We arrived Friday evening of the July long weekend, rented a truck, turned on the country channel and headed over to my boyfriend’s brother’s place. After an amazing steak & corn on the cob dinner and maybe several bottles of red wine it was time to pass out and get ready for the rest of the weekend.
Day 1: We started out by heading to breakfast at the world-famous Hoito Restaurant. I ordered Finnish pancakes, sunnyside up eggs & bacon. Despite having to wait almost an hour and a half for food it was well worth the wait. The conversation was awesome with D, his brother & their friend, so we were well occupied. After fattening ourselves up on carbs & protein we headed off to see some nature.
After flipping through a Thunder Bay guidebook during breakfast I pointed to a picture of some beautiful falls and asked can we go here? Done! Off we headed to Kakabeka Falls for an adventure. It’s one of the reasons why I adore the boyfriend, it’s is his eagerness to do “stuff” with me. Ps. Did you know Kakabeka Falls is the 2nd highest falls in North America?
We hiked down one side so we could grab some more pictures from a different angle.
We wanted to go for a run so we headed out on the Mountain Portage Trail which was an easy 1.25 km loop and then we split up to run to our heart’s content. I hit up the muddy Little Falls Trail and D hit the road for some faster running. I was so happy to have brought my Mizuno Kazan’s as the trail was washed out in most parts and I got severely & happily muddy.
Midway through the trail, I found the Little Fails. I was all by myself and it was so peaceful and quiet. After pausing for a moment to soak it in I headed back to meet up with the boyfriend.
The trail was badly washed out on one side. So I climbed up on dry land where ever I could.
Now this is what I call hill training. Running up rock shoal is no walk in the park.
Day 2: We left his brother’s place and stopped by the Terry Fox Memorial before heading to his parent’s camp. Something that exists up North that is mind-boggling is that cottages are called camps. Despite it being overcast the place & scenery is gorgeous in Thunder Bay.
I ran down to the water immediately after meeting the parents to stick my feet in Lake Superior and it was a tad chilly.
Then the extended family arrived. Socializing happened. Dinner that night with the family included burgers, pulled pork soft tacos, soba noodle salad, watermelon salad, strawberry torte & finally a T bay delicacy; Persians! These definitely hurt my stomach but were well worth it. I’ll try anything once!
Day 3: We woke up early to meet the man’s friends for some hiking. The plan was to hike the Sleeping Giant. His friends were going to bike to the bottom of the hike but since I haven’t been on a bike since I was a kid I asked if we could trail run instead. And really… it was just an excuse for 5 Peaks & Tough Mudder training. I was happy as a clam below. This was definitely on the way in as I was not smiling on the way home.
The trail run-in was around 6.5K and went relatively well. We stopped along the way for a couple of beautiful pictures.
After his friends hid their bikes in the forest we started hiking the Giant. We tried to find the old chimney trail which was closed but couldn’t find it so we ended up going up the “new” way. Probably smart as the wind was a tad crazy. We got some gorgeous pictures at the top and the hike was definitely physically challenging. All in all we ran and hiked over 22kms and my body definitely hated me near the end. I, unfortunately, ate something my body couldn’t handle at the top of the climb during our snack break and was violently sick twice on the way home. I just kept disappearing off into the forest and told everyone else to go ahead. Fun times. I was sad I couldn’t run out but proud of myself regardless. The blisters on my feet are my war wounds to prove I did it.
The view really was breathtaking and the pictures don’t even do it justice.
Day 4: After heading to bed early we slept in with no alarms on Canada Day with only plans of fishing. I did, however, get up early with my normal body alarm clock and spent time writing & journaling on the camp’s sun porch. Then it was off to fish. The boat was set up and we went off to the launch to spend about 2 hours on the water. Just when I was fighting off motion sickness we decided to head in. That’s when we discovered a decent-sized Lake Trout on the line!
It was a delicious dinner before heading back home to Toronto. I loved my Thunder Bay Adventure!
Great Post, I could have checked off this entire list of everything I did when I went to Thunder Bay for the first time! You hit all the main things!