2009 News and Discoveries

This year was my eighth in Cape Breton, where I spent twelve full weeks this year on three separate trips, one in June, one in July/August, and one in October. The summer was easily the worst I have spent in Cape Breton because of the weather: substantial and often heavy rain (it turned out to be the rainiest August on record for Cape Breton) and a nearly unbroken sequence of grey days. Had it not been for the wonderful and plentiful Scottish traditional music, as fine as any year I have been there, I’d have just given up and come home early. The spring and fall trips were more successful, however, even though the sun was often missing then too. Still, I managed to add a dozen hikes that were new to me, not too bad at all for a poor weather year! Even after eight years, I have not even begun to exhaust the rich array of Cape Breton’s incredible hiking resources; so much more still remains to be explored!

I used a sequence of four mostly good days on the spring trip to explore Cape Breton’s east coast; while my main effort was on photography, I did get some hikes in at Cape Auguet, St. Peters, Big Lorraine, and on the trail along the cliffs to the east of Schooner Pond (which I didn’t finish due to time constraints (and the worsening weather)). On this trip, I also spent three days in Ingonish, hoping to do both the Clyburn Valley Trail and the Franey Trail, but was rained on each of the three days and spent half my time in a motel room, waiting for the rain to end. I did get to hike the Clyburn Valley Trail, mostly in fog and mist, but no luck for the Franey Trail, which will have to await another year.

On the summer trip, considerably longer than either the spring or fall trips, my only discovery was the Campbell’s Mountain Look-Off Trail, described below. As the table of hikes below shows, I didn’t get in many hikes due to the weather and on many of the days I did go out, I got rained on. It was definitely a rotten summer both for hiking and for photography.

On the fall trip, I hiked at Red Cape (on the Atlantic coast east of Framboise), which I had seen from afar on the spring trip, and visited Belfry Beach, which I did not know about on my spring trip (I found out about it only after returning home and working on a photo essay). I discovered a new (and as yet unfinished) trail at the Louisbourg Lighthouse, finally got to explore the coast at Kennington Cove, and hiked the Simons Point Trail. Back in Inverness Country, thanks to a tip from a gentleman on an ATV who stopped to chat while I was taking photos from the road above Glencoe Mills, I learned of the Churchview Road hike, which I did the following day.

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Eco-Trail at Cape Auguet

I had been here once several years ago, when I had explored along the coast a short distance from the trail head, but did not at that time hike any further. I have no photos from that trip, so it might have been in 2001, when I had no camera. In any case, I had always been intending to get back here and this year proved to be the year I did.

The hiking trail is a fine one, with boardwalks over brooks and wet spots and stairs on some of the steep cliffs that attest to the fine work done by the volunteers who built and maintain the Eco-Trail. There are six shelters along the trail (including the one at the trail head), each supplied with bilingual informative panels about the history, culture, and ecological significance of the area; since the sun had become especially strong and the trail’s constant up and down (though never more than 6 m (20 ft) at a time) had left me rather warm, wishing I had worn shorts rather than jeans, I really appreciated the opportunity to relax in a covered area, read the panels, and enjoy the superb views while cooling off in the gentle breezes.

The main trail offers excellent views of the coast, including a couple of lakes, salt marshes, and even a forest hike, though one is never far from the water. For two views from the trail, see here and here. A number of wild flowers, some exquisitely tiny and delicate, were in bloom and the incipient foliage of the deciduous trees was just at its bursting point; I also saw several stands of fiddlehead ferns. Shore birds were plentiful throughout the hike.

The end of the main trail is at Mackerel Cove, site of a small Acadian fishing settlement in the middle of the 1800’s. The horseshoe shaped cove has a rocky shore and, the day I was there when the sky was nearly pure blue, was gorgeous under the afternoon sun. Since the day was so fine, I lallygagged at several points to soak in the sights and ended up spending five hours out and back in this beautiful place. Alas, I had forgotten to bring along a spare memory chip, so I was rather constrained in the number of photos I could take; there were so many great views that I didn’t get that I’ll surely be back there again soon. It’s a trail I can heartily recommend without hesitation.

Mackerel Cove from near the end of the Eco-Trail

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St. Peters Canal and Battery Park

On a gloomy day in 2004, I had previously visited St. Peters Canal, but did not then take the opportunity to walk along it from one end to the other. On the beautiful June day in 2008 on which I again found myself here, I could not resist and found that it is not a long walk—0.8 km (0.5 mi) along a flat mown lawn surface–but it is an interesting one, with beautiful views of both St. Peters Bay on the south end and of St. Peters Inlet on the north end, and awe-inspring as one recognizes in situ the immensity of the back-breaking brute-force labour required to cut a 30 m (100 ft) opening through a 20 m (66 ft) high solid granite hill without the benefit of either modern excavation equipment or even modern explosives.

Isle Madame, Lennox Passage, and St. Peters Bay from Battery Provincial Park

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Big Lorraine

I had been looking for Big Lorraine for a couple of years, but had not seen any signs for it and had never found the road that leads to it. I happened to mention that to the owners of the restaurant in Louisbourg where I had breakfast that morning and they gave me the information I needed to locate it. Just outside of Louisbourg on Route 22, an unnumbered paved road leads off towards Little Lorraine. Proceeding north on that road after about 1 km (0.6 mi), one will see (but only if one is looking very carefully) a gravel road to the right; it would be indistinguishable from a driveway were it not for a sign, which can be found mostly obscured by brush at the right of the road, indicating that the land belongs to the Fortress of Louisbourg National Historical Site. (If you reach the bridge over Lorraine Brook on the Little Lorraine Road, you have gone too far.) Turn down the gravel road and continue straight until you find yourself beside a few houses where you can park at the edge of the road in such a way as to not block other vehicles (the road beyond the first house was not in great shape for a car, so I’d suggest you park near it and walk the rest of the way on foot).

Big Lorraine Harbour

At the end of the road, you will find yourself on the western edge of Big Lorraine Harbour, shown in the photo above. A path leads from there across the field along the shore of the harbour to the Atlantic coast. It took me about a half hour to reach the coast; as is my wont, I was shod in walking oxfords and that proved to not be the best choice, as there were some boggy areas that I had to work my way around, in one case dropping down to the rocky shore to do so. There were some lovely wildflowers blooming among the grasses in the field and the views of Big Lorraine Harbour were very fine as I progressed under a gorgeous sky and bright sun.

Once at the Atlantic coast, the views were magnificent in both directions. To the south, lies a rocky coast a good height above the water leading out to Lorraine Head, as seen in the first photo below (use the height of a tree to gauge the height of the cliffs). The trail I had followed continues south along the coast; I did not attempt to go further, given the inappropriateness of my footwear, but later learned that it follows the shore with an occasional detour through the woods all the way to the Louisbourg Lighthouse (see below for more information on this trail). To the north, as seen in the second photo below, the coast has a somewhat different character, though it remains very rocky; Little Lorraine Harbour and Baleine Harbour are the next two major inlets along this coast, which ends in Cape Breton, for which Cape Breton Island is named and which is its easternmost point. The day I was there, lobster fishermen were out in their boats checking their traps off shore.

Atlantic Coast to the south of Big Lorraine Harbour

Atlantic Coast to the north of Big Lorraine Harbour

The hike I took lasted hardly more than an hour, but it was a real delight because it was the first time I had been here and the first time taking a hike is always special; because the day itself was so fine; and because the gorgeous views more than repaid the little effort I had to expend to see them. I am now very definitely interested in hiking from here to the Louisbourg Lighthouse along this wild and beautiful coast!

On the east side of Big Lorraine Harbour, I am told that there is an old cemetery; it is shown on the topographic map at the end of a road approximately 2 km (1.2 mi) further east on the Little Lorraine Road past the turn-off into Big Lorraine Harbour. I have not explored that road, but it is now on my to-do list. Another informant told me that there is a coastal trail which runs along the coast all the way from Little Lorraine to the east side of Big Lorraine Harbour (a part of the trail which connects the west side to Louisbourg Lighthouse), but another local disputed that. In any case, it needs some investigation to find out: this is certainly a lovely area in which to explore the Atlantic coast!

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Cliffs Trail at Schooner Pond Cove

After I left Big Lorraine Harbour, I proceeded northwards along Cape Breton’s eastern coast, stopping for pictures at Little Lorraine and Main-à-Dieu before driving around Mira Bay. On this coast, I had never before been north of Mira Gut, so this was all new territory for me. I spent some time exploring Waddens Island (I’m not sure that that is its proper name, since neither The Nova Scotia Atlas nor the topographical map gives a name for the island bearing the community of Waddens Cove), which has fine views of Mira Bay. Then it was on to Morien Bay and Port Morien, which were both gorgeous under the beautiful, though gradually whitening, sky. I drove north along the Long Beach Road eventually arriving at Schooner Pond Cove on the north coast east of Donkin. As I was busy taking photographs there near a road clearly labelled as private, a car came up and the two guys therein asked if I had been on the trail along the cliffs. When I said that I did not know of its existence, they told me that it followed the cliffs along the shore all the way to Wreck Point and Northern Head. I mentioned that the land appeared to be private and was told that it was now held by an Austrailing mining company who did not object to the trail being used by hikers. Since the day was still sunny and warm to the east and not too threatening (though by now quite grey) to the west, I decided to walk out along the trail to see some part of this coast while I was there.

According to the topographical map of the area, no point along this coast reaches 20 m (66 ft) in height, but it certainly felt as if one were at least that high and the added height allowed one to see parts of the coast that were obscured by land when one was at the water’s edge. When I reached the top of the cliffs, I was very glad I had my thick sweat shirt with me, as the breeze off the ocean was quite cool! I had noticed the severe erosion of the cliffs when I was photographing them from the Long Beach Road, so I made sure to stay on the ATV trail well away from the cliff edge. Once out by the ocean, the trail affords fine views of the coast in both directions. I saw a windmill farm I had not previously noticed to what I judged to be to the west of New Waterford, but the point to which my eyes were drawn again and again as I progressed to the east was the lighthouse on Flint Island in the Atlantic roughly 3 km (1.9 mi) to the east of Northern Head. The shore below the cliffs, when one could see it, was littered with huge slabs of flat rock. There were gulls everywhere, many in the air playing in the winds, which continued to freshen the further east I went, and others just a few feet off the trail resting from their play. Numerous wildflowers lay radiant in the grass beside the trail.

Atlantic Coast near Wreck Point with Flint Island Lighthouse in the distance

After roughly a half hour, I came upon the view seen in the photo above. At this point, the trail curves sharply inland and a huge water hole blocked the road. As I was puzzling out how I was going to cross it, a golf cart bearing two employees of the mining company drove up. We got into an extended conversation; they told me that the subsided land seen in the photo above was caused by the collapse of mines dug beneath the surface. They also said that the coal mines extend five kilometres (three miles) out underneath the sea floor here. By the time we had finished talking, the sun had disappeared and the skies to the west were now very threatening; given the water obstacle I still hadn’t figured out how to cross in oxfords, I decided to just head back to the car. That proved to be a wise move, as the skies let loose a torrent of rain just a couple of minutes before I reached the car.

This is a lovely, mostly level, hike and one I hope to do again. I will come prepared with woods boots the next time and hope to be able to make it all the way to Northern Head, a distance I compute from the topographical map as roughly 4 km (2.5 mi), from which there should be excellent views of Morien Bay as well as of the Atlantic coast.

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