By John Gunter & Laura Labelle

As the month of March draws to a close, long days, moderate temperatures and heaps of snow makes weather conditions in Churchill ideal for outdoor activities such as aurora viewing, dog-sledding and snowshoeing, not mention wandering around and exploring Churchill's unique northern charm.      
      
Prior to heading north from Winnipeg, our departure city, we spent a very practical morning at the Manitoba Museum. Well known for award-winning dioramas, the Museum's exhibits prepared our guests for the journey north and the Planetarium program included an 'intro to Northern Lights photography'.      
      
For our first morning in Churchill we headed to the start line of the Hudson Bay Quest, a 400 kilometer dog-sled race between Churchill, Manitoba and Arviat, Nunavut. Our guests were able to wander through the teams as they prepared for their three-day journey across ice and snow. Interesting about this race, an Iditarod qualifying race, is that many of the mushers are Inuit and race in seal skin outerwear and with tradition dog-team configurations. A very cool experience.      
      
That afternoon, our group took part in a dog-sled adventure of our own. The dogs were excited to run and the weather was beautiful. The trail took us by Old Joe Buck's cabin; decades ago Joe Buck was a trapper in the area.      
      
The next day on board our cozy Tundra Buggy, we embarked across the frozen Churchill River, south a few kilometers to a cabin in the forest for tea, first-hand stories about Churchill's interesting history and a snowshoe through, and interpretation of, Churchill's boreal forest, tundra and marine ecosystems.      
      
Each evening at about 9:00 P.M. we boarded a Tundra Buggy outfitted with comfortable couch seating, crawled back across the frozen Churchill River to Seahorse Gully (to escape light generated by the community) to photograph and experience the Aurora Borealis. The mobile Tundra Buggy afforded us the opportunity to select the best location from which to experience the Lights and get onto the ground to photograph and explore. The Buggy also afforded us the opportunity to take breaks from the winter nights and enjoy each other's company with warming beverages, wine, cheese and hors d'oeuvres.      
      
At the tail end of our last evening, in the wee hours of the morning, the Aurora came alive! We'd experienced great northern lights activity all week, but this display almost knocked us over. From horizon to horizon, blazing directly above us! Quite the send-off, that's for sure.