2004/06 Sleeping Giant and North Shore trips - Silver Islet |
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We camped for the weekend at Sleeping Giant, a provincial park that sticks out into Lake Superior. The name comes from a very distinctive set of mountains that can be seen from Thunder Bay. We were camping on Marie Louise Lake, inside the peninsula, with the Sleeping Giant as a backdrop.
We’d stayed here once before just as the park was closing for winter, and there were only four of us in the park, and 160 campsites to choose from. On the last night of that trip we had camped on a site that had lake views on three sides and we joked that people would be fighting over the site in the summer time. This time, we were turning up late on Friday evening on Victoria Day weekend, wondering whether we’d get in at all, and we were really surprised to be offered the same site. Apparently it had been reserved and then cancelled because of the dreadful weather forecast for the weekend.
As it turned out, everywhere south of us had storms, floods, and 
tornados, but we only had a couple of hours of normal rain on the Saturday. Even when it was wet and windy we could sit inside and watch the loons and gulls. I hadn’t realized that gulls actually jump out of the water in order to dive – see the picture. The thieving of the ginger cookie was a genuine crime. I’d underestimated this chipmunk’s jumping ability.
There’s a small village inside the park called Silver Islet, named after a tiny island offshore that turned out to be very high grade silver ore. They took millions of dollars of silver out of there in the 1880s, struggling to keep the lake out of the mine. Today, Silver Islet is mainly just summer cottages, and people were busy getting those ready for the season.
I went for a walk in the rain, and found the old cemetery back in the 
woods. There are only a few graves recognizable, but there are a couple still with the original wood markers, which looked like they were made from coffin lids, and the dates of 1882 were still legible
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Sleeping Giant bear (4.28) |
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Porcupines (3.24) |
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The park is notable for its wildlife and its ancient rock formations. We 
drove over to the south side of the park, which has enormous vertical cliffs of lava facing out on Thunder Bay. It must have been a terrifying sight for anyone in a boat in a storm, as there are miles of these cliffs. On top, it’s flat enough to drive on the rock, no roads needed. We met a rather snooty bear on the way there, and numerous porcupines on the way back. We’ve never seen a place with so many porcupines.