A Fall Trip Around the Cabot Trail

When the Celtic Colours Festival schedule was released, I immediately looked at it to seeif there were any community events I could attend on my days off.  Specifically, I was searching for guided hikes.  Two stuck out but I ultimately chose the Aspy Bay Trail because it was longer and in an area of the Cape Breton Highlands National Park that I hadn't done a lot of hiking in. 

The hike started at 10:00 AM and since it was an almost three-hour drive, I left before 7 that morning.  I didn't take into account traffic delays with the Newfoundland ferry traffic at that hour of the day and construction work.  I knew by the time I reached Ingonish that I would be late and there was no point in rushing because I was never going to make it in time.  I was ok with that since the wind came up and it started to rain. Four hours in the highlands trudging over rough terrain didn't sound all that appealing in the rain. 

I took my time going over the Cabot Trail admiring the beautiful fall colours. I have to say that this year is the best I've seen the fall colours in a long time and when the sun peaked out every now and again, it made those sprawling vistas even more beautiful!

It was 11:00 when I passed the trailhead to Aspy Bay.  Before I reached it, I took a little detour and stopped at Cabot's Landing Beach in Cape North.  I was only out of the car five minutes when the weather took a turn for the worse so I turned back to the Cabot Trail and kept going over the mountains.

The Lone Sheiling is one of my favourite stops along The Trail so I stopped there and got at least a little hike in since I missed the one I came for.  It rained there too but at least I had that thick canopy to shelter me.  I contemplated hiking the Skyline Trail as I hadn't done it yet this year but it was way too windy to enjoy it. 

I intended to eat my lunch in Cheticamp but hunger struck about a half hour from the village.  I stopped at La Grand Falaise and faced my car toward the ocean so I had a view while I ate in the warmth of the car. 

At Cheticamp Island I attempted to walk the beach but, once again, the weather took a turn for the worse.  This time it was high wind, heavy rain and hail!  

I left the island and drove straight through Margaree, Lake O'Law and Middle River where the fall colours were even more spectacular!  Even with the poor weather conditions, it was an amazing day and I got to do a trip around the trail while the leaves were still on the trees and turning those vibrant colours.  This time next week, they won't be nearly as nice. 

A Long Drive in the Country, a Little Community Hall and some Live Music = A Perfect Evening

I’m always looking for new things to do around Cape Breton. Sometimes I just get in the car and go searching on my own, sometimes I hear about things going on via word of mouth or sometimes I search the internet to find out what is going on. At this point in my life, as long as it does not involve drinking until I pass out or frequenting bars, it’s something worth looking into. I’m well passed that stage in my life and now prefer low-key evenings strolling the beach, hiking a new trail, or taking in some live acoustic music. Just last week, as I was scrolling through my Facebook newsfeed, a post about a live music event coming up in Little Narrows caught my attention.

I clicked on the link about an event called “The Songbird Series”. Music lovers were being invited to attend a live event featuring Prince Edward Island singer-songwriter, Catherine MacLellan accompanied by Chris Gauthier. Live music and a long drive and an evening spent in the country for $15.00? Sounded like my kind of night! I purchased a ticket immediately.

You may or may not have heard of Catherine MacLellan but you most likely have heard of her father. Catherine in the daughter of legendary Canadian singer-songwriter Gene MacLellan who wrote and performed the iconic song “Snowbird”. Catherine released her first solo album in 2004 and has since released several more. During that time, she won a number of industry awards including Female Solo Recording of the Year, Folk Recording of the Year and SOCAN Songwriter of the Year.

Although the concert didn’t start until 7PM that evening and it was only an hour-and-a-half drive, I left at 4PM. Not because I am anal and afraid I will get tied up in traffic and be late and not because I thought I might get lost (I know Cape Breton Island like the back of my hand despite a recent episode that saw me hopelessly lost in the Mabou Highlands) but because I like to turn one event into an entire evening’s excursion. In other words, I grabbed a coffee for the road and took the longest possible route to the concert and took my time enjoying the leisurely drive through Bras d’Or. Little Narrows is an interesting little place and confusing too believe it or not! A ferry crossing splits the little community in two and I thought the Little Narrow’s Community Center was located on the Trans Canada 105 side of the ferry. I was wrong. After driving up and down the little strip between the turn off from the highway and the ferry looking for the hall, I finally asked a man who was parked in his truck waiting for the ferry where it was located. Sure enough, it was on the other side. Good thing I had the exact amount of change needed to board.

I was a couple of minutes late and the concert had just started when I entered the little community hall and I was very happy to see that it was a full house. I love it when Cape Bretoners come out to support events like this. I took a seat at the back and was instantly pleased with what I was hearing. Over the next two hours, Catherine wowed that sold-out crowd with a diverse set that included soulful tunes of real life events and upbeat rhythm and bluesy tracks. A ten-minute intermission brought me outdoors for some fresh air where I spoke with a woman who was quite surprised that I had made such a long trip by myself to see the show. I get this all the time. Not many young woman like to drive alone in the country by themselves but it’s something I do all the time without giving it a second thought!

With some interesting and sometimes sad, sometimes funny stories of her youth and personal life thrown in the mix, Catherine put on quite a show that closed only after she flawlessly performed her father’s famous song to a standing ovation and encore. The event went so well that the community center is thinking of hosting some more similar events in the new year. I will definitely be watching for that announcement!

I had no choice but to take a different route home than I had taken to get there because I used up all my change on the ferry crossing and could not cross back. I didn’t really pay attention to my gas gauge and was a little nervous that I might not have enough fuel to reach North Sydney and there were no stations along the way. I drove through Iona, Grand Narrows, Boisdale and other sleepy communities until I reached the highway 125 in North Sydney and promptly filled up. Another night on The Cape and Another successful Cape Breton music event. I think I’ll start attending more of these!

Some More of my Favorite Place Near and Far

Baddeck Boardwalk – It doesn’t matter where I’m going – around the Cabot Trail, to Halifax or just for a drive along the Trans-Canada Highway – I always stop in Baddeck, even if it is just for five minutes. One of the things I like to do when I stop in the little village is grab a coffee and drink it on the boardwalk that lines a part of the harbor. I can sit there and kick my feet in the water and watch all those luxurious yachts float by and wonder what famous person might be enjoying some time away from the limelight in the peace and tranquility of little Baddeck where no one realizes who they are or pays any attention to them.

The Driveway at Anamaya – I’ve only been there once and may never be there again but I will always remember going for my nightly strolls down the driveway to Anamaya Yoga Retreat in Montezuma, Costa Rica, a place I had the opportunity to stay at for a week last year. The reason I loved taking this stroll every evening before bed? The calm, warm, tropical air, the sights and sounds of exotic animals and insects going about their nocturnal business and the quiet and peaceful atmosphere that was only compromised by the distant sound of the waves crashing on the Pacific coast below.

The Drive over Cape Smokey Mountain – I spend most of my summer in Ingonish, Cape Breton so I’ve driven over Cape Smokey hundreds of times. I often hear stories of tourists hiring local drivers to take them over the mountain because they find the hairpin turns and high cliffs terrifyingly dangerous and I often take people over that mountain because I know that road like the back of my hand. I’ve driven it in the winter, in thick fog, in heavy rains, in thunder storms and on clear summer days. I’ve driven it in the morning and in the dead of night. Every trip is different and I never get sick of that view from the top, no matter which way I look!

The Skyline Trail – I drove past this hiking trail hundreds of times before I decided to hike it myself…and I am glad I finally did! Nature, scenery, wildlife – this trail has it all and the best part of it is the end where the sea meets the sky and a boardwalk spirals downward toward the rocky coastline where whales can be seen frolicking in the surf below. I can sit there until the sun goes down and what a sight it is to see a sunset from that place!

The St. John’s Battery – Right at the bottom of Signal Hill at the end of the trail and right before you enter the little village at The Battery are some old army barracks. The barracks cannot be entered but there is a little hill right beside it that leads to the top of the small building and a flat concrete surface. When I lived in the city, every morning before the sun came up, I started the walk around that trail and rested in that spot to watch the sun come up and the boats come and go through the narrows. Some evenings I went there to watch the sun go down or just admire the spectacular view of the city at night with its distant city sounds - so close but yet so far away.

The Joseph and Clara Smallwood ferry – This ferry is no longer in operation, I made the crossing between North Sydney to Argentia, Newfoundland at least a hundred times over the years. Although I may have sometimes dreaded impending trips across The Gulf, looking back, I have very fond memories of some of those eventful crossings. Impromptu bands made up of traveling musicians from all around the world getting together for jam sessions in the bar, last minute excursions across “just for something to do”, card games with new friends made in the cafeteria area, long talks with complete strangers on the outside deck and even life-long friendships made simply by being stuck on a ship together for all those hours and having nothing else to do! Sometimes the seas were rough and I would retreat to “my spot” on the seventh deck – a reclining chair in the Baccalieu lounge, way back in the corner away from everyone else and in view of the TV in case I wanted to watch whatever was on.

Corner of Bond and Prescott, St. John’s – I moved away from home for the first time when I was 19 and made my new home in St. John’s, Newfoundland. Although I had several apartments during the twelve years I lived in the city, the last one I lived in is the one I will always remember the most. With so many run-down, outdated and expensive apartments around, I was lucky to find this near-perfect gem at a decent price and in a good neighborhood that was close to everything. The apartment was located right downtown but far enough from the main roads to be surprisingly quiet. It was only a short walk from my work and all the other services I needed. It had been just renovated right before I moved in. It had wood floors (I hate carpet). It was high off the ground on the third floor of a house that was at the end of row of attached houses which meant I didn’t have to worry about floods or dampness. And it had a spectacular view of the downtown area and the harbor which allowed me to watch the sun come up over Signal Hill and the boats come and go.

Black Brook Beach – I visited this beach with friends many years ago and have been returning every summer since. It is one of my favorite beaches on all of Cape Breton Island. When I was younger, I loved the main part of the beach where the waves are quite large and all the young people tend to congregate. As I got older, I started to migrate to the lesser used side of the beach where the waves are smaller, the water is calmer and there are less people. This beach has everything; several hiking trails, some look-offs, picnic areas, a waterfall, freshwater swimming area and a beach with warm water, lots and sand and hardly any jellyfish!

Jasper National Park, Alberta – The Rocky Mountains were something to see for sure but it was Jasper National Park that won my heart in the end. In comparison to the other mountain towns in the Rockies, Jasper was more to my expectations in terms of ruggedness, untouched beauty, nature and wildlife. The lodge was exactly how I pictured a Rocky Mountain Lodge to be and that fresh, mountain air made me feel so alive and in touch with my surroundings.

Gampo Abbey Monastery – I heard this place existed but no one ever seemed to know where it was located. I found it one day quite by accident when I decided to drive down a road I had never been down before. I was driving through Pleasant Bay in Northern Cape Breton when I noticed a sign for Red River Road. It looked vaguely interesting and I had some time to kill so, out of curiosity, I turned down. I passed over a small bridge and continued on a windy, country road that soon turned into a gravel road that ran between some rolling hills and the ocean. I soon realized what the road led to when I happened upon a Buddhist shrine on the left-hand side of the road. Not much further passed that was a small parking lot. I parked the car and wandered around and found a little trail that went into a wooded area along a little brook. Little Buddha statues were scattered around the area and I soon happened upon the monastery itself; a simple facility right on the water. The area was so peaceful and immersed in nature that I could see why the area was picked for the sight of a Buddhist monastery.

Road Tripping Into Unknown Territory - Visiting a new City, Meeting my Great Aunt for the First Time and Dodging the Occasional Highway Stalker

There are many things that signify summer to me. Longer days, sunshine, camping and long hot days at the beach. But I know the season is truly here the first time I pack up my car and head out onto the open road…Yes, I am talking about the good ol’ fashion Canadian road trip!

This year, I had the opportunity to mark the start of summer with a different kind of road trip, one that saw me travel to a city I had never been before to meet a person I had never met before.

As many of you probably already know, my beloved mother, Maria, passed away on April 22nd. My sisters and I were faced with the heartbreaking task of clearing out her apartment. During that very difficult weekend, we came across a number of items that evoked a variety of emotions including sadness, happiness and surprise. One of the surprising things we found was a letter addressed to my mother from a woman in Dieppe, New Brunswick. My mom had often spoken of her long-lost aunt whom she recently reconnected with but I didn’t realize that they had become so close. You see, my grandfather (mom’s father) died when she was only two years old so neither she nor my sisters and I ever got to know that side of the family.

My biological grandfather passed away in 1954. He was only 28 when he died tragically and unexpectedly and left behind a young wife (my grandmother) and a two year old daughter (my mom). My grandmother moved back to her hometown of Cheticamp in Cape Breton and a number of years later, she remarried and settled in New Waterford. Mom kept in touch with some members of her father’s side of the family but as the years passed, she lost touch with many of them.

After I found that letter from my great-aunt, I made it my mission to contact her and tell her the sad news of mom’s passing. It was very hard to contact someone I never met before and inform her of such sad news but after making that call and allowing her to get over the initial shock that her niece had passed away, I had a very heartwarming conversation with her and felt an immediate connection. Not long after that phone call, I received a hand-written letter in the mail from my great-aunt Mercedes. Her writing was so light and witty and was that of someone who embraced life and took things as they came. I immediately took a liking to her; she seemed so much like myself in many ways. I desperately wanted to learn more about this woman and not long after receiving that letter, I wrote one to her and in it I asked her if it would be ok if I paid her a visit in the near future….A last minute decision that took me on an adventure of a different kind.

I left for Dieppe early on June 22nd in my new car I had purchased only the week before. This was to be the ultimate test. I was just getting used to the low profile tires that were on it when I purchased it from the dealer and it was a bigger car than I was used to so this trip would really determine if the car lived up to my requirements; good gas mileage, fast and smooth on the highway, good handling on windy roads and reliable on long trips. I was well-rested and fully awake when I left home and everything was going well until I got a few kilometers past the Canso Causeway. Somewhere along that stretch, the monotony of the straight Trans-Canada highway hypnotized me and I nodded off. To this day, I still have no idea how long my head was rested snuggly on my right shoulder as I cruised along. I was shaken out of my unconsciousness when the car veered onto the rumble strips and after a near heart-attack, I pulled over at the next rest stop, kissed the ground, splashed my face with ice-cold water and grabbed a large coffee before continuing on my way with the windows down and the music as loud as it would go so I would have trouble nodding off again. This just goes to prove that you do not need to be tired to be hypnotized by the road. This happened to me while I was well-rested and during daylight hours. It was a real wake-up call to the dangers that we can face when driving on the highway.

I don’t usually travel with maps or a GPS system. One of my favorite things about road trips is getting lost and finding those new, unexpected places off the beaten track that can only be found when one turns off an unfamiliar ramp and makes a wrong turn into the unknown. For this trip, I did make a point to borrow a GPS just so I could find my aunt’s place easily but I didn’t have it turned on when I turned off on one of those unknown ramps and, you guessed it, made a wrong turn looking for a Tim Horton’s coffee shop where I could log onto my laptop and check my email. I was only lost for about a half hour when I finally found a place to stop. Even though this Tim Horton’s had the sign “free wifi at this location” posted in the window, it wasn’t until after I spent some money to be able to sit down in the air conditioned shop that I discovered their wifi was not working. There was also nowhere to charge my dying phone and I hate not having a working phone when I am traveling alone on the highway.

After I returned to my car and started to head back out onto the highway, I noticed a car parked next to me with a young man behind the wheel. Normally, this would not peak my interest but I got that spine tingling feeling that something was not right. This feeling, which I believe to be my intuition, has never been wrong; my guard was up and I took note of the description of the car, the man driving and the license plate just to be safe. The car would not be hard to spot if I were to cross paths with it again; it was seriously rusted, the passenger door was dented and there was no handle on the passenger door. It would have been hard for me to forget the man’s face too; his stare as I got into my vehicle and following gaze as I pulled out of the parking lot was just plain creepy. Sure enough, near the Nova Scotia-New Brunswick Border, I spotted that car in my rear-view mirror, keeping a safe distance behind me, presumably thinking I would not notice. I immediately swung into action. The first thing that popped in my mind was to get somewhere where there were people and assess the situation from a public place. I turned off on the next exit and lo and behold, he kept going just as I suspected he would. You almost need to get into the minds of these people to predict what they are going to do next and I knew exactly what he was going to do; park somewhere out of sight further up the highway and wait for me to come back and continue on my journey. A smart stalker learns as much about his victim as he can and, just from watching me at that last stop he learned that I was a young woman traveling alone. How did he know this? Easy. I stopped to use the internet at a desolate donut stop in the middle of nowhere, my car was packed full of stuff and I had made a phone call from the parking lot (in which I spoke with a family member about how my trip was going) before I noticed him watching me. My next move was to sit and wait. Fortunately there was another donut shop with working internet at this stop and I made myself comfortable in front of the window so I could see the road and his car if it happened by. And happen by it did…about 40 minutes after I arrived. He slowly made his way by the donut shop, perhaps seeing my car, perhaps tired of the pursuit, and continued on down the road. When I saw his car disappear over the horizon, I packed up and headed out in the opposite direction hoping to never cross paths with him again and I didn’t. I’m sure every woman who has ever traveled alone over long distances on the highway has experienced this; I know this was not the first time I acquired a highway stalker as I’ve come to call them. I’m sure they are usually harmless and bored but I still keep my guard up whenever I notice something is not right.

It was early evening by the time I crossed the border into New Brunswick and almost dark when I pulled up to my great-aunt’s apartment building. I found the place with no problems thanks to my GPS which led me right to her door. I called her on my cell and within seconds, she bolted out the backdoor and into the parking lot and embraced me. This was the first time I had met this woman, so I had no idea what to expect but she immediately made me feel welcome and it wasn’t long before I began feeling like I had known her all my life. Meeting my great-aunt for the first time was almost like an adopted child meeting their birth parents for the first time – we didn’t know one another but were connected by blood. Because of this, there was bound to be some traits and common interests that we couldn’t help inheriting. I soon learned that we both hate watching television and wasting time with idleness and chit chat about the weather and we both love the outdoors and eating healthy and living a healthy lifestyle. I just hope that when I am 84, I have as much energy and zest for life as she has!

My first full day in Dieppe was an interesting one. An early morning walk around the neighborhood to get familiarized with the area, a trip to the mall for some lunch and a drive around the city looking at all the new urban sprawl being built up took up a large portion of the day. The city is fairly small but growing fast with many newcomers coming from bigger urban centers to find their little piece of suburbia with a guaranteed larger plot of land than what was available in nearby Moncton.

While going through my mom’s things, I also came across some photo albums with old black and white photos of my mom as a child and various relatives who are long gone and photos of my sisters and I growing up and I proudly showed them to her. My great-aunt also had some photo albums that she wanted to show me and in them were photos of her brother, my grandfather whom I had never met. Growing up, I had always been interested in learning more about that side of the family that I knew little about. My grandmother rarely spoke of her first husband and my mother didn’t really know much about her father. I learned a lot about him and the rest of my great-uncles and aunts and an entire family that I knew existed but never knew anything about. I also learned that Mercedes loved to write (another trait we shared) and she wrote a book entitled The Journey about her family. She read me some excerpts from the book and although many tragedies befell the family throughout the decades, they remained happy, close and strong in the face of anything that came their way.

When my time with my great-aunt came to an end a couple of days later, we were both sad to be once again going our separate ways. I vowed to return to Dieppe again soon and visit her and I hope that will be sooner than later. If all goes well, I shall return to Dieppe this fall and pay her another visit.

As I was leaving the Dieppe area, before I even made it to the Trans-Canada Highway, I made a spur-of-the-moment decision to take the long, scenic route home…through Prince Edward Island. I had always wanted to drive over the Confederation Bridge, the bridge that opened in 1997 and connects PEI with Mainland Canada. I saw this as a chance to finally see it and experience it while also taking a different way home with different scenery than what I had already seen on the way up. I didn’t bother to set my GPS because I was certain the bridge was west of my current location and there would be plenty of signs to guide me right to it along the way. Once again, I was wrong and found myself headed in the wrong direction. It wasn’t until I started seeing signs that indicated Fredericton was coming up soon that I realized I was going the wrong way. Fredericton is more than an hour away from Dieppe and nowhere near the Confederation Bridge. A gas station attendant confirmed it for me; I had been going the wrong way for about 100 kilometers!

I backtracked and soon enough, I was on the branch of the TCH that led right to the bridge. I was making good enough time on that straight highway with hardly any other traffic around, cruising along at 120 kmph when I spotted a tractor on the side of the road ahead. I slowed down enough to allow the woman driving to realize I was coming up behind her when suddenly, she veered the tractor out onto the highway and crossed into a driveway on the other side. With brakes screeching and horn blaring, I was able to bring my car to a halt only feet away from her. Even my screams for her to watch where she was going fell on deaf ears; to this day, I am certain she did not see nor hear me nor notice the commotion she had caused or how close we both came to becoming road kill.

Not long after the tractor incident, The Confederation Bridge finally came into view. After stopping to take a few photos and getting a good look at that architectural marvel, I made the crossing. There really wasn’t much to it and I couldn’t really see over the walls but at least I can now say I saw it. PEI is very different from the other Atlantic Provinces but it is particularly a different place for drivers. First of all, it’s a slower pace along windswept fields and rocky coastline. The speed limit is no more than 90 kmph everywhere on the island. Secondly, gas is always more expensive in PEI than anywhere else and I was glad I had filled up in New Brunswick where it was the cheapest. It was hard for me to drive at such a slow pace when I was used to the 110 kmph on the mainland and I had to make it to the docks at Wood Islands to board the last ferry of the day but I did managed to race across the island without being pulled over by the Mounties. Along the way, I noticed how meticulous Prince Edward Islanders are with their lawns and homes; some of the most beautiful properties I have ever seen are in PEI complete with lush green grass, brightly painted, large, Victoria style homes and farmhouses. Those islanders really take pride in their homes, their land and their province.

I just made the ferry in time for loading and just in time to find a nice spot on the outside deck to watch a beautiful sunset. It was dark by the time I reached the other side, I was tired and there are moose, deer and other critters who wander onto the highway at night in that area. But I had an easy fix for this; drink lots of coffee, blare the music and open the sunroof and all the windows! There wasn’t going to be a repeat of my highway snooze only a few days before. I love the highway especially on nights like that. The wind blowing through my hair, my favorite tunes setting the backdrop for yet another road trip memory, a clear sky full of stars, a full moon shining brightly through my sunroof and guiding me along the deserted highway, over the Canso Causeway and back on the 105, the highway I know like the back of my hand!