I’ve been updating the blog the past few days now that I have some reliable wifi and a place to charge my laptop.
The last few weeks have been amazing. After Lake Superior Provincial Park I headed northwest along the Trans Canada Highway and up to Thunder Bay. The weather for those few days were not ideal. It was rainy and overcast and the temperature had started to drop into single digits. My first full day in Thunder Bay I toured around town and went to Kakabeka Falls which is a super sweet little spot just outside Thunder Bay. It is a provincial park, similar to Ragged Falls in Algonquin as there is no overnight camping but you can explore some trails and boardwalks. The waterfall runs through a huge canyon and spills over black stone and shale rocks. The boardwalks run on either side of the canyon to small view points. I spent a few minutes exploring around there and then drove back into town.
I stayed in a campground my first night there and then after that I parked in a small fire station parking lot in a town called Pass Lake with a population of 600 people. The town is 15 minutes outside of Sleeping Giant Provincial Park where I was planning on hiking the next day.
The hike I had decided on was called Top of the Giant, a ~20 km out and back hike that takes you to the top of the mesas. A mesa, as I found out while trying to explain the geography of Sleeping Giant, is basically a flat topped mountain. The sides of the mountain are huge rock walls that tower above Lake Superior and offer a 360 degree view of the park. The hike out was beautiful and fairly easy going. The first 6km follow what is essentially a bike path that follows the peninsula. On AllTrails, the app I use to find hikes and information about the areas I am travelling through, quite a few people recommended taking your bike out to the trail junction and then starting your hike. I unfortunately don’t have my bike with me on this road trip, so I walked the 6km out and then continued on to climb the mesas which was 3km of steep switch back trails that killed my legs and left me pretty much breathless. The view at the top was gorgeous and made the climb worth it.
It was extremely windy that day and I only spent a few minutes sitting down at the top before I got cold and had to keep walking. There is another trail junction at the top of the trail that takes you further out onto the peninsula to what they call “The Gorge”. It is an insane spot with a huge canyon, or gorge I guess, that splits the mesa almost right through. The Gorge is on the opposite side of the mesa as the trail Top of the Giant is and also happened to be on the windward side of the mountain. I realized while standing near the edge of the cliffs on the west side and at the Gorge that I am definitely not a fan of heights. I have always been a little wary of heights, but mix that fear with a wind that could have knocked you off you feet and a 100 foot cliff on either side of you, and I was not a happy camper. I sat 5 or 10 feet back from the edge wherever I stopped, but the only time I was comfortable was on the East end where the wind was blocked by the trees and there was more open space to sit back from the edge. The whole time I was reminded of my Uncle who is absolutely terrified of heights. My fear, as relatable as it may seem, is nowhere near the magnitude of my Uncle’s and the thought of him trying that hike kept running through my mind and put a smile on my face (Sorry for amusing myself at your expense Uncle Glenn, miss you!).
The hike out was amazing. The way back was not as enjoyable. And by that I mean that I barely made it back to the parking lot. The climb to get to the top killed my legs, and so on the way down I was wobbly and tired and all in all spent the whole time trying to keep myself from falling head first down the trail. The 6km hike out was brutal. My legs were alright for the first kilometre, and then they started to fail me. Every part of my lower body was sore and tired and my feet hurt from the walk in. To be fair, this was the longest hike I had done in a long time, not since July. The hikes in the past few weeks have been maybe 6km round trip, or shorter. Jumping for a 20+km hike was maybe a bit of a big undertaking. Nevertheless, I finished the hike and spent the rest of the day sitting or lying down trying to let my muscles relax. Next time I would 100% make sure to have my bike with me. ON the hike out I was passed by five people who had gotten to the top after me, but had the good sense to bike there, and so I watched them all whiz by while I hobbled along the trail.
All in all, it was a great day. I wanted to complete that particular trail because it offers the best view and I was only going to be there for the day. Unlike Killarney or Lake Superior, I wasn’t spending multiple days in the area to hike, and so the Top of the Giant trail was what I had to accomplish before leaving.
That night I camped out in a public park just outside Kakabeka Falls. The next morning I started booking it out to Alberta.
Julianna Cook 