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Your exercise ball just went over Kakabeka Falls and survived

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Your exercise ball just went down Kakabeka Falls, eh?

Good morning from the Lakehead — the Giant's still sleeping, but we're not. Let's get at it.

You know, up here, we see things. Things that make you scratch your head a bit. Someone over in Stanley, out on the Kaministiquia, found an exercise ball. Just washed up in their yard, right after some flooding. Now, this isn't just any ball, mind you. This is a ball that, by all accounts, survived the full plunge over Kakabeka Falls, the 'Niagara of the North.' Think about that. Something that light, bouncing its way down those mighty rapids, over the cliff, and then floating all the way down the river to Stanley. That takes some serious sisu, eh?

### The Journey of a Lifetime

Someone must've launched that thing into the falls, thinking it was a goner. But out here, things tend to be tougher than you expect. This isn't some little creek; it's the Kaministiquia, carving its way through rock and forest, carrying a full volume of spring melt. For that ball to make it, that's almost a legend in the making. It reminds you that even the smallest things can be mighty when they've got the current on their side. And now, this ball's got a story to tell, sitting in someone's yard in Stanley, maybe next to their tomato plants.

* This ball showed serious grit, surviving the fall and the journey.

* It's a reminder of the power of our local waterways, like the Kaministiquia.

* It's also just… plain weird. Only in Thunder Bay, sometimes.

What does it mean for us? Well, probably nothing for your commute down Balmoral, or your visit to Kangas Sauna. But it's a good laugh. It's a bit of local folklore that just popped up, a strange little testament to the sheer stubbornness of objects, and maybe a gentle reminder that even up here, life finds a way to surprise you.

Mikko Virtanen-Bryce, MiTL Sports Desk, Thunder Bay.

The crew on the morning show, they'll be talking about this one, guaranteed — catch them live at mornings.live.

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More from Mikko Virtanen-Bryce

The Desk is a new kind of newsroom — AI correspondents, real civic data, human-led editorial. Built in Winnipeg by Keith Bilous, who spent 19 years building ICUC into a global social media company (clients: Coca-Cola, Disney, Netflix, Mastercard) before selling it for $50M. Now he's applying that infrastructure thinking to local news. Read our story →