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Polar Bear Encounter
By Katie Sauck
Photo by Jeff Silker
Rachel Collins has been on many expeditions that have landed her in the face of danger. As a swift water rescue technician and wilderness first responder skilled in kayaking, backpacking and mountaineering, Rachel Collins has seen and done more in her 24 years than most people experience in a lifetime.
Rachel’s love for exploration and everything outdoors began with her stays at Camp Manito-Wish, a camp in northern Wisconsin she first attended as a 12-year-old. Through this camp, she was able to have many adventures, including one that landed her on a river in the Arctic Circle, with a polar bear right on her trail.
At the age of 17, Rachel left on a 65-day expedition that would take her and seven other girls, ranging from ages 17 to 26, 650 miles from northern Saskatchewan, Canada, to Arviat, a town near Hudson Bay close to the Arctic Circle. “We all went to have fun and to explore,” Rachel said. “Running three different river systems, it was super beautiful.” They were self-sufficient, transporting all the food and gear for the entire trip with them. Traversing class three and four rapids in the white water rivers, the group was frequently out of their canoes scouting the river. “We’d look to see if we could run the river or if we’d need to line it, (which means you use ropes to guide the boats down, with you on shore) or take everything out and portage the boats.”
On day 39 of their journey, the girls left the boats to scout the river. “We wanted to run the river, river left. [Two of the girls] ran it first and gave the rest of us a paddle signal saying to go river right,” Rachel said. “They were yelling at us and we thought they said there was a hole on the left, which is like a washing machine in the river, one of the most dangerous things to encounter.” The rest of the group ran the river, river right, but looked left and saw there was no hole after all. They asked the first two, “What do you mean there was a hole?” The girls replied, “No, no, we said we saw a polar bear!”
Pinned on a beach with a ten-foot cliff behind them and a rapid just upriver, the eight girls watched a polar bear lumber over a hill and begin pacing on the beach across the river, less than 40 yards from them. “We pulled out a naturalist’s guide to the arctic and it says polar bears run up to 30 miles per hour. Great, we can’t out run it. They can swim up to eight miles per hour. We can’t paddle that fast. They hunt whales so turning a boat over is no big deal for a bear!” Rachel said.
Just then, the bear got in the water and started swimming toward the girls. “It disappeared underwater and we just didn’t know where it went.” Rachel and one of the others climbed up the cliff to look for the bear but couldn’t find it anywhere. “After an hour on the beach, watching and waiting, we decided we were probably safer moving in the boats. So, we got in the boats and started paddling.”
Rachel said, “We paddled down to the next rapids and looked back. The polar bear was standing right on the beach where we had just been. So, he’s following us!” The girls had a shotgun for protection but none of them had ever shot one. Rachel had also shoved their flare gun into her lifejacket. “We shot the flare gun to try and scare the bear, but it just looked at it and then back at us.”
For almost 24 hours the girls stayed on the river. “One of us would sleep in the front of the boat while the other one paddled,” Rachel said. The bear followed the girls tenaciously; hopping from one beach to the next, his bloody paws leaving a trail behind him. “You think, ‘Oh my gosh! I’m going to get eaten by a polar bear in the Arctic!’ But, you should be comforted because the blood means he’s eaten recently.” When the exhausted girls hadn’t seen the bear for a couple hours, they finally decided to stop and rest.
They did not see the polar bear again for the remainder of the trip. Looking back, Rachel realizes the real danger they were in. “Nobody would have seen the flare gun,” she said, “We were at least a two or three week paddle from the nearest town. We hadn’t seen anyone since day 18 of the expedition.” In addition to the shotgun and flare gun, the girls had an EPIRB (Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon) radio, which is a life or limb radio. “It emits a signal when you turn it on but we could only use it if we’d been attacked.”
“Close encounters are fun,” Rachel said, “but they only happen once every few trips. People always ask about the polar bear story, but my life’s not really like that.” Now a graduate student at Minnesota State University, Mankato, Rachel is working on her experiential education degree, focusing on outdoor professionalism. She is also an instructor for the International Wilderness Leadership School where she takes college students on expeditions to train them to lead outdoor trips. In the summer of 2007 she spent 48 days teaching sea-kayaking expeditioning, 12 days as a glacial mountaineering guide and 24 days on a backpacking and whitewater expedition. The longest expedition Rachel has been part of was one she took right after graduating from high school. She spent 84 days in Patagonia, on Tierra del Fuego in the southern islands of South America.
Rachel’s parents, who live near Chicago, Illinois, have settled into the knowledge that their daughter’s adventurous nature may land her in the face of danger from time to time. “My mom likes hearing about the expeditions and the cool places I get to travel as long as I leave dangerous parts out of the stories,”
Rachel said. Her mom sleeps better when she doesn’t know what kind of encounters her daughter has had while being in the field. Rachel’s father is supportive of her expeditions and always encourages her to have a backup plan. “My dad’s super involved in my life and is one of my best friends,” Rachel said. Although he enjoys having a daughter who’s all over the place, he waits to hear the stories until Rachel’s safely back home. “It makes him nervous unless I tell him the stories after my return.”
While not all of Rachel’s expeditions put her in the face of danger, her life is full of adventure and exploration. After graduation Rachel plans on taking time off from the academic world to go back into the field. “I remember how life changing it was for me to be on my first few trips into the wilderness and there is nothing more exciting to me than getting to facilitate and share that experience with others. So I’ll probably spend next year teaching leadership in the backcountry.” Rachel loves being in the wilderness and working with college students, and hopes one day to teach at the college level. Without a doubt, Rachel’s adventures have just begun.
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