Cape Awesome

Today was truly the first amazing day of my roadtrip. Hopefully it will not be the last but I have to say that Cape Breton certainly lived up to it's reputation, especially the Cabot Trail/Cape Breton National Park! The park itself was cold and windy but it was also beautiful. Although the view might have improved with the addition of some sunshine so you could really see all the way across the Northumberland Strait, or on the other side, the Atlantic Ocean, what we were able to see was breathtaking.

Starting the day departing from Inverness with a belly full of Peanut Butter and Jam Sandwich, we passed through a number of coastal towns, most remarkably Cheticamp, a really quaint down that symbolizes the apparently Acadian heritage of that coast of Cape Breton. We didn't get up to the Cape Breton National Park until later in the morning, but we made the most of it.

The Park itself is pretty unremarkable, it's covered in trees like most of the Canadian National Parkland, and it has the same set of visitor information centres and campgrounds that look like they haven't changed since the 70's but it is really the geography present in the location that makes it special. Right away you start ascending the steep route to the highlands where you spend most of the time in the park being move than 300 metres above sea level, which makes from some very spectacular views.

I only had to walk uphill for 2 hours to take this picture, I love parks

As we ascended the first hill/mountainy area we discovered a very unwelcome sight: there was still snow up in the Northlands of this park! At first it just seemed like it was some snow that had managed to hide out in the ditches of the road out of direct sunlight, but unfortunately nature proved us wrong yet again. Our first trail took us quickly from wet early may mud trail straight back in time to mid-March, with the trail still covered with a good foot or two of snow. I'm certainly glad I invested in some good all season hiking boots for this trip!

If you think that YOUR April weather was bad...

The first trail was one that lead towards a pond, it was supposed to feature coniferous trees but more importantly: Moose. I was hoping to see one of the large creatures but that walk frustrated my attempts, a pattern that would repeat itself over the course of the day. We eventually got to an area that claimed the path was closed but we made our own path and eventually got to the lake. It was very pretty and well worth the walk, still no sightings of any animals though...

Trails? Where we're going we don't NEED trails!

Moving on up the park we were treated with lookout points featuring steep slopes with sharp drops, occasionally you were able to see all the way into the river valley below. They also had some infographics describing the number of fishing outports that used to exist in the highlands back in the early 20th century, that had long since been abandoned. There was a particularly amazing one that allowed you to see kilometres away into the rolling plateaus near the very top of the park. Still no Moose though.

Rolling Hills, it made the rest of the drive along the way seem lame by comparison

Near the middle of a park there were a pair of trails that caught my eye. One lead to an incredible waterfall, which fed a babbling brook that you followed to the source. Although the woods were quiet on the way up, you were immediately deafened by the roar of the waterfall as it cascaded down the rockface towards the pools below. Along the way we saw our first wildlife, some robins, another unidentified bird, and some fungus. I had a bit of a climb to get this picture near the waterfall, but I think it was worth it.

I had to climb halfway up a hill to get this picture, I hope you all appreciate it

The other trail was a short one, it featured really enormous maple trees, apparently up to 350 years old! (This fact was confirmed by Mr. Sayre, the resident woodsman of this trip) and a recreation of a Scottish sugar shack. This shack looked surprisingly like a thatched roof cottage straight out of Peasants Quest, a flash based game made by Home Star Runner. Due to this, we had to keep a constant look out for Trogdor the Burninator. Here is a picture of Geoff looking sort of terrified from inside the shack. Although there were still no Moose to be found.

Burninating the peasants, and their thatched roof cottages

On the way down the Atlantic side of the park, we stopped at the very end to take in a trail called the "Middle Head" trail. It was by a interesting looking resort called the Keltic Lodge, a collection of cottages, chalets and a large central lodge building. It was a path that ran through a peninsula that stuck straight out into the Ingonish Bay. I have to say this was likely the highpoint in my adventure through the park, it had pretty much everything, sea air, water crashing against rocks, birds, high look out points, everything except Moose. It was a bit of a hike but by the time we got to the end we had seen a number of sites, mostly showing the ferocity of nature. There was a beach where the rocks were being tossed about when the waves rolled in, sounding like the clapping of hands when they were rolled. There was a rocky outcropping that Geoff was crazy enough to walk out on to, and another one that wasn't quite so far away from the water that he convinced me to scamper over.

This picture is an embodyment of Geoff's insanity

And this an embodyment of mine

At the end of the Peninsula, there was a colony of gulls and cormrants just hanging out on the rocks just out of reach of the look out. There were at least a few dozen of them, occasionally taking flight when I spotted something interesting or just when the waves got too high. Off the beaten trail there was also a small ruin, we couldn't figure out what it was, but it was definitely not just a pile of rocks stacked by some bored teenagers.

Is it a murder? Or is that crows... either way, lots of birds

More birds, all lined up in a row

Not sure what this was, definately old though

Finally, on our way back to the parking lot, we stumbled upon a particularly lazy grouse. It was just standing in the middle of the path, we were careful not to disturb it and got some pictures from far away. However, when we approached it, it didn't even move out of the way, so we were able to get some closer pictures of it. When we tried to shoo it off the path, it just walked over to the sides, so naturally we followed it around until it flew away.

Attack of the Lazy Grouse

Then later on the way back, the stupid grouse hopped right out of the bushes on the side of the path and stood right in front of us looking indignant. It moved to the other side of the path and we snapped some more close ups of it before Geoff chased it away (They make a pretty awesome sounds when they fly, it sounds like a helicopter almost).

Attack of the Grouse 2: The Re-Grousenating

Finally, it was time to call it a day and trek towards our destination: Sydney NS. Unfortunately the final score was Moose: 1 Ian: 0 with no Moose sightings and Mother Nature had the last laugh, apparently even out of the park the roads are still pretty windy due to the hilly topography of the area, so it took us longer than expected to get to Sydney. Also it was suddenly very foggy (Saint John levels of fog) so that took even longer. The only benefit that this had was that it made us so late getting it it threw us off our original supper plan of sandwiches. We ended up dining at the A&K diner in North Sydney, which boasted the 'World Best Burger' We both had the burger, and although we don't have a world's breadth of experience in the specialty of burger tasting, we agreed to let them keep their title. They were also awesome because they had $1.99 Onion Rings, and you got lots of them and they were also delicious.

So here we are in a Bed and Breakfast in Sydney, Nova Scotia, tomorrow the agenda is to hit up Fort Louisbourg and then high tail it straight over to Fredericton, then on to Quebec and destinations West on May 5th. This is the last we'll see of Nova Scotia on our trip, but it was gorgeous. Hopefully the rest of Canada can live up to this great start.