Cabot Trail Highlands Loop · part 3

Scenic road chapters

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Pleasant Bay

   Pleasant Bay sits at the foot of a steep, forested slope on the western edge of Cape Breton Island, where the Cabot Trail climbs and dips along the Gulf of St. Lawrence. A small fishing village, it has a harbour, a few houses scattered along the shore and a view of the open water that is often full of whales. Pilot whales come close to the coast in summer, and boat trips from the harbour take visitors out to see them, with minke and sometimes fin whales as well.

   Read the complete Pleasant Bay write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Pleasant Bay is where the day begins. Next is Cape Smokey, climbing 346 m.

2. 2. Cape Smokey

   The Cabot Trail has a handful of moments where it stops being a pleasant road and becomes the reason people come, and Cape Smokey is the first of them for anyone riding in from the south. The road climbs about three hundred and sixty metres up the headland, and once it gets above the trees the whole coastline of Cape Breton opens up beneath you, with the Atlantic running out to the horizon and the long arm of Ingonish Beach and Middle Head spread out ahead. On a clear day it reads like a map. On a foggy one it earns its name, as the headland wears a hat of cloud that can swallow the view completely.

   Read the complete Cape Smokey write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Cape Smokey comes up about 82 km into the recorded legs. The road climbs 346 m over at least 40 km before it, steadily. Reckon on about 2 °C colder than the valley, and more in the wind. Next is Ingonish, mostly downhill.

3. 3. Ingonish

   Ingonish is where the Cabot Trail finally shows you the Atlantic. The road has spent hours in the hills of Cape Breton Highlands National Park, and then it drops to a long, curved beach with a spit of land reaching out to sea, and the water is the dark blue of the open ocean. On the spit, Middle Head, a hotel and a walking trail stand on a narrow ridge with the surf on both sides, which gives you the sense of being at the end of something.

   Read the complete Ingonish write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   about 109 km into the recorded legs you reach Ingonish. You lose 356 m on the way down to it, steadily. Next is back through Cape Smokey, climbing 356 m.

4. 4. back through Cape Smokey

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Cape Smokey write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   back through Cape Smokey, about halfway at 366 m. The road climbs 356 m on the way up to it, steadily. Next is back through Pleasant Bay, mostly downhill.

5. 5. back through Pleasant Bay

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Pleasant Bay write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   back through Pleasant Bay sits at 131 km, about halfway. You lose 346 m on the way down to it, steadily. Next is back through French Mountain, climbing 435 m.

6. 6. back through French Mountain

   French Mountain is the first great climb on the Cabot Trail as you come up from Chéticamp on the west coast of Cape Breton Island, and it rises to about 455 metres on the plateau of the Cape Breton Highlands. The road climbs steeply in a series of long, powerful bends, with the Gulf of St Lawrence dropping away behind you, and then flattens onto an open, windswept barren of stunted spruce, bogs and low scrub. On a clear day, the view back toward the sea is superb, and on a foggy one you can barely see the verge.

   Read the complete French Mountain write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   back through French Mountain comes up about 242 km into the recorded legs. The road climbs 435 m on the way up to it, steadily. Reckon on about 3 °C colder than the valley, and more in the wind. Nothing on this route is higher. Next is back through Chéticamp, mostly downhill.

7. 7. back through Chéticamp

   Chéticamp is the heart of Acadian Cape Breton, a long, spread-out fishing village on the west coast where French is still the language of the kitchen and the church. The village sits at the foot of the Highlands, with the Gulf of St Lawrence in front and the steep, wooded mountains behind, and its tall steepled church of Saint-Pierre dominates the skyline. Acadian flags, the French tricolour with a gold star, fly from porches and lamp posts, and the houses are painted in bold colours, as if to defy the grey weather.

   Read the complete Chéticamp write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   about 272 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Chéticamp. You lose 445 m on the way down to it, steadily. Next is Baddeck.

8. 8. Baddeck

   Baddeck is a small town on the shore of the Bras d'Or Lake, in the middle of Cape Breton Island, and it has a surprising place in the history of flight. Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone, fell in love with the area on a visit in the 1880s and built a summer estate on the headland across the water, which he called Beinn Bhreagh, Gaelic for beautiful mountain. He spent many summers there, and it is where his experiments in kites, hydrofoils and aircraft took place. In February 1909 the Silver Dart, designed by his young engineers, took off from the frozen surface of the lake near Baddeck and flew in the first powered flight in the British Empire.

   Read the complete Baddeck write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Finish at Baddeck. That is the ride.