This blog is about part 1 of my 20,000+ mile car-camping trip with my dogs from DC to Alaska via Labrador. Part 1, in 2011, was to the end of the road in northeastern North America in Labrador and then on to Quebec and Ontario, 7609 miles. Part 2, which took place in 2012, picked up where Part 1 left off in Ontario and was supposed to extend to Banff and Jasper National Parks in the Canadian Rockies, but Leben, my male German shepherd, became paralyzed on the trip so we cut it short. We will finish the journey in 2013, when we will return to Prudhoe Bay, Alaska.

Day 31, Monday, September 19, SGPP (Sleeping Giant Provincial Park), Thunder Bay, Ontario




A friend, in an early comment to this blog commented on how sublime the experience must be to watch so many sunsets in so many locations.  He was absolutely correct, and I wish I had written that down as one of my goals for this trip.  But to the sunsets I must add sun rises, wonderful scenes along the way, the weather when it is at its best, the wonderful people with whom I have such brief encounters, and simply the experience of moments with my dogs I shall cherish forever.  Today was one those days when all these things came together.  Perhaps it was because I decided to take the day off and stay in this wonderful park for another day or so, or perhaps it just happened.  But to explain all this would take all night long, so i will leave it to the imagination of those who read this.  I suspected all along that this park would ignite a feeling within me, and it has.  I will remember it by the photo I hope to send with this posting, my dogs sitting by my side as the sun was setting behind the sleeping giant, the weather as gorgeous as I have ever experienced, no other campers around, and rachmaninov's piano concert #2 playing in the background.  Wow, the almost 5000 miles I  had to drive so far for this alone was worth it.   Sublime is the precise word to use.  

Tomorrow i hope to reach my penultimate destination, Lake Bukemiga, a drive straight north from here, at the end of the road north.  I will camp on the beach there (I had to go into Thunder Bay today to get a crown land permit to do so) for the night, but keep my camp site here --- the best in this camp --- and return to it Wednesday.  Then, on Thursday, the first full day of fall, I will head for my ultimate destination, home, safely.

Ed

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