Many who drive across Canada remark on how long it takes to cross Ontario. You can cross many provinces in a single day, but not Ontario. That is partially because there isn’t a four lane highway from the eastern border to the western so there are many kilometers of two lane highways slowing your progress.
July 7, 2022 – Sunny, 16C – Sleeping Giant Provincial Park
After leaving Lake Superior Provincial Park we headed west to Sleeping Giant Provincial Park just outside Thunder Bay, Ontario. Thunder Bay is a beautiful city and I would like to explore more in that area some day. However, we knew we couldn’t spend too much time getting to the Yukon border due to the limited summer weather window in northern Canada and Alaska so we just spent a single night here.
July 8, 2022 – Sunny, 26C – Falcon Lake Beach
Since the sleeping giant didn’t awaken and eat us while we slept, the next day we were back on the westward road once again. Our next overnight stop was at Falcon Lake Beach just across the eastern Manitoban border. It’s not every day you can walk to a brewpub from your campsite but that is possible at Falcon Lake Beach.
July 9, 2022 – Sunny, 29C – Riding Mountain National Park
First thing in the morning we were on the road west again but with a detour a little bit north to Riding Mountain National Park in Manitoba. We were not able find the mountain in the national park and we concluded that Manitobans have a lower standard for mountain-hood than we do. We did a nice marsh walk in the park where boardwalks took us right into the middle of a marsh. It was interesting to sit and watch the plethora of wildlife. It was a hot day at 29C.
At Riding Mountain, we bought some firewood from the campground. The wood was not dried or stored properly so it was very wet. I managed to get a fire going after a lot of effort, including borrowing some charcoal briquettes from our neighbour. Our neighbour on the other side came over to get some hot coals after our fire finally got going. This was also the most mosquito dense campsite we had experienced on the trip so we didn’t last too long at the fire, retreating to the refuge of the camper early. We spent just a single night at Riding Mountain and were back on the road west the next morning.
Cheers, Chris.
