Day 101
The heavy rain kept me up for most of the night so I
took the opportunity to sleep in a bit before starting my day. I had
some cream of wheat and then headed off for my day's hike. I decided
to descend the Fishing Cove valley along side the Fishing Cove River to have
lunch at Fishing Cove. I decided to take the gently, 8km descent instead
of the abrupt (and more difficult) 2.8km descent to the Cove at sea
level from the highway, altitude 1000ft.
The descent was fairly steady although I seemed to do a good deal
of ascending along the way. It was a bit windy but quite nice at the
Cove and I had my dessert (some grapes) before setting of to check out the
nearby scenery. I was joined shortly by an overly enthusiastic black
dog whose owner had to resort to putting on its leash to keep it nearby.
I had my lunch and decided it was time to return. Due to my slow
start to the day, it was already mid afternoon. The climb
back
was tiring but not too difficult and I soon arrived at my car to cool down.
As I did, an American couple felt the need to inform me that I had
just missed a moose wandering through the parking lot inspecting my car -
how nice of them.
I returned to my site and made myself presentable and then headed
into Cheticamp to a music store I had read about in a tourist newspaper.
I found a few CDs to add to my collection of east coast musicians and
filled my gas tank before returning to my site.
I had used almost all of my dishes over the past few days so I took
a few minutes to clean them. No real need for cleanliness, I just had
nothing left to cook in. I made up some pasta and another batch of
meat sauce and then listened to the Barra McNeils CD I had just picked up.
Soon after, I headed to bed to try and catch up on some lost sleep.
Day 102
After 4 days in one campsite, I felt a little sad leaving,
but after a bit of breakfast, I broke camp and headed for Pleasant Bay.
After my brief visit a few days earlier, I had resigned myself to a
tame boat tour to see pilot whales so I headed to Wesley's Whale Watching
and paid for a tour. I moved to my car to gather my camera and things
for the tour when I noticed everyone suiting up in survival suits. I
inquired as to why and learned that the main boat was being repaired and
that we had been bumped up to the zodiac tour at no charge. I had no
problem with that so I suited up, left my binoculars and sweater behind,
and boarded the zodiac. We were soon underway to a nearby pod of 40
pilot whales when someone noticed a large splash off to our right. We
swung around and soon realized that it had been a humpback whale breaching
(jumping out of the water). I missed the breaching, but the whale was
quite cooperative - displaying his tail a few times before diving and surfacing
a bit away from us.
We continued over to a smaller pod of pilot whales to
continue our tour but they just weren't the same. They did come up
quite close to see what we were and then frolicked a bit as we wandered in
and around the group. We ended off our tour with a view of a bald eagle
on its nest on the coast and then headed back to port.
I got up ready for another day on the trails and had some cereal before heading
off. I had inquired about nearby hikes with the campground owners and
was directed to the Tenerife trail. It starts between two cottages/houses
and seems to basically run off of their backyards. I didn't see anyone
in either house so I parked across the road as directed and headed off.
After a tough 40 minute climb, I reached the main rocky summit. The
view is quite breathtaking and I took a few minutes to review the guestbook
and leave my name. I travelled up a bit further to get a view across
the top of the highlands (kinda neat) and had a snack before descending.
The campground owner had mentioned that there were a few trails in nearby
Meat Cove so I drove out on the dirt and gravel road to check them out. By
the time I got there, my body was telling me that it didn't really want to
do any more climbing so I drove through the collection of houses and trailers
and headed back towards my site. Once in Bay St Lawrence, I stopped
at the local CAP site and checked email. I probably could have asked
about connecting my Libretto but I was having problems with my contact so
I continued on. I stopped in at the town's grocery store to get some
ham steaks and then stopped in at my campsite for a few minutes.
I still had a few hours of daylight so I decided to head back into the National
Park to do a fairly gently lookout hike. The scenery was nicer just
into the hike than at the lookout itself. Although it was a neat view
of the highlands in all directions, hills of trees only have so much
appeal.
I awoke to the sound of rain and thought that if I go back to sleep, it would
go away. It didn't so I finally got up and packed up my soggy gear
- trying not to get too soggy myself. I drove off on the scenic drive
passing White Point. There is a trail there but since the whole area
was fogged in, I kept going and stopped for a bit in Neil's Harbour. I took
a picture of the lighthouse and travelled on to Ingonish. I drove through
and checked out the Cape Smokey Provincial Park before returning and stopping
for lunch. As I dined, the rain stopped and the clouds cleared somewhat
so I decided that I didn't need to get a room and would continue camping.
I headed to the Broad Cove campground in the National Park and set
up on one of the sites that didn't have too many puddles. I strung
up my tarp and hung my tent out to dry as I headed out for a tour of the
area.
I started at the Mary Ann Falls and spent some time wandering around getting
some pictures without getting my feet wet. I got some gas and then
stopped in at the local CAP site to check email. I wasn't able to use
a phone line to update my site so I continued on and picked up some groceries
before heading back to my site. I thought I'd take a chance and see
if the park attendant would allow me to use his phone line. He did
and I updated the web site and then went back to make some dinner. I
enjoyed a couple of hotdogs and then spent the evening listening to the radio
and sorting some pictures. I had some hot chocolate and then headed
to bed.
After some pancakes, I headed off
for some more hiking. I hit a small network of coastal trails and had some
lunch on a large boulder on a nice little lake. I met a few hikers
that had some difficulty finding their car back and I tried to be of as much
assistance as I could.
Today's
schedule called for a nice hike along a ridge called Cape Smokey. I
had some breakfast and then packed up some lunch before heading off. The
recent Forest travel ban had been lifted so I headed off for a nice stroll.
There were a number of nice spots to look out across the bay to Sydney
and the smoke stacks at Glace Bay. I stopped for lunch at the trail's
end with a nice view of Ingonish and then made the trek back to the car.
I passed a couple collecting a bag of blueberries - better them than
a bear.
Smokey Mountain and then along to North
River to the nearby picnic park. Their 18km trail to a set of falls
was plastered with "Closed" signs but since the only problem seemed to be
a washed out bridge, I decided to head off anyway. The trail started
with a section along an old roadway but soon switched to a nice forest path.
After a warning sign that the trail would get a bit rougher,
it did. The summer's drought resulted in a nice low water level so
crossing the river at the washed out bridge was no problem. The most
difficult part was the last 20 metres to the
falls themselves since the weeds had
a good supply of thorns to scrape up my legs. I stopped for some lunch
and a few pictures and then started back. My legs were a bit tired
but I was soon back on the road looking for a place to stay.