CHILL FACTOR DOG SLEDS AND IGLOOS IN CANADA'S FROZEN NORTH.

Byline: Bill Becher Correspondent

CHURCHILL, Manitoba - A pale-green curtain of light shimmered over the tundra where caribou and polar bears roam.

I was on the shore of frozen Hudson Bay to experience three things I've never done before: building an igloo, mushing a dog sled team and watching the eerie green northern lights dance in the night sky. The Fire and Ice Adventure with outfitter Churchill Wild is a chance to see the harsh but starkly beautiful arctic life firsthand.

A town of less than 1,000 people, Churchill was once on the front line of the Cold War and the site of a big Strategic Air Command base. Now it's reinventing itself as a tourist destination - billed as the ``polar bear capital of the world.''

In October and November there are more polar bears than residents in Churchill. The bears amble through town, waiting for the bay to freeze so they can spend the winter hunting seals - their favorite food. During polar bear season, most tourists see the bears from ``tundra buggies'' - buses with oversize tires - but Churchill Wild specializes in tours on foot in addition to the buggies. This lessens the ecological impact and gives guests a more natural view of the bears. (Safety has not been a problem as armed guides accompany the guests.)

Spring, which the locals call ``warm up,'' is pretty much like winter except for better weather and longer days - it's a good time to explore the snowy landscape. Technically, Churchill is below the Arctic Circle, but, because the bay stays frozen until summer, it acts as a cold sink and keeps the area nearly as frigid as in the Arctic.

You can only reach Churchill by a 14-hour train ride from Thompson, Manitoba, or a 2 1/2-hour flight from Winnipeg. There are no roads to the town.

It's a three-hour snowmobile ride to one of the remote lodges run by the Webbers, a family that has lived in the area for generations. We bundled up in a sled pulled by a snowmobile. Our route took us over a frozen river and along the bay.

The Seal River Heritage Lodge is a whale- and bear-watching lodge in the summer. The lodge sits on a small hill overlooking the bay. The doors and windows were covered with boards with nails protruding like an Indian fakir's bed - that keeps polar bears from breaking in when the lodge is unoccupied.

Polar bears are known to hunt and eat humans, so the guides carry rifles. With an armed bodyguard following you wherever you go, you feel a bit like Michael Corleone hiding out in Sicily in ``The Godfather.''

Our other protector was Dakota, a fearless 4-year-old black Labrador that chases the bears when she's not playing fetch with snowballs.

In the summer, the lodge offers a Birds, Bears and Belugas program, which gives guests the opportunity to spot the rare Ross's gull from Siberia, observe snowy owls and ptarmigans, see polar bears and go swimming with beluga whales.

Bears have been more prevalent in recent summers - some biologists believe this is because global warming has reduced the bears' hunting season on the ice.

Our first task after we settled into the lodge was to build an igloo. When building your first igloo, it pays to think small. No family room, no guest bedroom.

``Decide how small you want your igloo, then build it half that size,'' said Mike Reimer, our guide. Just clear a small space and stack cut blocks of snow (we used an old saw) around you in a spiral pattern. It gets a bit tricky as you get to the top - the key is to cut the blocks so that they slope inward but don't fall over.

Fill in the chinks between the blocks with snow and pat it down carefully or you'll have to start over. When you're done, remove a bottom block and crawl out. If you want to get fancy, you can include a slab of ice for a window. Inuits (the proper name for Eskimos) can build an igloo in half an hour; it took us half a day.

Clear nights here are lit by the aurora borealis: the northern nights.

The lodge has two viewing platforms for watching nature's neon lights, which are caused when charged particles streaming from the sun hit the Earth's upper atmosphere. The particles are deflected by the Earth's magnetic field and converge in an oval ring around the North Pole. The ring passes overhead near Churchill, and the light is usually green, but occasionally other colors appear - reds and violets.

The phantasmagorical sheets of light slowly danced overhead. Some people claim the lights make a sound, but all we heard was the cold silence of the night.

Meals are hearty, keep-you-warm fare and use local provender. Dinners can include snow goose meat pie, caribou lasagna and northern pike chowder. At breakfast one morning we had eggs and wild blueberry pancakes with whipped cream, Canadian bacon and syrup. Guests like the food so much that Helen Webber has published a series of cookbooks featuring recipes from the lodges.

On our snowmobile excursion out onto the ice of Hudson Bay, harp seals were basking in the sun, ready to slide into holes in the ice if danger appeared. Danger for seals is a polar bear. The male bears can weigh 1,000 pounds and need to eat a lot of seal to get that big.

Polar bears have no natural predators except man to worry about; their white coats are camouflage to help them stalk the seals.

We headed for an open ``lead'' - an area clear of ice, where we were more likely to see bears stalking seals. We saw a herd of caribou but no bears. Most of them are still farther out on the ice in spring.

At Hubbard Point is a 500-year-old Inuit camp, and we stopped here for a break. Hunters buried their dead here and used rocks to create tent rings, fox traps and a cradle for their kayaks.

We explored the frozen bay, which was anything but flat. Movement of the ice pack creates ridges and ``push-ups'' - nature's fantastic ice sculptures in shades of white, green and blue.

Then it was time to make a hot lunch over a fire. The fare featured fried northern pike and bannock, a pan-fried bread that trappers favored.

The lodge is on the route of the annual Hudson Bay Quest, a multiday, 250-mile dogsled race. We watched the racers come by, led by a Minnesota sled driver. Inuits ran several teams using traditional wooden sleds called komatiks. One Inuit racer stopped to tend to an injured dog, carefully tying him to the top of the sled, where the pooch got a free ride home.

Included in the Fire and Ice tour was the opportunity to mush a team of dogs with Gerald Azure of Blue Sky Expeditions and Wapusk Adventures. The dogs are mostly northern husky mix, though some have wolf genes for extra endurance. Azure fixed their leads to their harnesses while I sat in the sled, covered with a heavy blanket for warmth.

The dogs seemed to be looking forward to the exercise, barking and jumping as Azure stood on the sled runners behind me. We set off, and he yelled at the dogs - ``Gee'' for left turn and ``Haw'' for right.

After the dogs calmed down a bit, Azure stopped. He told me to jump on the runners while he sat in the sled. Soon we were flying down a snowy road.

The dogs were on their way home, so they didn't need to hear ``Gee'' or ``Haw'' from me. The runners sliced through the snow as the wintry landscape rushed by. I hung on, glad for my new experiences.

``It's exhilarating,'' said fellow guest Mark A. D'Angelo of Pittsburgh. ``It's like National Geographic, but you're right there.''

IF YOU GO

GETTING THERE: Calm Air offers scheduled air service in Manitoba from Winnipeg to Churchill.

TOURS: The five-day Fire and Ice Adventure costs about $3,220 U.S. This year, it is scheduled for March 31-April 4. Polar bear tours are in October and November. The Birds, Bears and Belugas tours run mid-July to mid-August.

INFORMATION: www.churchillwild.com; call [phone].

CAPTION(S):

7 photos, box, map

Photo:

(1 -- 4 -- color) A woman and her best friend explore the rugged environment of frozen Hudson Bay in Churchill, Manitoba. On the Fire and Ice Adventure, hostess Carly Reimer, above, invites guests to marvel at the aurora borealis, top, or join her dad, Mike Reimer, in building an igloo, above left.

(5 -- 7 -- color) Above: Guests who explore the frozen Hudson Bay by snowmobile might be treated to the sight of caribou. The bay stays frozen until summer. Far left: The Northern lights dance above an igloo lit by a single candle at the Seal River Heritage Lodge on Hudson Bay. Left: Participants in the Fire and Ice Adventure can experience part of the 250-mile route covered by the Hudson Bay's Quest dogsled race.

Bill Becher/Correspondent

Box:

IF YOU GO (see text)

Map:

Churchill, Manitoba

Jorge Irribarren/Staff Artist