Sleeping Giant to Kenora ON (Day 5)

The morning was super frosty, with thick frost all over the tent. Luckily the sun was out, so we could dry things out a bit while we made supper. It was cold enough that my little alcohol stove went on strike - the alcohol was so cold is was sorta syrupy. My white gas stove did well to boil us lots of hot water for tea and oatmeal. Thank goodness for tea and oatmeal!

We stopped in Thunder Bay for to resupply and look around. Since we didn't really get into the thicks of Sleeping Giant Park, the drive into and out of Thunder Bay was really our only chance to see the Sleeping Giant ranges (the Sibley Penninsula). They are huge mounds of mishapen mountains jutting out of Lake Superior.

The rest of the day's drive was fairly long but pretty, along the snow covered edges of the Lake, through twisty roads cut into the Canadian Shield and snow-covered lakes. Yup, more snow.
We stopped for a quick snack break and a little walk at a picnic stop on the highway outside of Martin ON, on the other side of the new time zone. How wierd that there's two time zones in the same province- you can literally straddle EST and CT in one step! The roads are under a lot of construction out here, so we had a few stops at construction sites. There were also more police cars than we've seen for the whole trip combined so far and they were doing a booming business!

We reached Kenora ON around 5pmCT (in the new time zone time).

It's a really pretty town that overlooks Lake of the Woods with a little waterfront walkway and very friendly people.

The municipal campground was still closed for the season and seeing that it's situated in the middle of town, we weren't sure how quiet it would be (both from people and car traffic) or how inconspicous we would be from anyone who objected to us free-camping. Add to it a cold blowing wind and the fact that Dan was reeling from being seriously over-tired, we opted to check into the local Super8 (thank you CAA membership!).

At the beginning of this trip, Dan and I agreed that we were trying to keep this trip as inexpensive as we possibly could. We've done pretty well so far, scoring a bunch of free camps and inexpensive meals. So, I didn't feel too guilty coughing up money for a warm shower, clean beds, wireless internet access and complimentary soup, sandwiches and cookies. Yum. And I figured if we both had a chance to warm and rest up, we'd be set for our next stretch. The Prairies!