Last night, after a long day on the road, we arrived at our next destination, Marie’s Lake Campground at Sleeping Giant Provincial Park located just east and south from Thunder Bay.  We managed to get our site set up in record time and dinner on the table by 8:30 pm…not bad for having checked into the campground at close to 7 pm!  I must say that dinner wasn’t as fancy as the night before, but was filled with fresh veg and some terrific fried chicken sausages.  (No fires in this neck of the woods as they are battling  with too many just north of here!)

 

We had a lovely sleep, hearing the loons call through the evening and night. Sure beats train whistles and highway traffic anyway! We even heard a strange bark like sound repeating a few times in the night. My guess is that it was a fox…but who knows! It sounded alarmed, but not alarming.

 

This morning we had some blueberries that needed to be finished up, so it was French toast with blueberries and maple syrup and fresh hot coffee. A great start to a day of adventure.

 

We drove out of the park (it’s about 45 km back to the main highway) with a quick stop to drive to the Thunder Bay lookout within the park. The outlook was spectacular, but the haze that is in the air from the forest fires out west made visibility limited and somewhat ghostly. Soon we were back on the main road heading towards ThunderBay.

Just a few kms into our drive we passed the final km of Terry Fox’s Marathon of Hope.  40 plus years ago, this brave young man battled cancer and had to have his leg amputated.  To his credit, he decided to run across Canada to bring awareness and raise funds for cancer research.  Years later there are still runs and events held to raise funds and awareness for cancer.  His influence has spawned a huge fundraising machine for this critical research and support, and he had raised more money than he could ever have imagined.

 

Our first stop was to visit the Terry Fox Memorial.  Set on a beautiful escarpment overlooking the bay and the “sleeping giant” on the far shore.  All in all  this memorial was very moving .

 

Our next stop was a visit to Kakabeka Falls. There is a provincial park here that lies just on the west side of Thunder Bay. A beautiful setting with wonderful views of the falls and gorge that have been carved through the boreal forest.

 

After a quick stop for lunch, an ipad recharge and the requisite wifi to publish my last blog post, we headed on back to our campsite. While the park boasts 100 kms of hiking trails, the weather was looking iffy for a long hike so we decided to explore the beach and things within the large campground.

 

We hiked to the waterfront and went by some fabulous sites. We finally found the beach which was almost deserted!! Well there were a few ducks swimming by to greet us! The water was warm and inviting, but we didn’t take the opportunity to swim today. We could see the back side of the Sleeping Giant.

It was starting to cloud over a bit more, so we heading back to our site and set up a tarp. This protected the picnic table, and cooking area. As well as providing us with shelter for a few quick matches of crib! As we sat there playing a little black throated warbler flew beside the tent for a visit. I managed to catch it in flight. What a treat!

The rest of the evening was spent getting supper and then cleaning up afterwards.  Since we have a long driving day ahead of us tomorrow we are going to splurge with breakfast on the road.  It means we can pack up all the kitchen stuff tonight, so in the morning all we have is our bedding and the tent to tear down and pack up.  This should allow us an early start.

 

It’s interesting as I sit here writing this at 8:30 pm, the daylight is still full. Indeed, we have come a long way north, and many many more miles to go! Stay safe everyone! Until next time, good night!