Terry Fox Memorial and more

Post delayed due to a very slow Internet connection.

Saturday night we had a storm and woke up Sunday to partly cloudy skies that gave way to partly sunny skies – a gorgeous day in the 60s with some wind.

We went to the Terry Fox Memorial. Terry was in remission from cancer and had lost his right leg to the disease at age 18. Just few years later, he decided to run across Canada to raise money for cancer research. He ran nearly a marathon a day for 143 straight days and then his cancer returned when he was running in the Thunder Bay area. He lost his battle in 1980 when he was nearly 23 years old.

His “Marathon of Hope” captivated Canadians with its bold humanitarianism, transformed our vocabulary about personal courage, and revolutionized fund-raising.

                                    -from a plaque at the Terry Fox Memorial

While we were at the memorial, which is located on a gorgeous overlook of the area, a couple of sports teams from a local university were there. It appeared to be a motivational outing.

From the overlook, you can see the Sleeping Giant.

As we traveled on, I loved seeing the rocks.

Our next stop for the day was the Cascades Conservation Area. We decided to walk the yellow trail (it was the most direct and shortest). The trees are changing in the area and the walk was beautiful. 

We found a few cascades but then hopped on another trail and found more.

When it was time to return, we decided on the red trail; it was just a little over twice as long and followed the river. However we couldn’t get to the river - we were too high above it - and when the red trail ended, we weren’t back to the parking lot! Checking a map, the shortest route back was the blue trail. Our hike was much longer than we had planned but very nice. It would have been great if we had carried some water along!

We headed to the Riverfront and found roses still blooming and they smelled heavenly!

There were nice walkways going out to the water where we could see the Sleeping Giant. 

One sign told had the story of Nanabijou and the legend of the Sleeping Giant. 

We could see the marina, sailboats, ships and two lighthouses on Lake Superior. Here is the closest lighthouse.

I especially liked the bandshell with the log seating.

Our last stop of the day was at Mission Island Marsh. It was not what we expected but still interesting to see. It is a coastal wetland and there are wooden walkways for a short distance.  While there, we did see some ships offshore.