Friday 3 September 2010

Away from the Cabot Trail

1st September: Margaree Harbour to Baddeck

Odometer: 55 km, Start: 11.00am, Finish: 4.00pm, Avg: 19.8 km/h,
Weather: Sunny intervals, humid, Temp: 20-28°C
Road Conditions: Cabot Trail (south), no shoulder, good road surface, light traffic. Gas station and shop at Margaree Forks (14km). Ascent: 320m/320m.

I took the decision this morning not to continue around the Cabot Trail. If I carried on, I was committed to three days on the coastal road around the Cape Breton Highlands. I couldn’t guarantee I wouldn’t get caught out by strong winds heading down the east side of the trail from the incoming storm. Some locally gusty 40km/h winds were already in the forecast for the Thursday anyway.

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Margaree River valley. Very reminiscent of parts of mid-Wales.

Never mind, I can come back and do the Cabot Trail another time. There’s plenty of other parts of the Maritimes I’d like to see too. The region deserves a dedicated trip to do it justice one day…

My decision means I’ve got a couple of short cycling days to get to North Sydney and then a wait for the ferry (which could be affected by the storm). It’s a disappointing end to my cycling in Nova Scotia but I’m pretty jaded at the moment to be honest, so to get some extra, unscheduled, recovery time is no bad thing.

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Sunflower field and hills

I rode gently towards Baddeck today along the Cabot Trail south road that ran along a couple of river valleys. The landscape was very reminiscent of certain parts of mid-Wales in the UK that I know well. I had just the one climb, over Hunter’s Mountain. It was taken on a hot and very humid afternoon. 

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Writing this evening, Earl is expected to make landfall, possibly still as a Cat. 1 hurricane, in western Nova Scotia Friday night / Saturday morning. It’s veered slightly away from my area in NE Nova Scotia. That may mean my ferry to Newfoundland won’t be too badly affected. Maybe…

2 comments:

Martina said...

Already planning a trip back to Canada then? Mx

Shaun said...

The Maritimes is a beautiful area of Canada and I never gave it enough time on my tour (even if I'd have done the Cabot Trail). So yeah, I'd like to come back for another go sometime...