Baddeck, Canada

Today, the weather was great, so I headed back up the Cabot Trail to one of the premier hikes in the National Park, Skyline Trail.

The hike goes out to the headland at the north end of one of the most iconic views along the Cabot Trail. It’s an easy hike, since it’s mostly flat (except the last bit) and is well maintained and marked. There are even boardwalks along some swampy areas and to keep hikers off the fragile vegetation. It’s 7.5 km and took 2 and a half hours including my lunch break at the headlands.

There were benches all along the path at the headland and I took advantage of one to both rest my weary bones and enjoy a sandwich. Best picnic spot ever! Take a look at the video of my view.

There were lots of people on the trail and at the headland and one nice couple fell for my offer to have me take a picture of the two of them and they of course offered to take mine.

The moose on Cape Breton Island number almost higher than the people, and along this trail there is evidence of them all over although I didn’t see one today nor did any of the hikers I spoke to along the way. Hoof prints, droppings and the destruction of the forest along the trail but no moose. They have eaten the new tree growth along the trail and elsewhere in the park so that it’s turned to grasslands. The Parks folks have taken on a project to try to regenerate the forests along the pathway by building a compound along the trail with gates through which hikers can go but not moose unless they can do the limbo.

See the rest of the pics below. You don’t get a good idea of the magnificence of the views.

Great final day on Cape Breton. Tomorrow on to province number 3 – Prince Edward Island.

Baddeck, Canada

Yesterday I didn’t think I would see the sun again, but this morning I awoke to beautiful blue sky and sunshine. It slowly clouded over as the day progressed and by evening is looking again like it will rain, and in fact that is what the forecast is calling for. That and 110 kph winds in the Highlands! Glad I’m not up there today. Today’s destination was Route 19 south of the Cabot Trail on the west side of the Island and to Inverness County, or as Tourism Nova Scotia calls it, the Ceilidh Trail. This is the region where fiddling reigns. It is the land of The Rankins, and both Natalie MacIsaac and “bad boy” Ashley MacIsaac. The other interesting thing about this area is that it is the site of North America’s first and Canada’s only single malt whiskey distillery. Located in Glenville between the villages of Inverness and Mabou, the Glenora Distillery has had to fight cash flow issues, and copyright battles (to use the name “Glen”) to finally be successful in getting their product to market. Their 10 year single malt whiskey (they’re not allowed to call it Scotch), is sold by provincial liquor outlets throughout Canada but their aged product is available at the distillery. I think 19 years is the oldest I saw. I stopped in for a look at the operation, the pub, inn and gift shop (one of the nicest quality ones I’ve seen). Next I was off for the Celtic Music Interpretation Centre in the small village of Judique for a lunch-time ceilidh. (roughly defined as a Scottish social gathering with music and I suspect the precursor to the “kitchen party”). A fiddler and piano player entertained the packed house. Turns out most of the audience were fiddling students from Maine, and their parents, who were there to take some classes in fiddling from the experts. While the hired talent were on a break the class from Maine took to the stage and played a couple of songs. They were clearly having the time of their lives, especially their instructor. After another delicious Cape Breton snack, this time fish cakes, and another two CDs of Cape Breton music added to my collection, I was up the road, er no make that down the road toward Mabou. I wandered around the small community of Port Hood, and then made my way to Mabou, the home town of The Rankins. The Rankins are the proprietors of a cafe in Mabou called the Red Shoe, named after a reel composed by another Inverness County song writer Daniel MacDonald. Since I wasn’t able to get my daily fix of seafood chowder at the Celtic Music Centre I opted to stop in to the Red Shoe and try theirs. It was likely the best I’ve had. Definitely worth the stop. Then it was on to Inverness where I tootled around the town and stopped and walked along their boardwalk and their beautiful beach. I managed to find a few small pieces of beach glass in my wandering, even a couple of prized green ones. One could never be stressed living by the ocean and being able to walk along it at will.

Baddeck, Canada

Baddeck, Canada

Inverness, Canada

Mabou, Canada

Judique, Canada

Baddeck, Canada

Lesson learned today – how to change the propane tank.

Last night, it started to rain at about 10 pm and was rainy and windy right through the night and got down to about 8 degrees. At about 4 am I heard the heater fan come on, as it does to get the air circulating and then the click of the ignitor and then nothing except the fan. And then after a few seconds the fan went off. Yup, out of propane. Fortunately it stayed relatively warm in the trailer and as long as I was under my summer duvet I was fine. I knew the office would exchange my propane tank but the office didn’t open til 9 am. So, it was a good excuse to stay in bed for a while this morning.

I hadn’t changed the tank before and I struggled a little with the wing nuts holding the straps that hold the propane tank on the hitch, but with the help of my pliers, I managed to get the straps off and the tank over to the office. Didn’t take me long at all to get the tank changed out.

The rain kept up and the wind came and went all day, gusting quite high at times. I was glad not to be on the road today.

The day was spent in coffee shops, a couple of gift shops, reading and watching netflix. Fortunately the forecast for tomorrow and Wednesday is good, as I have a couple of more places I want to get to on the west side of the island before leaving for PEI on Friday.

Louisbourg, Canada

Today I was off to the Fortress of Louisbourg. But before I get there, let me do some housekeeping.

First of all, thank you so much to friend Allen who did some research into Puffins and discovered this great website that has a link to a live webcam in a puffin burrow! So you can watch the little guys minding the nests and presumably once the egg is hatched you’ll see Mom and Dad feeding the little one.

http://explore.org/live-cams/player/puf fin-burrow-cam

Secondly, the black and white sea bird that kind of looks and acts somewhat like a penguin from the pictures at Bird Islands yesterday is a Razorbill.

OK, now on to the Fort. In the 1960’s when many of the coal mines were shutting down in Cape Breton, the federal government decided to do a reconstruction of the Fortress to use as a re-training centre for the building trades. They have reconstructed approx. 1/4 of the site of the 18th century fort on the foundations of the original site. The Fortress of Louisbourg was one of the busiest ports on the eastern seaboard at the time it was in full swing and the location was primarily chosen because the French needed access to the important cod fishery. It is a good natural harbour which stays mostly open during the winter, and it was strategically important because of it positions near the entrance to the St Lawrence.

This is my second trip to the Fortress of Louisbourg and this visit was different that the last. It’s still considered “shoulder season” in much of Cape Breton, with the full tourist season not in full swing until July 1st. Travelling in the shoulder means less crowds and more ease of accommodation but it also means the weather might not be so great, and the programming at some of the museums, etc is not yet in full swing.

This is the case at the Fortress of Louisbourg. They are opening more buildings every day but they are not yet all open with period costumed interpreters in them as was the case when I was last here. However, they are running some shoulder programs and I participated in two today.

The first was called Time Traveller and we were taken to three different locations to have the life of the inhabitants explained to us in the first person by the interpreters. One was a soldier, the second the mother-in-law of an officer and the third was one of the women from the town outside the fort who worked in the Tavern. I learn better with verbal instruction and so listening to their stories helped me imagine life in the fort in 1744.

The second program was a tour of the main street along with an overview of the history of the fort and the context of this fort in the overall history of New France and the struggles with the British. I’m not going to go in to the history here, but suffice is to say, the French and British fought, the British won, the fort went back to the French in a treaty, then they fought again, the British won again, then the British blew up the fort so it wouldn’t be used any longer.

Afterward I had a delightful lunch in the “inn” and the menu was fashioned after what would have been served in the 1740’s. The only utensil used then was a spoon, the only china was a rough tea cup, and the rest of the dishes were pewter. Pea soup and beef stew were on the menu today along with bread they bake on site as well. (Bread was an important part of the solder’s rations.)

I happily spent from 10 – 4 pm at the Fort and although it was not a warm or bright day, the rain held off until I was on my way back to my cozy trailer.

P.S. The location of the Fortress is not coming up correctly so I’ve used the town of Louisbourg instead The historic site is further south than the town.

Sydney, Canada