Custom Content, a travel branded content consulting company. In addition to his trip to Nunavut, his 2018 travel plans include Austria, El Salvador, Guanajuato in Mexico, Hungary, Vancouver, and Vietnam.

 

My Week as an Arctic Explorer

by Kelley Ferro

Rarely do you set out on a trip and truly feel like an explorer, but I felt like a modern day Magellan when I embarked on my Polar Bear Adventure in Manitoba. This aptly named small group journey with Tauck was indeed the quintessential adventure. Our frontier was Churchill and our prize was sighting the largest land carnivore, the polar bear. However, I didn’t realize that my discoveries on this adventure were not going to be limited to these white, graceful bears. There was a whole lot more to discover in this tiny, remarkable town located of on the edge of the Arctic.

Arriving in Churchill

Just getting up to Churchill was an adventure of sorts. Our group met in the capital city of Winnipeg, which I had previously considered quite far north in Canada. We then flew in a private charter,1,000 miles more North. I was glued to the window as the landscape changed underneath me, going from dense, dark forest to icy, white tundra.

Greeted by one of the famed polar bears

Stepping out of the plane onto the tarmac in a blustery snowstorm seemed fitting for a town that has one of the longest winters in the world. Churchill is only accessible by a long train journey or by plane–no roads drive in here– and there’s something exhilarating about being so far away. We were among the few tourists in this 800 person town, and though our lodgings were quite luxurious at the Lazy Bear Lodge, I felt like we were brave travelers, here to explore this remote land and bring back stories of the famed polar bears.

Selfie inside the warm Arctic Crawler

We were barely in Churchill for 24 hours before I was literally eye to eye with a polar bear. Of course, I had the protection of being inside my warm Arctic Crawler, a well-equipped bus with a woodstove, food and heat. But he and I had a staring contest through the open window. I could feel his breath and see each individual whisker on his nose as he poked it in our buggy.

We saw nine polar bears that day, two of which took a liking to us and spent 30 minutes just circling our crawler, standing up on their hind legs to give us a good look and putting their fluffy paws on the outer viewing platform. If our goal on the Live Like a Local video shoots is to meet the locals, I don’t think I could have gotten to know the local Churchill polar bears any more closely!

Looking out on the tundra, I could see how polar bears could call this home, but I wondered how could people actually live here?! Lucky for us, Tauck gave us the opportunity to find those answers. We had nightly seminars, wildlife films and intimate meetings with many local figureheads of Churchill and members of native tribes. We had the chance to talk with the true lifeblood of this remote community.

Though the polar bears left a particular impression on me, there was another local that I found to be even more interesting. Her name is Myrtle deMeulles and she’s a member of the Métis tribe, one of the Aboriginal peoples of this region, whose ancestry is traced back to a mix of First Nations and European descent. Her first language was Cree and she grew up on the trap line, one of 12 children of a fur trapper. She is a piece of living history, candidly and eagerly sharing her culture, one that I knew so little about.

Myrtle deMeulles is a member of the Métis tribe, one of the Aboriginal peoples of the region.

What struck me most was she talked about growing up in Churchill, working as a dishwasher down the street, being picked on by her brothers and having her first crush. Though some of her life’s narrative had been so foreign to me, I had heard versions of these stories many times before. Even here in the Arctic, she experienced the same trials and tribulations of growing up and finding her place in the world. And she certainly has. She’s dedicated her life to preserving her culture through storytelling, caribou fur tufting and by making herself available to visitors like me. Looking her in the eyes, I really understood her life and her people. It made me realize that even though I thought Churchill was so far away, the world is really much smaller than it seemed. I still have glorious tales of spotting polar bears, but the most meaningful discoveries to me, were learning from cultural ambassadors like Myrtle.

Myrtle deMeulles is a member of the Métis tribe, one of the Aboriginal peoples of the region.

Kelley Ferro is a travel expert & video journalist living in NYC. She films her show, Get Lost, around the world–hopping on a plane at least twice a month She is also the executive producer for Tripfilms.com. For more on her travels, follow Kelley’s Facebook page.