Itasca Travels 2017: Cabot Trail, North

Monday, June 26

With a change of clothes and some snacks for the road, we set out from Baddeck (Buhdek) for St. Ann’s Bay and the eastern entrance to the Cabot Trail. We drove north along the coast (w/o pullout spots) until we reached Cape Smokey (just south of Ingonish). Finally, a chance to wander around a bit. From here we could look back at nearly all the coast we’d passed since St. Ann’s. AWESOME.

(Before reaching the coast, we drove along one of the many arms of Bras d’Or Lake (pronounced brahdore), a huge inland sea in the central south of the Cape. That’s the water you see in the pic below (shot thru the car window). Purple lupins have been part of the landscape for days. Greg loves them.)

Lake and lupins... how lovely.

First view from Cape Smokey

Probably whale watching or tourist cruise boats.
(Lobster boats are more colorful.)

On a clear day you can see forever.
(or at least almost to St. Ann)

Continuing north (with lots of pullouts), we entered Cape Breton Highlands Nat’l Park (which we will continue to drive in and out of) at Ingonish, then pulled off for a few more photo ops before stopping for lunch at the highly recommended Chowder House in Neil’s Harbor. Greg had a snow crab sandwich & fries (he’s a French fry connoisseur, and these got top billing), while I enjoyed corn & crab chowder, onion rings (my weakness) and Greg’s cole slaw.

Park Headquarters. I thought these
flowers were especially bright & cheery.

Well buffeted tree.

Rugged.

Intrepid Photographer

No frills, just good food.

No skimping on the crab. 😃

Storm comin' in.

Avian parking lot.

Teamwork

A construction detour kept us out of Dingwall, but we got a peek (just a peek, no picture) at the harbor from the other side of the cove. Continuing north, we located our motel and then pushed on to Meat Cove, the “most northern community” (barely) on Cape Breton. It's marked at the very top of the map. Why is it called Meat Cove? Because sailors would come ashore here to hunt game, which was apparently abundant. Today there's a campground, a little cafe, and a primitive boardwalk thru the woods and down to the beach. (Irrelevant side note: Coming up the coast we also passed thru Wreck Cove - probably an equally obvious reason for that name.)

View from campground to beach...

...and from the beach up.

Boardwalk...

flanked by bushes, &

lost in the bushes?

Greg and I spent quite a while on the beach. There’s no fine sand, just rocks – many types in many sizes. After wandering through them for some time, I finally chose some to use in a decorative arrangement in our next house, which will have a “shore” room. The stream starts even higher up the hill (maybe miles away on the other side) and finally winds down to the ocean here. (We also crossed it somewhere along the boardwalk.)

This pic doesn't do the rock justice. It's
really much darker & sparkly, and clearly
sedimentary - the layers look peelable.

On our way back to the motel, we checked out the local market (possible dinner options) and then checked in at Burton’s Sunset Oasis. Very basic (also very pricey – don’t get me started), but clean and the view is to die for. I got some steps in while Greg went back to the grocery for a steak and pre-packaged (but actually quite good) Caesar salad. The motel owner provided a grill, and dinner was prepared. Afterwards we drove down to the little harbor, where we were able to chat with two of the local fishermen. One fellow about our age grew up with 14 siblings and has something like 45 nieces and nephews (he really wasn't sure how many). Suddenly our crew seemed pretty small. Beautiful evening. We returned to the motel to take in (and take pics of) the sunset and play a couple hands of gin rummy before tumbling into bed.