Cape Breton Island trip

[merlinmurph]

My wife and I just came back from a trip on the Cabot Trail, Cape Breton I. in Nova Scotia. Man, what a great trip. This really wasn't a "cycling" vacation, but rather, a trip where we brought our bikes for occasional rides together with a number of hikes, kayaking, whale trips, etc. Well, my wife decided she wanted to pull the trigger for a new bike after being frustrated with the fit on her old bike, and I picked up a new Trek Madone 4.5 WSD for her the day we left.

We ended up biking almost every day. :banana: She LOVED her new ride, and wanted to get out every chance we had. No problem here. We didn't do any long rides, just a number of 20-30 mile rides, but the quantity of miles is more than made up by the quality of scenery.

Here's my wife on our first day of riding. We parked the car in Ingonish and headed north to Neil's Harbor. I went back to get the car and she continued to our B&B at Dingwall, riding a gorgeous coastal route. After a few good climbs, she was loving the new ride.

[merlinmurph]

We left Dingwall, heading west for Pleasant Bay, including a climb on North Mt. My wife skipped this ride, and I had a tough time with 55-year-old legs trying to turn the cranks on a 13% grade with a 39-26 . Visions of a compact crank danced thru my head, or at least having that 39-cog cassette I've been meaning to order.... :crap:

By the second picture, I was hurtin'....

[bostondrunk]

Nice pics. My buddies go there for training weekends a couple of times each Summer. Great hill climbs.

[merlinmurph]

Staying in Pleasant Bay, the next day my wife wanted to go for a ride, so we headed towards North Mt from the west and said "well, we'll just climb until we get sick of it and turn around". Yeah well, we know how that ends. We started the climb, and with the 39-26 I had and her triple, I had to drop her. About 3/4 of the way up, I stopped to wait for her, and soon, there she was looking great and just rode right by me. We hit the top, and turned around for a chilly descent. No pics for this ride.

After the second night in Pleasant Bay, we headed south. I had read that the section of the Cabot trail from Pleasant Bay to Cheticamp was the most dramatic. We had already driven it twice, and it is indeed spectacular. After a whale trip, we jumped in the car and headed towards Cheticamp. The trip immediately starts with a steep climb up MacKenzie, and before we even got to the top I said "Con, I know that if I go home without riding this section, I'm going to regret it for the rest of my life". We turned around. :)

I was bit concerned about this climb, having been up it 3 times now in the car. It starts out steep, and there was a section in the middle that hit 12% with no breaks. But the views are gorgeous, and I did better that I had thought I would. After MacKenzie, the climb continues later up French Mt (455m). My wife drove to Cheticamp, took some pics, and started riding north towards me. I picked up the car and drove back while my wife climbed French, again with no problem - what a studdette.

Check out the views. I love this first pic.

[VTCaraco]

After years of thinking/talking about Cape Breton, I think that's our destination for next summer. I can't wait to share this with my wife to get her day-dreaming :)

[merlinmurph]

After years of thinking/talking about Cape Breton, I think that's our destination for next summer. I can't wait to share this with my wife to get her day-dreaming :)

We took our time on the Cabot Trail, spending 6 nights along the way so we could really soak the place in, and we could have spent more. Too many people just drive thru in two days and don't get to appreciate it. There's a lot of nooks and crannies to discover.

We went at a good time, too, travelling the last week of August thru Labor Day. Kids are in school so things weren't so busy and we had no problems getting a room or campsite.

[VTCaraco]

My wife and I are teachers (and our son is 11 so on a school calendar, too).
Our plan was/is to get up there as soon as we get out of school, which tends to be a little earlier than a lot of other schools; especially in the northeast.
We've done the same with Acadia trips and always appreciated the smaller crowds. Having gone in mid-July, Acadia has a completely different feel that's much less appealing to our personalities.

[Louis]

Check out the views. I love this first pic.

That is a very cool picture.

Looks like a great place to ride, especially if you like climbing.

[merlinmurph]

One of the climbs we missed was Cape Smokey, heading north, and I'm kinda glad we missed it. ;) In the car, it seemed really fugly, starting out steep immediately, and there didn't seem to be any breaks.

Just curious....

[Ray]

I rode the Cabot Trail with a touring group back in 2000. Took four or five days to do it, not pushing it too much. Most of it wasn't too tough, but we did all three mountains one day and that was a bugger, but incredibly beautiful! One of them, I think it was North, was among the toughest climbs I've done. I had a touring bike with mtb type gearing and I used it all.

Highly recommended for anyone - as pretty as any place I've ridden.

-Ray

[ADD]

Cape Smokey is not bad. Its got the worst rep, but I found it the easiest though as it was the shortest so no problem climbing entirely standing. Have to be careful going down it, there is a 90 degree turn its pretty tempting to carry a lot of speed into. I found MacKenzie and North much harder.
I'm heading up to do the loop in two weeks. There is a fantastic place along there for Oysters there......too bad they seem even less appetizing than cliff bars when riding.