Polar Bear Hunt

It was May 9, 1995, and I had finished teaching a wireline service school to employees of Exxon in Houston, Texas.  I called my office and talked to Joyce.  She gave me the number to call Joe Tilden with The Trophy Connection.  Joe had a polar bear hunt that had been cancelled by one of his clients, and I could have the hunt for one half the price of a usual hunt.  I felt like the offer was too good to turn down.  As I would be leaving on the 20th of May, I had a short time to prepare for this hunt.

          Very hurriedly, I arranged the trip.  I received the list from The Trophy Connection stating what I would need to take on the hunt.  It did not take me long to fill the list; however, I was wishing I would be allowed to take more than forty pounds of baggage.

          I left my house at 6:00 am. on May 20th going to the airport in Corpus Christi.  I flew to Dallas, Chicago, and on to Montreal where I spent the night at Quality Inn.  Early the next morning, I left on First Air Airlines en route to Pond Inlet in the Northwest Territories.  We made a stop in Kuujjauq, Iqaluit, Broughton Island, and Clyde River.  We arrived at Pond Inlet about 8:30 pm. on May 21st.

          Even though it was Sunday evening, I was able to get my hunting license and bear tag.  Our gear was loaded on the snowmobile and we left for Pond Inlet about 10:30 in the evening and rode four hours to get to the camp.  The camp was nothing but a tent on the ice located on Baffin Bay.  After we had eaten our evening/morning meal, we went to bed and slept until noon on May 22nd.  We left at 1:30 pm. by dog sled to go hunting.  We had seventeen husky dogs, consisting of fourteen males and three females.  The dog sled was approximately three feet wide and twelve feet long.  There was just enough room to get our gear on the sled, and we had to ride on top of our gear.

          My guide was Jayko Ootoolak.  He was born and grew up in Pond Inlet, the oldest of eight boys and three girls.  This was the first time he had guided a bear hunt.  We went north and then west from where the camp was located.  All I could see was ice and snow in every direction.  The weather was beautiful.  The sun was shining brightly.  It shines twenty-four hours a day at this time of the year.  We did not see any polar bears that day; however, we did see lots of tracks.  We were back at camp about 2:00 am. on May 23rd.

          We slept until 1:00 pm. this day.  Breakfast was cooked on a Coleman stove since all cooking was done this way.  The food was packer's food which you heat in boiling water before consuming.  Needless to say, it wasn't gourmet food, nor did it taste like Joyce's home cooked breakfast.

          After breakfast, we broke camp and loaded everything intending to move closer to the Floe Edge to hunt.  We were not close to the Floe Edge by 1:00 am. on May 24th, so we set up camp next to an iceberg.  We saw very few tracks and no bear at all during this trip, but we saw lots of seals that day.

          Tom K. was our support man.  He came to our camp on the snowmobile and helped move the camp from time to time.

          We left Wednesday afternoon and went to the Floe Edge.  About 9:30 pm., from the top of an iceberg, we spotted some bears.   They were about seven miles away.  We rode on the dog sled to get a closer look.  Disappointingly, it was a female and two cubs.

          Around midnight, we set up a small pup tent.  We slept, ate, rested the dogs, and returned to our tent which was located next to the iceberg.  This was Thursday morning, the 25th of May.

          It was extremely cold.  We had lots of wind along with five hours of snow.  This was pretty close to a blizzard.  We stayed in camp all day on Friday the 26th.  There was nothing to do but sleep and eat.  Around 9:00 pm., we finally broke camp.  We left riding on the dog sled heading east, traveling about thirty three miles.  It was bitter cold and windy, and we did not see any bears.  Approximately 6:00 am. on Saturday the 27th, we stopped, set up camp, and slept again.

          About 2:00 pm. on Saturday, we got up and had breakfast.  It was snowing very hard.  We goofed around and finally left camp about 10:00 that evening.  We rode the dog sled that night about twenty-five miles.  At approximately 6:00 am. on Sunday the 28th, we saw a four year old male bear.  We rode the dog sled for about three hours until we stopped and put up a small tent to sleep again.  The dogs were very tired.  The weather was frigid and windy.  It snowed most of the day.  It was 5:00 pm. when we loaded everything again.  It was snowing too hard to leave.  We waited until 10:00 pm. to take off.  After going only a short distance, heavy snow hit us again.

          At 4:00 am. on Monday the 29th, we stopped, dug a hole, and set up a wind break next to the sled.  We took the Coleman stove and made hot tea.  After drinking my hot tea, I looked up and saw a bear at the edge of my vision.  He was approximately 150 yards away.  The weather wasn't clear due to the snow and wind.  By the time I got my rifle, he was gone.  We quickly threw everything back onto the sled, turned one dog loose, and headed toward the bear.  When we got to the tracks, the dogs turned right instead of left which was the direction the bear was headed.  We got all the dogs turned around except for one that was following the tracks the wrong way.  We turned two dogs loose to follow the tracks.  Now we had fourteen dogs pulling the sled.  We were within fifty yards of the bear when Jayko turned all the dogs loose.  The bear was fighting the dogs, the dogs were fighting the bear, and they were all moving farther away from us, as we were on foot.  The distance was widening all the time.  I took a quick shot at the bear at approximately 100 yards and hit him in the back leg.  This slowed the bear down enough for us to get closer to him.  The bear was still fighting the dogs, and Jayko was yelling, "Don't shoot my dogs!"  The dogs were tied to their leads, and Jayko started pulling them towards him.  I was able to get an opening.  I shot and killed the bear from about fifteen yards.

          The wind was still blowing, the snow was coming down hard, and it was still extremely cold.  Jayko took a few of the dogs and went back after the sled to bring it down to the bear.  We skinned the bear, cut it up, and loaded the sled.  As we cut up the bear, I noticed that Jayko threw the liver underneath the sled.  We allowed the dogs to have some bear bones and ribs, since they had not eaten in a while.  I asked Jayko about the liver he had put under the sled.  He said it would kill the dogs, or us, if we ate it, because it is so rich in vitamin A.

          We left again riding the sled and rode until 6:30 am.  We had been separated from Tom for a couple of days, as we were lost in the snow storms.  When we stopped, we dug a hole and set up a makeshift tent, which was just a wind break.  We were waiting for the weather to clear a little bit.  By 9:00 am. the weather had cleared enough for us to see a little better.  We went to an empty cabin with which Jayko was familiar, but were nowhere near where we were supposed to be.  We hauled everything into the cabin.  Then we cut bear fat and melted it so we could build a fire in the oil stove to warm up the place.  We ate bear meat and slept until 8:00 pm.  After loading our gear, we went back to the tent we had set up near the iceberg several days ago.  We were glad to get back to the main tent.  Tom had been out looking for us several times, but he was almost out of gas in his snowmobile.

          Back at the main tent, there were a couple of sixteen year old boys headed to Clyde River.  They were having trouble with their snowmobile so they borrowed tools and worked on it until it was repaired.  We cooked, ate polar bear, and went to bed.  It was so nice to be in a sleeping bag again.  This was Tuesday the 30th of May.  We must have been one hundred miles from Pond Inlet.  There was nothing left to do but go back home.  Tom was able to get his radio set up and working.  He called in for someone to bring him some gas.  Finally, Tom's brother came by on his way back from Clyde River to Pond Inlet.  He was pulling an extra sled.  We re-arranged things and loaded all the dogs on the sleds.  After an eight hour ride, we reached Pond Inlet at 6:30 am. on the 31st of May.

          After unloading everything, I spent the night at the Sauniq Hotel.  They had a telephone down the hall from my room.  It was so nice to talk to someone in south Texas.  Equally as nice was the shower.  The room and two meals were $219.25.  This would be close to $200.00 in American money.  It was certainly worth every penny.

          The next morning I left Pond Inlet by plane at 8:00 am.  I was headed toward civilization again, "Thank God!"  I arrived in Montreal and spent one night before the last leg of my trip that took me back to the sweltering heat of south Texas.  It certainly felt good after being in minus forty degree weather.

          The polar bear hide will remain in Northwest Territories or Canada until I can get a permit to bring it into the United States.  The bear was seven and one half feet tall.  This wasn't near what I wanted to get.  This seems to be the average that comes out of Pond Inlet.  I did not feel it was half bad for someone who never dreamed he would ever get to hunt polar bear.

Be lucky this year,

Henry