July 23-30 - Back to Ulukhaktok
During this trip, I hiked with a shotgun with slugs. I carried these because I was advised it was essential. While my first concern was polar bears, and possibly the growing number of grizzlies on the island, the Kuptanas (as well as many others on Vicotria and Banks islands) warned me that the wolf packs were a larger threat.
I didn’t see a pack of wolves, although Travis later told me the first wolf I saw early during the trip was probably calling the pack when it howled as I passed it in a valley. But on these final days of the trip I did come across a Grizzly bear. The bear looked like another black rock on a tundra hill, but I noticed that this particular rock was moving, and with my camera zoom I could just make out the shape of a bear. It was remarkably like us humans – it lumbered slowly, appearing completely unafraid - without the skittishness of caribou, or the angst of the wolves.
I was upwind of the bear, and while it stopped frequently to sniff in the air, it didn’t see me. I took a wide birth.
On my penultimate day I needed to cross the Kuujjua again. I was intrigued by Robert Kuptana’s comment that the elders talked of a place you could cross the river by foot.
The river was lower now, being end July, but my crossing point was clearly much better than my previous (sand underneath compared to rocks, and shallower) and there was no doubt you could walk across the river this time. That was probably the location the elders referred to.
When I arrived back to Ulukhaktok many people greeted me. It was already starting to turn cold with winter approaching. I learned that the wolf which trailed me was probably a young male ejected from the pack. No one I met had seen the Dubai-like deserts of Collinson delta, but some had heard of it. The lone wolf that called out as I passed through the valley was probably calling for its pack, and I was lucky that the pack didn’t show up.
I left on a windy, cold, summer day.
