Mt McKay Ate Us for an After-Lunch Snack

On Saturday, a couple of friends (Anna and Tobey) and I went on a little adventure. Destination: Mt McKay aka Thunder Mountain.

Mt McKay is part of the mountain-range that runs through the North Superior region and the plateau provides a fantastic view of Thunder Bay (both the city and the actual bay) and the peninsula that makes up Sleeping Giant National Park. It's just outside of Thunder Bay proper and is located on a reservation.

The mountainside is shale, so walking up the "path" that leads to the top of the mountain could be likened to walking up a giant pile of broken glass, or bones or ice cubes - anything that would snap, break, crumble and then slide under foot. I put the word "path" in quotes, because the route we took was not as much a path as it was a treacherous route to the plateau that required one to hang onto tree branches for dear life and dodge falling rocks dislodged by your higher-altitude friends.

We got to the top, but unfortunately we didn't find the Thunderdome. WE DON'T NEED ANOTHER HERO!!

Here are few pictures that Tobey took with her fancy camera

Near and far shots of Nanabijou aka The Sleeping Giant.

A shot of the city...I've always wanted to see the airport from the air.

This is the face that Anna made when she got hit in the butt with a falling rock dislodged by either Toby or myself. Or perhaps it's the face she made when she slid about 8' on her butt and hands down the shale and almost dropped out of sight. Tobey and I has similarly harrowing moments. Sure-footed as mountain goats, we were!

This picture proves to all those non-believers that I climbed and I climbed high.

Anna and I practicing for yearbook photos.

Beautiful blue skies...

It was windy!

Anna on our vertical ascent. You can get a good look at the shale in this picture and its crumbliness.

I'm not sure which was more difficult - going uphill or going downhill. Uphill was tough because it was like running on sand. The energy put into every step was swallowed up by sliding back half as far (or more) as you stepped. Downhill was tough too. Fightin' gravity. 'nuff said.

Anna, Tobey and I aren't the only people who are unfairly and unjustifiably subjected to the forces of gravity. You may know people who have our same plight. Maybe someone in your family. Maybe someone who is sitting in the same room with you. Maybe even you!!

These poor folks challenge the rules of gravity with all their might. Unfortunately they get branded with a big FAIL, just like the rest of us.


Those of you who know me well, know how much I love to laugh at other people's misfortune (like the poor, unfortunate souls in the cheer leading video). Ok now, before you start writing to the Thunder Bay Chronicle Journal and form a pitchforks-and-torches posse to annoy me into becoming a better person, understand that I don't laugh at people who have truly had misfortune befall upon them, like the sick or elderly (unless they're those old men whose pants spontaneously fall down at weddings) or the undeniably destitute (like Gary Busey or Nick Nolte, whose most significant misfortune is that they seem to be coming closer and closer to being the same person every day).

One of my current favourite vehicles for viewing the misfortunes of others is playhimoffkeyboardcat.com. PHOKC pairs random clips with, well...just take a look for yourself. It's undeniably the funniest thing in the world. Forever. Barack Obama said so.