53 km in 3.5 days
Last week Mr. Science and I traveled to Sleeping Giant to hike 53 km over the course of 3.5 days. It was an amazing trip—we both have such a passion for hiking and really enjoyed both the beauty of the scenery and the challenge of the trail. This was easily the toughest hike that I’ve ever done!
Mountain rising up over a rocky beach.
We ate really well, with oatmeal for breakfast every morning (except one when we had dehydrated eggs and hashbrowns), wraps for lunch (PB and banana in tortillas and salami/cheese/lettuce in tortillas), and homemade vegetarian chili or spaghetti for dinner. We also took along dried fruit strips and Luna/Clif/Larabars for snacks. And, of course, drank lots of water.
It was overcast for much of our hike, which was really nice because it cooled the temperature down a little. Whenever we stopped for a short break I’d be reaching for my fleece, though—it gets chilly in the mountains when you stop moving! We were very glad that it didn’t rain at all, because if it had I think that the trail would have been far too treacherous to hike.
Me standing alongside one of the smaller cliffs we had to climb.
We went up and down Sleeping Giant multiple times. It was hard for this Prairies girl! I’m used to walking for hours each day, but generally it’s all on flat ground and without a 20- or 25-lb bag on my back. A definite change! I loved the massive boulders and the moss and tree roots along the trail. There was a major wind storm over the winter, and since it’s still early in the season, the trails hadn’t been completely cleaned yet—but that was okay. Mr. Science and I just climbed over, under, or around the fallen trees (and in some cases lost the trail completely and had to go hunting for it).
Had to be careful not to roll an ankle on some of the rocky parts!
There weren’t too many other people on the trail, just a few day-hikers, which was awesome. And we didn’t have to share our campsites with anyone else! Even better, we didn’t find a single tick. That’s huge. In Riding Mountain, we’d have been pulling off dozens of ticks at a time. I really liked the lack of insects.
Mr. Science snapped this photo approximately 5 seconds before I went crashing into the stream. He was too much of a gentleman to take a photo of me struggling to stand back up and instead came to my rescue. Aww.
We made the mistake on the second day, after hiking 18 km, to not have dinner. We also didn’t drink much water that day. We were just so exhausted at the end of the day that we crashed at 7pm and didn’t bother eating. We had actually eaten less than 1,200 calories that day. This is a very bad idea when you’re hiking. Ultimately, we’d just pushed ourselves too far.
The next day we didn’t feel so great, and we were much more careful to eat more reasonable amounts and drink more water on the rest of the trip.
This was the only section of the trail with a rope and we weren’t sure why it was here—there were many other places it would have been more useful! But it was fun nonetheless 😀
We also had our Vibrams for wearing around the campsite—oh my goodness these are the best shoes ever! I’ve gone for a couple runs in them around the city and they’re great. I love my Vibrams. They were so comfy after wearing hiking boots all day long, and I seriously don’t think I’ll ever go back to wearing clunky running shoes again (though obviously I wasn’t running on our hike. Haha).
I felt like I was on the set of Avatar with my blue feet.
All in all it was a fantastic trip and we’re already planning a kayak trip for the Canada Day long weekend and another hike (hopefully Mantario!) in early August. Hiking is glorious 🙂
Do you like hiking? Have you been to Sleeping Giant before? What’s your favourite provincial/national park? Even if you aren’t in Canada, I highly recommend you pay a visit to Sleeping Giant!
There’s nothing like a mug of hot chocolate at the end of the trail! Sitting in a car felt like such a luxury.
Those are breathtaking pictures, looks like so much fun! I love my vibrams too 🙂
Thanks Lacey! The boyfriend actually took all the pictures (totally forgot to credit him, whoops. Must remedy that).
I adore the Vibrams – we only got them a couple weeks before the hike and I can’t believe I didn’t have them before!
Wow Sagan! Looks like an amazing trip. I LOVE the photo of you along the cliffside! Thank you for sharing the photos and the experience in words.
I’m not much of a camper, but I do love to day-hike around the bluffs in my county. It is very beautiful, we are lucky. When I was younger, we visited northern Minnesota more often and parks and trails up there are spectacular.
What amazing pics!!!!!!!!!! And nice of the man not to get you falling in water! I day hike here & there but not the hard core stuff…. really beautiful!
So my feet, opposite of yours! I have my HOkas with those big ole soles to protect my no fat pads feet! Those shoes have saved my workout life! YAHOO!
This post has so much win.
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That place looks picturesque, I wish we live nearby a hiking trail, wait, I wish I had an inclination to get out and experience nature every once in a while. The experience seems divine.
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