Cape Breton

This is a quiet cove over by the town of Cheticamp, NS - a small fishing village at the western entrance to Cape Breton National Park. We did this short 2 mile trail as a warm up hike.

From Fundy, we headed to Baddeck, Nova Scotia and then on to Broad Cove (on the Cabot Trail) in Cape Breton National Park. This is a rough coastal area that rivals the Big Sur Highway for beauty and ruggedness. We reloaded in Baddock, a beautiful town on Lake Bras d'Or (Arm of Gold). While there I also had to find a doctor because of an ear infection (I'm feeling much better in the past 2 days). Then we moved over to a campground by Ingonish, further up the Cape.

This is the quaint town of Cheticamp, the cliffs of Cape Breton start here.

Bad luck on our part, a hazy day when we did the Cabot Trail drive on Cape Breton. This is from a 6 mile hike we did to a point that looks out over the cliff and the highway. Still a beautiful hike. The winds were 30 - 40 mph or more on the ridges!

But while on the trail, we did see a mama moose and her calf. Here is a picture of the calf .... Mom was not as cooperative ... prefering to stay in the heavy cover of trees. Mom was twice the size of the calf!

So here are a couple more pictures from the Cabot Trail Drive around Cape Breton. The one on the left is at a trailhead that drops about 1200 feet to a beach (10 miles one way - we didn't make that one!). The picture on the right is a view looking down at Pleasant Bay, the cliffs don't really show up very well.

View toward the head of the peninsula.

Day 2 and this is a great little hike of 5 miles along the Middlehead Peninsula that goes out into the bay .... great views, lots of wind! This is looking back toward Ingonish, Nova Scotia.

And this is a view of the end of the trail. Water was rough, wind was 30 - 40 mph. Not many sea birds flying around in that!

On the way back on the other side .... much milder winds, still good views. This was followed by a wonderful lunch with a great view of the bay.

Also on the coastal trail, we had to walk across these rocks to get to the other side, they were a lot bigger once we got down to the "beach". It was slow going on that part.

This is Mary Anne Falls, and we didn't even have to hike very far to get this view. I wish we had brought our bathing suits!

On the end of a peninsula, a perfect place for lunch

On the coastal trail, this was our last hike at Cape Breton ... 6 miles, beautiful, serene, and the weather finally cleared up and got cooler with very little wind.

Now it's on to Newfoundland. We really do not know what we will find on our travels over there but are looking forward to sharing with everyone.