November 2007,

Here are some pictures from our trip to the Arctic.  We saw polar bears, woodland caribou, the northern lights, willow ptarmigan, & king eiders.  Some of the bears were close, but one photo shows what they look like just resting on the tundra waiting for the ice to freeze. 

Churchill, Manitoba was in the middle of the tundra, on the edge of Hudson Bay.  There were no  roads to Churchill, but once we flew in, there were some roads out of town into the tundra.  You either fly in, or take the railroad which is poor (a train that is 8 hours late is early), or the Hudson Bay is ice free late July to mid-Nov. 

We rented an old GMC Suburban with 184,000 miles on it and drove out into the wilderness one day.  Two days we went out on tundra buggies. 

It went above freezing a few hours one day.  Much of the time it was so cold outside, it hurt.  There were signs warning people to not walk past the edge of town, which was about 6 blocks by 2 blocks. 

Dave and Debbie Simpson

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