CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
The Cabot Trail wraps the Cape Breton Highlands: long climbs onto exposed headlands, then drops to fishing villages. French Mountain and MacKenzie Mountain are the gradients worth planning around. Moose are a genuine hazard at dawn and dusk - this is not a road to ride tired in low light.
14 km that neither climbs nor drops much. The road settles into the ground rather than fighting it. This is where a day makes up time without anyone trying. Third and fourth, and very little else.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For 8 km this is Cabot Trail, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
The ground tilts up and stays tilted for 14 km. 435 m of it, taken steadily rather than in one wall — a steady rhythm suits this better than bursts. The height arrives whether you hurry or not.
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.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Baddeck is where the day begins. Next is 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.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Chéticamp is the fuel stop for this leg. Next is French Mountain, climbing 445 m.
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.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
455 m, and the road stops climbing. The road climbs 445 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 Pleasant Bay, mostly downhill.
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.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Somewhere to get off the bike, 112 km in. You lose 435 m on the way down to it, steadily. Next is Cape Smokey, climbing 346 m.
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.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Cape Smokey sits at 149 km, about halfway. 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.
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.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Ingonish comes up 186 km in. You lose 356 m on the way down to it, steadily. Next is back through Cape Smokey, climbing 356 m.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cape Smokey write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
223 km in you reach back through Cape Smokey. The road climbs 356 m on the way up to it, steadily. Next is back through Pleasant Bay, mostly downhill.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Pleasant Bay write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Pleasant Bay, about halfway at 20 m. You lose 346 m on the way down to it, steadily. Next is back through French Mountain, climbing 435 m.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete French Mountain write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through French Mountain sits at 298 km, late in the day. The road climbs 435 m on the way up to it, steadily. Next is back through Chéticamp, mostly downhill.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Chéticamp write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Chéticamp comes up 335 km in. You lose 445 m on the way down to it, steadily. Next is Baddeck.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Baddeck write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Finish at Baddeck. That is the ride.