CANADA: 2026 Nunavut Expedition

Background
I’ve been trying to get a polar bear hunt accomplished for some time. I talked to several outfitters and some of the local guides that provide the hunts in Nunavut and I also almost booked in the Northwest Territories, near Banks Island. I even bought a polar bear replica mount several years ago at the Wild Sheep Foundation “Sheep Show” in anticipation of the trip. Unfortunately, then COVID got in the way. My son’s Dall’s sheep hunt in the Yukon also got pushed back due to COVID but we got that hunt accomplished in 2023. My annual African trips also delayed polar bear plans. Finally, I made concrete 2026 plans for a very adventurous trip in Nunavut with a local guide based out of the village of Sanirajak (near the #7 on the pictured map) on the Melville Peninsula with help from a travel agent company in Quebec called Natura Sport.

A Hunt or an Expedition?
Well, both actually. Instead of hunting closer to the village out on the Foxe Basin ocean ice, we chose to make quite a trek to the west in search of undisturbed hunting and adventure. We would cross the Melville Peninsula headed west to the Gulf of Boothia. This is not some one or two hour trip away from a village. No, it’s eight to ten hours and 200 kilometers (125 miles) on snowmobiles over rough terrain at -20F pulling freight sleds of supplies, gear, a dog sled and six dogs. This is before the hunt even starts by hiking up on the islands to glass or finding bears by dog sled!

I’ve done a fair amount of snowmobiling in my life and a heck of a lot of pro class motocross racing and trail riding when in my teens and twenties so there was no way in the world I was going to ride on the back of some cold, bone-jarring freight sled with the dogs and gear at -20F for eight to ten hours, freezing my tail off! No, I rented my own Ski-Doo Expedition 900cc snowmobile for this adventure. With covered and heated grips, this machine is awesome and powerful enough to lift the skis off the ground if you mash the throttle.

My machine

One of two freight sleds towed by the guides. This one with tents, our gear, groceries, small generator and fuel. The other one had the dog box of dogs, dog sled, tools and more fuel.

Can’t wait to hear about the trip!!!!!

A fantastic area to hunt, and you have put your own spin on it already!

Smart man to save your dental work by not riding in that freight sled.

You'll be more comfortable at -20f than you think. The climate in winter is a dry cold so the temperature will not feel as cold as in the States. I went through the Northern Warfare Training School in AK back in the 80s and was greatly surprised by the "comfort level" in the -20s to -40s. I spent the month of January living with the Innuits on Gambell Island and had a blast. The climate is the same where you'll be hunting. Enjoy the hunt and don't be surprised if you're reluctant to go home.

This is gonna be good!!

have fun and stay warm. at least you get daylight.

Looking forward to following along!

Sorry for the delay! The small Yamaha generator we had in camp burned up so we lost our power for Starlink WiFi. Got back to the village on Wednesday at 7PM after 9.5 hours on a snowmobile! I had no cell service with Verizon after leaving Ottawa and the village hotel’s WiFi wouldn’t allow me to load pictures. I’m now back in Ottawa and headed to Chicago and Denver in the morning.

Travel
My bride and I left our small ranch near Livermore, CO at 3:30AM on April 5th for my flight from Denver to Chicago that started boarding at 6:55AM. I had a Badlands 2200 daypack as my carryon, a waterproof duffel of gear and my rifle case containing my AHR CZ550 in .375 H&H that I bought several years ago from @BeeMaa.

Luckily the TSA slow down was over and I got through security quickly after checking my duffel and rifle case. I had exit row seats with extra legroom to Chicago and was pleasantly surprised to be upgraded to First Class for free to Ottawa due to United Gold status.

On the flight to Ottawa, I ran into Erika, an accomplished lady hunter I know from Hungary. She does a lot of hunting in Africa and all over. She’s hunting mountain lion with me in 2027. She was also headed to Nunavut for polar bear. She was headed to Arctic Bay. She and I have both hunted with Fico Vidale in Zambia and Fico said she made a one-shot kill on her hippo with his .500 NE double rifle. What a small world to see her in Canada and on the same dates, flights to Nunavut and hotel in Ottawa! We had a good time sharing stories and hunting info. On the morning of April 6th, we met in the hotel lobby for the shuttle bus ride to the airport for the Canadian North flight to Iqaluit. She showed up all decked out in her Sitka camo with mukluk boots. I thought that was cute so we had a guy take our picture to send to Fico and my wife. We separated in Iqaluit and bid farewell and good luck with her flying to Arctic Bay and me to Sanirajak.

More to come tomorrow.

April 6th
Arrived in Sanirajak on Canadian North Airlines. It was a balmy -29C!

Guides father/son Enoki and Ishmael met me at the airport and took me to the Inns North hotel. The rooms are actually decent and clean. The small restaurant at the hotel had a small menu but the food was good.


The village is small - only a couple streets of houses and a few businesses and government buildings.



I had pre-paid for my hunting license and bear tag and Enoki picked it up at the Wildlife Office shown below from Brandon, the Officer there.

It was -29C, which is about-20F, and the kids at the house across the street were outside playing with no thought of it!


April 7th
After a night at the hotel and reorganizing my gear, we went to the COOP store for groceries the next morning. We bought plenty of food! Since Enoki had broken his ankle a couple weeks before, another local guy, Joe, would be going with Ishmael and I instead of Enoki. Joe brought his dogs and dog sled.


You’ve heard of the saying, This is Africa” or TIA that is used by we fast-paced Americans and Europeans. Well, the same applies up in the Arctic so it’s still TIA and people in the Arctic live at a slower pace and as an American, you have to adjust and roll with the punches. With a 9.5 hour snowmobile trip ahead of us just to get to where we wanted to camp, I would have liked to leave in the morning but the guys still needed to service the snowmobiles and pack up the freight sleds. Therefore, we didn’t leave the village until 3:00PM. Like I said, TIA! In Colorado, I would have had everything ready beforehand but it is what it is! Lol.

I went back to the hotel while the guys finished packing up and got my heavy clothes on for the long ride. Once we left, it was fun to ride the snowmobiles and see some country. This time of the year, the bears are out on the ice and close to the coast so there’s not much to see on the ride across the peninsula to the Gulf of Boothia.

The land starts out fairly flat for miles but then eventually turns into rolling hills and ridges. Some of the ridges contain rocks and boulders. Without Enoki’s 72 years of experience along, we did have to turn around and go around some of the ridges that contained rocks to get through small passes or saddles that we could get the freight sleds through safely. Joe and Ishmael had been to the Gulf a few times but not as much as Enoki.

Unfortunately about halfway, the freight sled that Joe was pulling caught up to him on a downhill stretch and ran into his snowmobile, breaking a coolant line! Like I said, TIA. Lol.

We sent a message to Enoki that we needed a different snowmobile and sent him a pin to be able to find us. It was too late in the day for Enoki to come so we set up camp for the night. The map below shows the village on the right (east), the temporary camp we setup in the middle and the final destination camp to the west we were trying to reach.

April 8th
Below is a picture of the temporary camp. Unfortunately, by the time Enoki and his son-in-law located another snowmobile in the village, the weather changed for the worse and it was “white-out” conditions for their ride to us while pulling the new machine on a freight sled. They didn’t reach us until 8:30PM. I was starting to get worried about them before they showed up. With the poor visibility, they had to go slow. We had to spend another night at the temporary camp and we set up a second tent for them. I had hoped to hunt on the 8th but it was not to be.

Nothing like a break down in the middle of no where.

Staying positive is a big part of being a good hunter (and human for that matter) and it sounds like you’re doing well despite the challenges.

April 9th
In the morning, we had a quick bite to eat and then we all broke camp and repacked everything. We then helped Enoki and his SIL load the crippled snowmobile on their freight sled and we all headed out - us to the Gulf and Enoki back to the village.

After about three hours, we came to the bay leading out into the Gulf of Boothia and immediately saw a sow with three little cubs of the year in tow on a side hill near us on the edge of the bay. One of the dogs in the dog box saw the bears, slipped its collar, jumped out of the box and took off after the bears. I was worried it might kill a cub but we managed to call the dog back before it could grab one!

About an hour later, we came to an island out in the Gulf. We wanted to camp on the lee side of the island out of the wind but the ice was jumbled up into giant rip rap there due to opposing currents last fall at freeze up. Joe wanted to camp where we were currently stopped but I thought it was too windy of a spot and it would be a miserable spot. I looked over to the next island to the north about a half mile with my binoculars and could see a nice flat spot on the ice on the lee side of that island so we went and camped there instead. It was a good spot and close enough to the island that we could hike right from camp up onto the island to glass out into the Gulf and the bays. We set up camp. After getting situated, Ishmael and I hiked up on the island to glass while Joe stayed in camp to get the dog line staked out.


About an hour before dark, I spotted a bear about half a mile straight out into the Gulf from camp. The bear was waiting by a seal breathing hole. The bear was just inside the rough rip rap ice. We could tell it was a boar by the long thick neck but couldn’t really judge the size so far away without a spotting scope. We just watched it because by the time we would have hiked down off the island and either hiked out to the bear or grabbed the dogs and sled, it would be dark.

Using the small claws on their fore flippers, ringed seals dig breathing holes up through ice as think as two meters. The hole is hardly visible from the surface - just perhaps the size of a coin. As we all know, bears have an incredible sense of smell and they can even smell seals under the ice. When they smell a seal below the hole or through the ice, they pounce on the hole to break it open and grab the seal before it can swim away, much like you will see fox and coyotes do with mice they hear and smell under snow. The picture below shows a hole from which a bear caught a seal and ate it whole. There were only a few small drops of blood on the snow and ice where the bear caught and ate the seal.


Just before dark, we hiked down to camp for dinner with big plans to glass again in the morning and then take the dogsled out for a ride to look for bears and tracks in the afternoon.

Wow what an adventure!!

What an amazing adventure!!! You are seeing some places that very few people will ever get to see. Very cool!

I’m enjoying this. Thanks for sharing your adventure.

Come on Scott, you’re killing us. What an adventure

April 10
After breakfast, Joe and I took the dogsled out onto the ice in the general direction where I saw the bear the night before. We found his tracks but not the bear. We were unable to take the dogsled out into the rough rip rap ice so we did a circular hike. Further south, we also found the tracks of a boar and sow either traveling together or the boar was following her trying to find her. Joe showed me that the boars have more hair around the paws and lower legs than the sows, which is evident in the tracks and foot drag marks. We found most of the tracks near the edge of the roughest ice or out in it. We didn’t see much for tracks on the flat ice. This proved true for the whole trip. We were hunting pre-rut and it seemed that most of the big boars were far out on the ice in the rougher areas hunting seals and not searching for sows yet.

After returning to camp for lunch, Joe and I then hiked up on the island to glass. It was a nice day and we could see far. Joe mentioned that polar bears are most active in the evening and that in this nice weather, we probably would not see much until later in the afternoon or evening. He said they bed down during the day in nice weather. This proved to be accurate as we saw nothing despite a lot of glassing, even though we could see far.




I am wearing modern, new Bunny Boots. My feet never got cold. The bibs are Northern Outfitters brand that I found used on EBay. The coat I am wearing was generously supplied by and borrowed from @Altitude sickness for this trip. The coat has been with him on Mount Everest! The brand is Mountain Hard Wear. It worked great as my outer layer when hunting or walking. On the snowmobile and dogsled, I wore a bulkier Northern Outfitters parka. Jay also ordered a coyote fur hat for me from a trapper in North Dakota that I bought and wore a lot, especially on the snowmobile and dogsled. It is awesome with a fleece liner and the fur on the outside. You will see pictures of it later. Think Jeremiah Johnson fur hat in your mind for now.

After glassing for several hours, Joe said we should go back to camp and take the dogsled and head north to cover ground during the afternoon and evening prime time. We did that and made a big loop with Ishmael following on a snowmobile. Again, we found tracks near and just inside the rougher ice but none on the smoother ice. We also found tracks of sows and cubs near the island shorelines. In the rut, Joe and Ishmael said that boars would be investigating those areas for sows but must not have started with that yet. Late April to mid May is the rut. I wasn’t able to hunt later because I’m headed to Alaska to guide brown bear in early May.

We returned to camp in the evening with no bears spotted on this nice day, which was a bit disappointing.

April 11th
After glassing from the top of the island again, the three of us again took the dogsled and one snowmobile and went even further north than the day before. We would stop every so often and climb up on the rough ice chunks (some the size of cars) and on small islands to glass before continuing on. It was another nice day and we only found older tracks.

In the evening, we headed back south in the direction of our camp. Just before reaching the camp area, we spotted a bear up ahead of us. We increased our speed to get there before the bear got into the really rough ice and Joe also unhooked one of the dogs to give us a bit of protection in case the bear decided to confront or charge us. Unfortunately as we got close, we could see that it was a lone sow. Still fun to see a polar bear up so close!

April 12th
Mid morning, Joe decided to take a snowmobile west and then south out into the rough ice as much as he could to see if he could find a big boar or fresh tracks. It would be rough going but with a blizzard white-out predicted for the next two days, we were trying to make something happen.

While Joe was gone, Ishmael and I climbed up to the top of the island by camp to glass. After glassing for about an hour, I spotted a lone boar to the south about an half mile out in the flat ice. He seemed to be locked down on a seal breathing hole. He was not moving and was staring down at what we guessed was the hole, although we could not see a hole from such a long distance. It was too far to judge his size so we made mental notes of his location and started hiking down and towards him. Without much cover, we circled to get the wind in our face and moved in. At about 250 yards, it became apparent that it was a 7.5’ to 8’ boar. I was hoping for a 9’ or better boar. The bear then spotted us and we had a stare down for a while before he eventually ran away, further south. A close call but fun!

We then went back to camp and found Joe had just returned from his snowmobile ride out into the rough ice. He had rolled his snowmobile and damaged the windshield. He was able to fix the windshield enough to still be useful.

After he fixed the windshield, Joe and I then left with the dogsled to go south. We wanted to go that direction for the afternoon and evening hunt before the approaching storm hit the next day. He also had texted (we had WiFi in camp from Starlink) with a guy from the village who told him to head to an island far to the south to glass as it was a good spot. Ishmael stayed in camp to keep a watch out on the areas closer to camp.

Joe and I eventually reached the small island but it was surrounded by very rough ice, which can be dangerous to hike through because of hidden crevasses and snow covered obstacles. He asked me if I was okay to try getting to the island with him leading. I was. We slowly crossed the rough ice after slipping and falling a couple times but we made it. This little island was a great place to overlook a lot of rough ice, as well as smooth ice to the east.

It was now evening. After about a half hour, Joe spotted a boar out in a smooth ice spot that was surrounded by rough ice to the west of the island. The boar was walking steadily and parallel to us. I got a good look and guessed the bear to be about 8.5’ but there was no way to get to him with him walking steadily. It would have been a dangerous hike and too slow to close on him since he kept moving.

As darkness approached, we hiked back to the sled and headed for camp in worsening weather conditions. It was a better day with two bears spotted but nothing real big yet.

Below is a picture of the dogs staked out at camp. They are fed dog food and chunks of fermented walrus skin, meat and fat that Inuit people bury in the ground to ferment. Probably the worst smelling thing I’ve ever smelled in my life! The guides also would cut off a chunk and eat some! I would rather die first.