No big reports this trip. You all know the score.

But, as I was trying to find a horizon to look at during the helicopter ride this afternoon, we saw a big red splotch. Everyone in the copter was oohing and aahing, while I was trying to right my brain. Then even I saw it--the red was a kill. a seal, part of which was then in the mouth of one seal, while another picked at the rest of the remains. With two ravens (new to me) poked at the blood.

The young woman who, with her friend, triggered the bear attack had lived in Churchill for a couple of years, and so was experienced in the polar bear rules. Rule 1--don't leave the Halloween party at 5 a.m. after imbibing too much. The woman has been released from the hospital; the man who was hurt trying to help her is supposedly in bad shape and still in the hospital. The woman is a Gypsy's waitress, so the place was an awkward sad/happy during lunch.

Steve was livid that two bears were killed as a result of the attack. He said the bears were tracked down and killed after the attack, without anyone trying to tranquilize them and take them to the bear jail. And one bear left an orphaned cub, who will now spend his life in the zoo.

We've already seen a mom and cub during out school bus tour, and bear after bear on the helicopter trip. others saw 21 bears at the cape, lined up along a mud flat. I saw 2, but then I was happy to see anything.

Steve is a little grayer, couldn't get any balder, and still full of vigor.

I thought I was a veteran, this being my third go-around with the bears and Steve. Helena and Mark, however, are on their seventh visit. I'm not sure whether they will make it through to the eighth, since they are both in poor physical shape. oxygen for one, walker for the other. The PolarBearites have been understanding, encouraging, patient, and happy to have them on the bus (which I fear Helena will fail to climb before the trip is ended.

This group of PolarBearites is eccentric, exceedingly well traveled, from the U.S., Canada (of all things) England and Australia, and without pretensions. One guy is a retired Fire Chief from Whistler who, with his wife, camped out throughout Canada for 5 months (that was not a typo) last summer. Another couple, from Australia, is traveling basically in the U.S for 5 weeks (four of which are mandated vacation--yes mandated).

Tomorrow the tundra.