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RANKIN INLET/WHALE COVE
Bill Gawor of Rankin Inlet had a nasty surprise awaiting him when he returned to his campsite after a day of prospecting earlier this month.

Gawor returned to his camp, to find a female polar bear and her young cub taking great delight in trashing his tent and other objects.

The location of the encounter was described by the prospector as being about 1.5-miles inland from the shore, somewhere between Rankin Inlet and Whale Cove.

Gawor said he began prospecting about 7 a.m., and was returning to camp with a load of grab samples at about 3:30 p.m.

He said he first thought he was at the wrong lake when he arrived at where his camp should be, but couldn't spot his tent.

"I looked a little closer and saw this white blob where my tent was supposed to me," said Gawor.

"It was quite windy that day, so I figured the tent flange must have blown off and I was looking at the white mosquito netting.

"Then the one blob turns into one big one and one small one.

"I thought 'holy mackerel', and advanced a little closer until I saw these two bears beating up my tent."

Gawor said the bears were having a ball jumping up and down on what was left of his tent, especially the cub.

He said he had all his food in tightly sealed buckets that used to hold laundry soap and the bears ignored them.

"The little one was bouncing up and down, up and down, on the tent with its fore paws, having the time of its life, but they didn't bother with the buckets at all, and I had all kinds of smelly food in there like garlic sausage, bacon, eggs, cheese, bread, cereal, frankfurters, milk and honey.

"I don't know why they couldn't tell the food was in there, unless it was the residue of the laundry soap that camouflaged the smell of it.

"Instead, they went after some onions I had on the outside and a can of bug spray.

"They seemed to enjoy knocking things around, and they even bent a spoon out of shape and ripped the tongue out of one of my sneakers."

Gawor said once he realized his tent was totally trashed he went into survival mode, figuring he would have to spend the night.

He said he cut the floor out of his tent to wrap himself in to sleep.

"I had a bad feeling about this, so I called the chopper to come and get me, but the pilot told me he had another guy from Iqaluit and wouldn't be able to come until later that night.

"I was really relieved to hear the chopper around 9 p.m., because I was in the process of trying to rig a bear alarm using budgie sticks, pots and pans around the spot where I was going to be sleeping.

"We got out of there just in time with the fog rolling in with the tide.

"With white bears against white fog, I would never have seen one of the buggers until it was too late."

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