I booked a six-day walrus hunt this past July with Luke Eetuk of E & E Outfitters out of Coral Harbor, Nunavut, Canada. The weather when I arrived was sunny and warm. The morning after arriving, we set out in Eetuk's 25-foot boat with his brother-in-law, Lyle, and son, Roydan, as crew. After five hours, twice fog-bound, we nosed into a creek mouth, landed the boat and set up our tent camp. We hiked but didn't hunt that day, ate some good grub cooked on an old Coleman stove, then tried to get some shuteye despite the 24-hour daylight.
The next morning, Roydan left the tent but almost immediately charged back in warning, "Nanook!" Instantly, Eetuk was up with a rifle, and we all poured out of the tent. About 200 meters away, a bloody big polar bear was shuffling along, nose to the ground. It meandered down the shoreline out of sight, but we kept the rifle handy.
The tide was out, leaving our boat high and dry. We could see walrus on the ice floes a couple of kilometers off shore but had to wait eight hours for the tide to refloat the boat. Then we buttoned down........(continued)
