c2c-2023

Day 112: Cheticamp, NS -> Ingonish, NS

Jeremy goes up and over, eats lots of seafood, and adds another area to his "wow..." list

Jeremy Stuart

Sep 4, 2023 • 13 min read

Date: Monday, September 4, 2023
Start: Cheticamp, NS (Cape Breton National Park - Cheticamp)
End: Ingonish, NS (Cape Breton National Park - Ingonish Beach)
Distance: 114km

I woke at Cheticamp to find that my tent had remained dry throughout the night! This was good because it meant that I could likely get an earlier start to the morning (FORESHADOWING). I woke, made breakfast, and packed and tore down while it cooled. A few things on my tent were still a touch damp so I set them on a line someone had strung up nearby to dry. At this point one of the nearby campers came over and was curious about my story. We made our introductions and I found out he was from Vermont, not far from where I grew up, and was traveling around The Cabot Trail and PEI. He did a fair amount of biking himself and had a very sharp looking bike with him. He asked if he could join me today. I said sure! He went back to consult with his wife.

While he was doing that I ate breakfast and packed.

I bulked out my breakfast and ate a LOT in preparation for the big day ahead

At some point I bumped into two women whose bikes were laden with bags, sacks, attachments, and errata. Two more bike tourers! I said hello and we talked for a while about our trips. They were from New Zealand and were in Canada to do small trips around The Cabot Trail, Nova Scotia, The Bay of Fundy, PEI, and Quebec. They were - as all Kiwis are in my experience - an absolute riot and I enjoyed talking to them. They set off before me, but I wish them well on their travels!

At this point my friend from Vermont - Brian - came back to let me know he couldn't join me. His wife wanted to do some shopping and he had to go do that before any biking could happen. I told him it was no problem and wished him the best on his trip. Not long after he came over and gave me some bite size Toblerone dark chocolate confections! He said "I hope these help you on your journey!" and I couldn't be more thankful. He seemed really excited to hear about the journey I've been on and even took my picture. I also grabbed one with him as I wanted to remember him for that small kindness and generosity!

Remember my early start? Utterly shot by all my socializing. I left at 9:45am. My goal was to reach the other side of the park, a place called Ingonish where I had a spot reserved at another campground run by parks Canada. It was 115km away, which was not a huge day for me but...I knew that in the first 50km there were two titanic climbs I had to do (around 450 meters and 350 meters) and knew that just about everything else was likely to be sharp little hills. I had no idea how long it would take me. I was anxious that I might have shot myself in the foot and not have enough time. No worries...I'd figure it out as I went. With that I struck off from the national park campground.

I keep forgetting to add these. This was my path for the day!

I spent a lot of time as I rode trying to figure out how to write this up. I considered adding no pictures and not saying anything about it and simply telling you to see it yourself. I considered trying to do it justice by describing it. I've settled on just putting the pictures up with little descriptions. I warn you that the pictures cannot capture it or do it justice. I also warn you that I was not as blown away as I was expecting by Cape Breton Highlands National Park. I think people set the bar pretty high, and I've seen some jaw dropping stuff on this ride already. It does measure up to some of the best things I've seen, and I did say "Wow..." a couple of times. But I don't want to set your expectations the way that others did with me. It is 100% worth visiting and seeing. There is some incredible hiking in this park that I want to come back and do. And part of the visit is to see the small towns of Cape Breton which I do not feel got fair enough mention by anyone. So we're going to do with one photo essay style. With that, some pictures...

The first big sight upon entering the park

Hard to make out in the photo, but those two tiny black dots on the water are fishing boats

A picture I took at speed and angled it too much, but those rocks were spectacular to look at

You can see the road in the distance hugging the hills. Because this is a national park, the federal government controls the road and so it has a handsome shoulder!

The start of the first major climb was French Mountain. Note how the name of the mountain is "French" and so IN French the name of the mountain is "Montagne French"

There are people on that ridge line (they look like little dots). It is known as "Skyline" and is supposed to be a terribly beautiful hike

I passed an unknown number of waterfalls as I biked along

This is me reaching the top of French Mountain. The inclines were serious, and the climb lasted 5km. You can make out the drop of sweat on my nose. I haven't sweat that much since Skipper tricked me into riding over Mont Royal in Montreal!

This is French Lake. It sits at the top of French Mountain, so you can imagine how large the area on top of the mountain is. These mountains all seem to plateau at the top with huge stretches of forests on top

The area at the top had a kind of sub-apline feel to it. Small trees, lots of scrub brush. Nothing grew very big up here! Likely because of the proximity to the coast and the weather it gets

It's difficult to tell, but those cliffs are a VERY long way away!

You descend about 100 meters from French Mountain before hitting the top of MacKenzie Mountain. I think the two are connected by a ridge. Thankfully I had climbed the higher one to start and so got to descend to MacKenzie!

This panorama didn't come out great, but it gives you an idea of the vistas from up high

Time for me to go down hill for a change!

That town down there is Pleasant Bay, my first stop of the day, it is outside the bounds of the park!

Again, my phone had trouble with the light for these panoramas, but you can see the road switching back down here to get down to the town on the water!

This is where I stopped for lunch. A big thanks to some of the folks my father works with in Fort McMurray for recommending it (I think they're from Cape Breton)

Seafood wrap. Nothing too big. Gotta be able to pedal out of here!

In a picture above you could see these domes in the distance. Turns out they're little cabin rentals

After riding out of Pleasant Bay the next big mountain happened. North Mountain

It blows my mind how flat this looks in this photo, but that incline is almost 15%. That's probably meaningless to a lot of you. So it's...very very steep. It went as high as 18% at one point. I stopped and pushed my bike at that point. I was sweating so much that I couldn't see, it was filling and stinging my eyes so badly. A constant series of drops kept falling off of me. At times it was a stream. This was probably the toughest part of the day!

Again, not much for trees or growth up here

This is the downhill for North Mountain. You can see it switching back in the distance as it descends. Just before going down this I met a guy from New Jersey who had taken the ferry from Bar Harbour, Maine to Yarmouth and biked all the way to Cape Breton and was now doing The Cabot Trail. He was then going to New Brunswick, Maine, New Hampshire, and ending in Vermont. He had biked across The United States in 2017. He was definitely a kindred spirit and a cool guy!

Another in my series of "Wait...what is happening locally that you're protesting!?" The helicopter carrying the moose really made me laugh. Also, just how "rustic" do you think those cabins are? I bet that it's "extremely"

Again the road ducked out of the park and there were lots of nearby businesses, artisans, and craft shops. This one made me laugh because it is just a lawsuit waiting to happen!

This was around when I reached Cape North, which is the furthest North most point on The Cabot Trail (but not Cape Breton...there are communities further out). I met two cyclists in Cape North at the tiny grocery store who were from Quebec City. They were cycling the entire Cabot Trail. Vinnie and Camille were two excellent people!

This is a smaller road that is off the main highway. It follows the coast. Vinnie and Camille had told me it adds 6km but is totally worth it...so I took it!

Vinne and Camille had mentioned that the road was hilly. That was a vassst understatement. At one point I stopped to walk again. It was at least 18% and I was gassed. But it kept me along the water and afforded some really wonderful views. Note the mountain to the right that's ringed in cloud.

A better view of that mountain and its cloud. That spit of land shelters his area known as South Harbour.

The road went back inland for a while and emerged back at the water here at New Haven, Nova Scotia

The place is full of fishing boats and lobster traps and crab pots

These boats were all named for family members. My grandfather was a fisherman and his boat was named for my mother and aunt (the Trudy & Rhonda)

This is Neil's Harbour, just down the road from New Haven. You can see a lighthouse and that building to the left of it is my next stop!

Fun fact: That lighthouse doubled as an ice cream stand!

That building I pointed out earlier is known as The Chowder House. Someone in Inverness had recommended I stop here!

I had The Fisherman's Platter: mussels, clam strips, scallops, haddock, and fries. I didn't think I had the appetite to eat it all...

I took some more time to appreciate the view from The Chowder House which sat out on a point in Neil's Harbour. Here on the rocks and on the shore in the distance across the water you could see the waves hammering the shoreline. Each time a wave hit a great explosion of water would shoot up a giant cloud of white spray. It was beautiful.

Another just stereotypical scene on the coast in Neil's Harbour

Piles of these lobster traps were all over. Fishing is still a very important part of life here

Again, there was a LOT of arts and crafts and hand made goods for sale all over the place

After Neil's Harbour I was back in the national park. The roads were nice again, and the bridges all bore the insignia of Park Canada on them!

This particular style of moose sign always makes me laugh. This moose needs to try a lower body workout every once in a while. It's kinda cartoony and I love it.

When I started out in Cheticamp the waters I was looking out over were The Gulf of St. Lawrence. Now that I'm on the other side of the park, these are The Atlantic Ocean! Again I got to watch waves explode against the shore!

I have abolutely no idea what this sign was about...

For some reason someone decided to add bike lanes for a short while. There hadn't been any at all on Cape Breton so far. Not sure if this is going to be the new standard for the park (I hope!) but it was appreciated for as long as it existed!

I roled into my campground at about 6:25pm.

From here I setup my tent, showered (and ohhhhhhh how I needed the shower!), and ate and drank and drank and drank. I was seriously dehyrated even though I'd been drinking all day.

The site I was staying at was called Ingonish Beach, so I went down to the beach which was about a kilometer walk from the camping area.

The Sun was setting and it made the entire beach glow this pinkish red

The sound of the waves on the shore here was hypnotic

Looking the opposite direction of the beach I saw this

It was a grueling day. I think most people do what I did in two parts. It gives you more time to enjoy the views, but also it means not doing so much elevation in one day. I did 2099 meters of climbing. I knew it was going to be a lot, and I am 100% feeling it! But it was definitely worth the ride. I've done a big detour to see Cape Breton and The Cabot Trail and it did not disappoint. To the people who believe it is the most spectacular thing in the world: you need to get out more. There is plenty like this out there. I can say that now...I've been out there for almost four months looking for and finding it!

A stray observsation: I must have seen license plates from every province, and at least a third of the 48 continental United States. I even saw some vans with European plates that must have been shipped over. People really do come from around the world to see this! It was impressive.

But now it is time for bed! There is still one more mountain to get over tomorrow, and I need my sleep. Good night Cape Breton. Thank you for treating me to some incredible sights!