Sault Ste Marie and Toronto

From Thunder Bay I drove the 9 hrs to Sault Ste Marie. It was a cloudy and at times rainy day but the beauty of the drive was still quite nice!

A Lake off the side of the road

There is a ton of exposed rock in this part of the country! This is typical Canadian shield topography.

A pier in a little town on the north side of Lake Superior

To break up the driving a bit I did some Lake skiing on Walker Lake just outside of Walker, ON on the northeastside of Lake Superior. The lakes were really beautiful and there was protages to a few other lakes which gave me some room to explore!

Some open water in a flowing narrows

At Sault Ste Marie I ended up going right to bed the first night as I was exhausted from the drive. My second day there I skied at Stokely Creek Nordic trails. It was a very nice trail system and I really enjoyed it! Lot's of hills and very well groomed for how little snow they had.

The drive to Toronto was another long one. It was interesting to me to see how much the forest had changed from the beginning of my Journey. The seemingly endless stands of Spruce and Balsam were beginning to give way to White and Red Pine mixed in with hardwoods and finally, in Toronto a mostly Hardwood forest.

Lake Huron

Another of Lake Huron

In Toronto I spent my time in a Hostel again. This one was a bit different a lot more people and very outgoing people! I brought in the new year with a Scottish dude, a Dane, and a bunch of Candians! It was quite the time and I'm glad I was able to experience Toronto's festivities. They had a real nice free outdoor celebration at the town square. There were some nice fireworks and a ton of people. After we went to an Irish Pub and had a blast and met a lot of people!

Dundas Street

Town Square

The Sheraton, reminds me of the Wynn in Vegas!

So overall Toronto was quite fun! I'm off to Lake Placid tomorrow after 8 days in Canada. Can't wait to see the family and enjoy the beautiful Adirondack Park!

Thunder Bay

Well Atikokan was as nice as I expected and though I hated to leave, especially after getting invited to do some lake to lake skiing with the locals, I needed to continue on my Journey to Thunder Bay. I woke up quite early and was on the road before sunrise. Along the drive the stars were incredible and I saw a ton of these signs.

Though I saw a lot of Moose danger signs and lot's of tracks where I hiked and skied I still havn't been able to see one of the elusive buggers. A bit outside of Thunder Bay I decided to make a quick stop at Kakebeka Falls Provincial Park. I made a quick video of the falls, do note though that I was bucthering the pronunciation. It's actually Keh-Cob-BEE-Kah rather than Cok-Kee-bee-Kah.

After arriving in Thunder Bay I checked in at my Hostel. This was my first Hostel experience and it ended up being very positive! It was a unique Hostel as it was a converted home. Most hostels, according to people I've talked to, are much larger and more aparment building feeling. Hostels are real nice though as you get to meet a diverse group of people, you can cook your own food, and they're cheap!

As I got a late start to my day I decided to climb one of the bigger ridges in the area "Mount Mckay"

The trail up took me on a snowmobile trail to begin. The snowmobile trail was a bit boring but I got to watch a couple of downy(hairy?) woodpeckers who were very photogenic.

Eventually it dumped me onto a single track trail which goes through a pass and then straight up the ridge. Snowshoes with crampons were really nice on this as it helped me not fall flat on my face.

At the top the views were sweeping and Gorgeous!

Thunder bay and Lake Superior

Sleeping Giant

Having a bit of time still at the top I spent some time exploring the ridge and eventually found a snowshoe trail going down the far side of the ridge. I decided to explore and see where it went. I got some nice views of the other side of the ridge once at the bottom.

The ridge parallel to mount Mckay

After climbing back up the ridge I was treated to a beautiful sunset!

My second day at Thunder Bay was spent snowshoeing through Sleeping Giant and to the top of the Giant. This was another incredibly beautiful hike!

The Sea Lion

Beautiful Lake Superior

On the trail I saw all kinds of signs of wildlife!

Wolf tracks

Wolf scat

Grouse tracks

Snowshoe hare tracks

Moose tracks

The beginning of the trail was a sort of green superhighway through the forest. Very widely cut but the forest was beautiful so it was ok!

The ridge I climbed

As I kept going higher and higher up the ridge the vistas kept getting better!

Lake Superior

A lot more snow up the ridge!

Zoom in real close there's a snowshoe hare in there!

View of the ridgeline by Thunder Bay

High Cliffs on the Giant

A huge ship on Superior

The hike continued well into the night! It ended up being my longest hike ever as it was over 20 miles! It was super rewarding, beautiful, and a bit challenging but so worth it! Overall Thunder Bay was incredible! I can't wait to go back!