Last day in Thunder Bay

Today we headed out to see Sleeping Giant Provincial Park and do some backroads excursions. We have had many magnificent views of the Giant across the bay from here but hadn’t ventured out to the peninsula to explore the park.

On entering the park we were greeted by a deer at the side of the road who watched us cautiously from the woods. Later on we would have a much more dramatic encounter when a deer bounded out of the woods directly in front of the car. Not sure who was more startled by the experience, but fortunately I stopped in time.

We are visiting very early in the season and finding a few things that are either just opening up or not quite ready. Unfortunately the scenic road up to the viewpoint to Thunder Bay was still closed, and we were not about to do the 6 to 8 hour hike to get to the top of the Giant to get a good view. Also the visitors centre was ‘closed for the season’ which we take to mean it hasn’t re-opened yet, which was unfortunate as it is supposed to have some excellent displays, including of a local, now defunct, silver mine.

However we had some pleasant, shorter hikes, and managed to find some good viewpoints and Lake access so it was quite a worthwhile excursion to Sleeping Giant.

We then continued on down to the site of a former Silver Mine from the early 1900s, long since tapped out and shut down. The area is now converted to mostly summer homes but with many of the original buildings remaining including a store that has been there for 150 years, but was closed when we were there.

We also drove out to Johnson’s Landing, described in our Backroads of Ontario book as a small fishing village reminiscent of the Maritimes. It is actually quite small and from the number of signs saying ‘no public access’ I think the residents would prefer not to have been included in the book. But I did manage to get a good picture without trespassing.

Our travels frequently include hunting down local breweries, and thus trip was no exception. Sleeping Giant Brewery warranted a visit on the way back into town. Their Mr. Canoehead Red Ale is my favourite!