A Lake Superior End – Alberta Road Trip Part 3

With the Rockies quickly fading into the distance, we were once again heading east and back towards Southern Ontario. There were a few provinces to get through and some of the best memories of the trip yet to be made.

I’ve often found that the best memories are made by the most trying times. The times when things don’t go according to plan, but you band together with your companions to commiserate and make the best of it. Years ago I was at a Trout Unlimited Canada tree planting at Lowville Park in Burlington. The day started with light rain that got heavier as the hours went by. Everything was mud. We all got filthy, our legs were exhausted from dragging through muck, and even with rain coats we were getting soaked through. But for some reason we were all smiling and laughing. Cracking jokes about the weather. And we planted every tree and shrub that was brought that day. This is what I thought about on the final leg of our trip.

It all started with Darrell wanting to go to Riding Mountain National Park in Manitoba to see the bison. Nevermind that we had seen several herds of bison on pasture throughout the prairies. Or that we’d seen them at Elk Island National Park in Alberta. He wanted to stop at Riding Mountain. I was all for it.

What a mistake.

I drove up to the park gate, paid, got a map, handed it to Darrell, and continued on. We wanted to visit the bison paddock, but also find a nice hiking trail for the dogs to stretch their legs. They’d had the opportunity to run at an awesome dog park in Saskatchewan (shoutout to Wiggly Field in Yorkton), but we’d all been spending too much time in the truck.

Darrell navigated us to the turnoff for the bison enclosure and when I got a glimpse of the sign before turning, that’s when I realized something was wrong. It looked like there was something blocking out the bison enclosure on the sign. Hmmm. I had a sneaking suspicion we were coming to a dead end, but we both agreed to continue on to find out for sure.

As I drove the truck and trailer down the winding dirt road, I listened to the birds hanging out in the trees. It was a peaceful and beautiful drive. After several minutes we arrived at a closed gate. Sure enough, the bison paddock was closed. Bummer. Later I read that severe weather had gone through the month before and caused the area to be closed.

Fortunately I had enough room to turn around with the trailer and take us back out the main road, with my passenger grumbling away in his seat. I’m not used to him being the grumpy one on these trips!

We then decided to find a trail and oh boy, what a nightmare. Single lane roads, trailheads with no parking, roads with signs forbidding trailers (despite them being some of the widest roads in the park), small parking lots that were completely packed…we were about to give up.

Finally I turned down a random road and found a small parking lot at a trailhead. Perfect!

Oh, how wrong I was.

The fact that I could hear the mosquitoes before leaving the truck should have been a clue. We only wanted a quick hike with the dogs and I didn’t want to reek of bug spray for the rest of the drive, so we didn’t put any on. Terrible decision. Panda and I walked behind Darrell and the girls, shaking our heads constantly to get rid of the mosquitos. Darrell’s back was covered in them. He’s not normally a target of those darn bugs, but they wouldn’t leave him alone. I was completely swarmed. We called it quits and after a few minutes practically ran back to the car.

Getting out of that cursed park was a relief and we stopped at an ice cream shop my friend had mentioned, in the hopes of something positive to come out of this detour.

I walked into the shop and found it empty. Not a problem. I looked at the flavours of ice cream and waited. And waited. Then I called out to see if anyone was there. I checked outside. I waited some more. After a few more minutes I gave up. I walked out to the truck laughing and told Darrell that it was yet another bust.

Fortunately, we were on our way back to my best friend’s place for a couple of nights. Our silly afternoon quickly turned into a funny story once we’d arrived at her home. The dogs were thrilled to be able to run free again, and I was thrilled to have a shower. And see Gen, of course.

At one point in the planning of this trip it looked as though I’d be at Gen’s place to celebrate my birthday. It was all I wanted for my birthday. That didn’t end up happening, but as I walked in the door, a month after my birthday, I walked into a house full of birthday decorations. She’s the best.

Our comedy of errors continued the next day when we went to an awesome marsh for hiking, only to find most of the trails closed. Then we went to get ice cream and they forgot to make Darrell’s order. After several minutes of waiting after receiving the rest of the order, we had to go up to the window and remind them.

Next we went to check out the local fish ladder, only to find the access there was closed as well! We all had a good laugh about it and decided Darrell was the problem.

Of course, you can’t take anglers near water without them stopping to watch people fish. And then if you mention to them that there’s a tackle shop not far away, you know they’re going to go. That’s how Darrell and I ended up at the Fishin’ Hole in Winnipeg, spending money on tackle that we didn’t necessarily need. There was a great selection of tackle though, with some different selection than what we normally find at home.

To round out our time with Gen and Jamie, we were surprised with a trip to an outdoor restaurant, complete with live music, that allowed dogs. So cool! To say the dogs got a crash-course in socialization on this trip would be an understatement. They made me so proud as they dozed under the tables, occasionally waking up to watch people walk by. Erza was so exhausted she didn’t even bark when the band started playing.

After an incredible couple of nights, it was time to hug Gen goodbye. I didn’t want to leave. It kind of felt like home at that point. I’ve long wanted to move to Northern Ontario and being able to get to Manitoba in a lot less time seems like a good incentive to do so.

Before long we crossed the border and were back into our home province. We had two nights left in our trip and our destination for this night was Sleeping Giant Provincial Park.

Of course, one of the big things you need to think about when driving through Northern Ontario is keeping an eye on gas. We didn’t fill up as early as we should have, so when Darrell pulled into the next gas station and it was closed, we started doing the math to see if we’d make it to the next one along the highway, or if we needed to turn back. Normally we bring a jerry can of gas with us on overlanding trips, but we couldn’t fit it in the box this time. Why we didn’t put it on top of the cover like we did with our water jug is beyond me.

After checking our options, I found we could change our route, add about 30 minutes onto the overall trip, but arrive at a gas station with about 20km left in the tank (according to the truck). It was a little too close for comfort, but we arrived at the Petro-Canada exactly as predicted. What a relief!

We made it to Sleeping Giant Provincial Park just before dark. When I checked in the gate attendant told me I was lucky since we had one of the best sites in the park. After getting to it I have to say I agreed with her.

Our site backed on to Marie Louise Lake with an incredible view of the sleeping giant. It was late at this point so we quickly got around to setting up and having an OTG Meals dinner before calling it a night and crawling into the trailer.

The next day we decided to delay packing and stay a little later than we usually did at camp. We had cinnamon buns for breakfast and then Darrell took the kayak out to explore and fish, while I stayed at camp with the dogs, downloading a memory card so I could have an empty one for the dashcam.

Right, I skipped over the part about buying a kayak in Kenora. Maybe that’s a story for another time.

Once Darrell was done I got a chance to try out the kayak and found it surprisingly stable. I really enjoyed getting out on the water. We’d spent so much time in the truck lately, and not near enough time on the water.

With its cobblestone beach, incredible hiking trails, and breathtaking views, Sleeping Giant is a park that everyone should visit. We didn’t get a chance to do any of the trails this time, but we will return.

Our original plan after Sleeping Giant was to head for Gogama to check out some lakes. After the Lake Superior experience on the way out west, we changed our mind and decided we needed to drive by this incredible lake again on the way back. The area is stunning. For Darrell it’s as good as the mountains. For me…well, it’s 7 weeks later as I write this and I haven’t stopped thinking about the mountains. But Lake Superior is a place I’d be extremely happy to live near.

We love crown land camping and I’d found a spot on iOverlander that looked ideal for our final night of the trip. The reviews of the area on the app were fantastic and I was looking forward to it. I just hoped that not too many other people would be there on a Monday night.

Of course, we pulled in and found every site full as we drove down the path. Apparently everyone else wanted to enjoy Lake Superior as much as we did! Darrell stopped when the path narrowed too much to risk taking the trailer any further, then he did a 20-point to head us back the other way. By then, several of the sites were vacant. I guess those people were just there for the day. I was grateful we ended up in a nice spot with a short walk to the water.

We had a peaceful night, falling asleep to the waves crashing against the rocks. Lake Superior was incredibly calming that night.

In the morning we had both planned to fish, but the rocks weren’t conducive to getting a good cast in without snagging. It certainly wasn’t a good place to launch the kayak. We took a few moments to enjoy the incredible, powerful presence that is Lake Superior, before packing up camp for the last time.

On our final day of driving I felt both sad, but also grateful to be heading home. All five of us were done for. It had been a whirlwind of driving and incredible experiences.

In 12 days we drove through 4 provinces, visited 4 national parks, spent time in the mountains, visited with my best friend, camped in so many different settings, saw incredible sights, made so many memories, and of course, picked up our trailer. What an amazing experience to have with my favourite person and our three wonderful dogs.

This is final part in our Alberta Road Trip series. Check out Part 1 and Part 2. We’ll also be posting videos from the trip on our YouTube channel when we have a bit more time to edit them.