Another Family-Favourite Fall Tradition

I love fall adventures.  The flies are gone and the weather is cooled down enough to make hiking tolerable.  This is my favourite time of year to be in the forest and one of my favourite places to hike in the fall is at Uisge Bàn Falls in Big Baddeck.  Since I moved back home, it's been a family favourite.  I usually suggest it and whoever wants to come with me tags along.  Sometimes it's dad.  Sometimes it's my sister.  Sometimes it's both sisters if they are both home from away at the time.  Sometimes it's all four of us and sometimes friends and partners tag along. This year, everyone was either sick or busy with other things so I called a friend and we did the hike alone. 

I was supposed to meet my friend at her trailer at the Joyful Journeys Campground in Jersey Cove but the lineup at the Englishtown Ferry was very long!  I would have been there for close to an hour.  Instead, I had her get the ferry on her side because it looked like there were no cars there.  Within ten minutes she arrived at my car and hopped out of hers and into mine and off we went to Baddeck. 

As we drove, we contemplated not doing the hike because it kept raining.  A shower would arrive and we'd decide to go for a drive instead.  The shower would stop and we would decide to go on the hike instead.  This happened several times before we arrived at the Uisge Bàn Falls Provincial Park.  

We got out of the car and got ready for the hike.  We got that far so there was no turning back.  We could still see the parking lot when the skies opened up again.  We kept going.  It didn't stop raining the entire hike but fortunately, the thick canopy provided some shelter from the heaviest rains. 

I was surprised to see so much water in the river as we didn't get a whole lot of rain all summer.  The fall colours were spectacular as they always are along this hike and the rustling leaves made for a relaxing afternoon in the great outdoors.  There were a few people on the trail but we mostly had it all to ourselves. At the falls, we stopped for a rest and some photos and I was surprised to see so much water there too!  

The rain didn't put too much of a damper on our hike and back at the car, neither one of us was ready to call it a day yet.  We took a drive to the Red Barn and turned off on the road to Middle River.  The fall colours are always nice on this stretch and that day was no exception.  Stunning as always!