Visitor admires Cabot Trail
Many other mountain ranges don’t provide Cape Breton’s water views
“What a lovely motorbike! Is it a Harley?”
“No, it’s not a Harley,” I replied. “It’s a Yamaha.”
For some reason many people assume that any large touringtype motorcycle is a HarleyDavidson.
“I like the colour, black, it kind of matches my outfit,” she continued, with a smile. “If you had a spare helmet, I could ride up the mountain with you. I don’t think my husband would mind.”
Her charming English accent gave her away and I asked what part of the British Isles she was from. It turns out that she was from Birmingham, in the English Midlands, and she was quite impressed with the scenic beauty of our Cabot Trail. She explained that her city, with a population of more than two million, was located almost in the centre of England, and was thus a long way from the ocean.
“I love this combination of mountains and ocean. It is not something that you see very often. For someone from a large industrial city, this is really special.”
I then told her I had visited the Swiss Alps on two occasions, back in 1980 and 1983. Both times I was on a motorcycle and, impressive as the mountains were, I missed the water. Mind you, the Alps were at least 10 times higher than our Cape Breton Highlands, but our Cabot Trail can hold its own against just about any alpine road that I travelled.
While the Swiss Alps and the Canadian and American Rockies are very impressive mountain ranges, they are just that, mountains and more mountains, with the odd lake thrown in to provide a little break from the mountain scenery. Things are different here, as the Cabot Trail winds its way around the northern mountains of our Cape Breton Highlands.
On the west side, from Margaree Harbour to Cheticamp and Pleasant Bay, you have the magnificent panoramic views out over the Gulf of St. Lawrence. In fact, on a clear day with no haze, from the top of MacKenzie Mountain you can often make out the Iles de la Madeleine (Magdalen Islands) on the horizon, about 60 miles away.
On the east side, from Neils Harbour to Ingonish and Englishtown, you ride beside the domineering presence of the North Atlantic ocean, where the distant horizon line seems to expand your field of vision and puts everything in a different perspective. For all their beauty and majesty, you get nothing like that effect in the Alps or the Rocky Mountains.
Within minutes of leaving the English woman, I started to climb up the west side of the appropriately named French Mountain. It was the first of five mountains that I would cross in the next 100 miles: French Mountain, MacKenzie Mountain, North Mountain, South Mountain and Smokey Mountain.
From the entrance to the national park outside Cheticamp, it is about a six-mile drive to the plateau on the top of French Mountain. With the Gulf of St. Lawrence on my left, I could almost reach out and touch the side of French Mountain on my right.
About half-way up, with hardly any traffic, I decided to stop at a look-off, and take some pictures of the dramatic headland that forms the end of the Skyline Trail.
This relatively level hiking trail, the most popular in the national park, offers hikers sweeping panoramic views out over the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and a unique look at the Cabot Trail, as it winds its way up the side of French Mountain.
On the other side of the plateau I made another stop, on the top of MacKenzie Mountain overlooking Fishing Cove. This idyllic spot was once the site of a small seasonal fishing community, whose Scottish settlers often traded with their French neighbours from Cheticamp.
Next week: A ‘hanging-valley,’ the ‘sunrise valley’ and the descent of Cape Smokey.