Where is the Sleeping Giant?

  "What am I even doing here? I ask myself that every day." - Elsa, July 2026

Elsa looking for the Giant

    The first day at Sleeping Giant Provincial Park was very disorienting. We expected smoke when we arrived in this area, instead we were greeted with fog and rain. It is needed here with all the forest fires. Adding to the disorientation is the fact that there is absolutely no data signals in this area.

    Sleeping Giant Provincial Park is a very large wooded park surrounded by Lake Superior. The terrain was shrouded in mist and drizzle. We went in the nicest Visitor Center of any park anywhere (two stories!) to try and figure this place out. Upstairs is a diorama of the 'Sleeping Giant', which are basically large hill formations. The hikes are named for different parts of the Giant. So the Park ranger says things like "I've made it to the Head and Feet but I've never been to the Knees." We still didn't get it, were we on it at that moment? Was it far away?

The Head is rather a long jaunt with Elsa in tow, so we made do with the "Pinky Finger" (I made that up) and went to see the Sea Lion. This is a rock formation that formed through erosion. The head fell off and it rather looks like an Elephant now. It sprinkled a little on our walk, little did we know back at the campsite it poured and hailed on our poor bug tent. We got back and the road had large ruts in it. Bug tent is A-Ok however.

The next day we considered leaving but I saw on a poster that the weather was turning so we moved to our Lakeside campsite. What a difference the sun makes! The mists cleared and we finally saw the Sleeping Giant right in front of us! It seems to me a bit of stretch that the bump under the head is called the 'Adam's Apple', I'm thinking the Giant is actually a woman and this fact has been suppressed by the patriarchy.

We got out our paddle boards, swam, had a lakeside fire and watched the sunset.

Elsa and I asked Josh what's next. He is basically lugging us dead-weights across the country. He calls us "The Complainers". Elsa has a very tentative grasp on where we are, despite repetition. I guess the situation is always changing, this includes the time. We have been through two time zones. No wonder she is confused when I'm talking about "old old time", i.e. "It's 2:30, but it's 12:30 in old old time."  

    Josh said "Next is 20 hours to Ottawa." 20 hours! That's like going to Vancouver and back from Calgary! So far our longest day has been about 7 hours of driving. Once you get to Thunder Bay it's a driving slog. It's a twisty trail around northern Lake Superior. It makes me think of Terry Fox running such a long way, a marathon a day. We stopped at his memorial and they also have signs along the highway he ran on. I'm all admiration for his feat of courage.

Notable Birds and Mammals: 

Black-throated Green Warbler - Lifer!

Ruffed Grouse

Pelicans - looking picturesque on the lake

Loons - seen on the lake and heard all night