I didn’t have a great sleep last night but got out early with no set plan. My legs have been sore and I’m trying to rest up for the big hike we’re doing tomorrow. There is so much to see and do outside, that we set off.
When I was here 20 years ago, somehow we managed to walk all the way to Mount Mackay because it really stood out in the town of Thunder Bay. When we got there we started climbing cluelessly until we were stopped by someone and told we were on Indigenous land. I think we were rather disappointed.
This time I had done some reading and decided to try again. We drove up to a lookout point and spent some time trying to find a trail. There was a Pow Wow going on and no one seemed to know how to get to the top. We almost gave up until we found a trail leading to what looked like the top. The mosquitos were out in full force and the trail had massive puddles and wasn’t maintained well. I didn’t have a good feeling about the whole idea and turned back around. That’s not like me and I felt sad about it because my partner was all set to climb it.
We came back and did a bit more research on a better plan for the afternoon. We both just wanted to be on Lake Superior shoreline and drove to Mackenzie Point. We sat on the smooth granite and dipped our feet into the cold water. My partner almost considered swimming but it started to get cold and rainy. From the beach I spotted an interesting looking bridge. (we both have a thing for bridges). We drove to where we thought the bridge might be, passing cottages and campgrounds and then a rail trail. We figured the bridge was part of the rail trail. We walked it passing lots of interesting wild flowers and came to the end and found this old rail bridge and explored it for a while. Walking back to the car, we saw a towering granite outcropping and climbed it to the top (see picture) to look at the view. We also went down another off-the-track trail which turned out to be a local swimming hole. We seemed to stand out and ruin the fun for the few there, we turned around and headed back.
A stop at the Terry Fox memorial on the main highway is hard to miss. I know it’s touristy but seeing that so much

Walking without a rail to hold on to was a bit daunting

money was put into the landscaping, it’s worth a visit. That was the only place so far that we’ve seen lots of tourists.

Beginning of the rail trail.

Sitting on the rail bridge. Lake Superior is behind me.

Bottom of the rail bridge

View from Mount McKay lookout.

The very top that we didn’t do today.

The granite we walked for the great view

The view from the top of the Granite outcropping.

Terry Fox makes me a proud Canadian.