| Ted's
House - Motorcycle Trip Reports Canada, 1996 |
|
There is nothing like waking up to a beautiful woman's soft whispering. Unfortunately,
Trailsman Lodge has no telephones so the woman's voice I woke to was a husky 50-year
smoker screaming "Get Up, Here's Your Wakeup Call" while pounding on the door.
After a healthy breakfast of a banana and an apple I headed into Baddeck and to the only
Internet design firm on Cape Breton. I suddenly realized it was 11:00 am and I was wasting precious Cabot Trail minutes so
at the advice of the fellow at the café I ran up to Englishtown and across the ferry to
the trail. Well, the first few miles are pretty discouraging as it looks much like the
rest of the east coast with lots of knick-knack stores and the like, then I hit Smoky,
biiiiiig Smoky. The road started doing this crazy I worked my way all the way up to Bay St. Lawrence at the tip of NS where I sat on the quay and watched whales chase mackerel. I then noticed another road that snaked off around the coast (by coast I mean where the water meets the mountains, literally!) Quickly identified as the Meat Cove road I saw a campground at the end and was hooked. Even though the road turned to dirt as soon as it was out of sight of the main road I followed the 7km that has been carved out of the rock (no guardrails!!!) to an incredible little tiny hamlet nestled in a very sheltered cove. I could see the campground from the bluff above, it was terraced facing the ocean much like rice paddies. Meat Cove is as far as you can go in NS, it is the absolute tip. It is surrounded by "Crown" land and the campground is owned by the only landowners in Meat Cove, they have owned the land for 7 generations and "we'll never sell." I quickly chose a spot (an aerie actually ;) facing the great Atlantic and settled in to watch more whales, foxes and even a bald eagle. The sun was lost behind the mountains at about 5:30 or so and as I sit here at 9:00 it is completely dark save for the pale light of the moon and the glow of my fireplace. To all of you who posted incredible trip reports that I had to read behind a desk, I have my revenge!
One Province, One Ferry, UPDATE: 11:55pm I hear the soft patter of a few raindrops on the tent fly. Seconds later it sounds as though twenty people, each with a big bucket of water and in unison started trying their best to sink my tent and make me slide off of the terrace and down onto the rocks below. It suddenly occurs to me as the freight train of wind smacks into the tent that there are reasons why remote places are remote, weather being one of them. It then occurs to me that me bike is on the centerstand broadside to the maelstrom. I leapt out of the tent to see the bike swaying sickly, so I put "Fireball" on her sidestand and used an extra tent peg and guy line to make sure she stayed there. Product Evaluation Of The Day Camp towels work, period. They may not look like much but my "for emergencies" one I got for $5.00 at the Georgia rally proved invaluable. There is absolutely nothing worse than getting into a wet sleeping bag, or being soaking wet and getting into a dry sleeping bag for that matter. One Further Note: There is a small B&B in Meat Cove that competes with the campsite. While not on the cliff, it is nestled at the base of the cove. If you forget to bring food with you, it is either 7 miles of dirt road back to Bay St. Lawrence or the Meat Cove Lodge. I will probably stay here the next time through as it is quite reasonable, and the two old women that run the place are incredible cooks and gave me credit on the half-dozen blueberry muffins that served as my first course for dinner. Meat Cove Lodge, Cathrine MacLellan Prop., Inverness County, Cape Breton, NS...902-383-2672 [BOC-IEO]. Next
Day... |
All Photos and Text Copyright©1996-9, Ted
Verrill |
I figured out how to get AOL over a TCP/IP connection and was on a
mission to pick up 5 days of e-mail, BMW digests and angry people I work with wondering
where in the hell I had gone. After paying $15 for 20 minutes connect time (and who says
the Internet is free?) I had all my mail and was out the door without a thank-you (they
hit me with the charges AFTER I had downloaded the mail) and across the street to the
café for coffee and catching up. 
serpentine bit so as to prepare me for ascending what must
surely double as a ski slope in the winter. Wow, this was the start of a non-stop panorama
that took me through three rolls of film. 
So I conclude
as the waves pound the rocks 50 feet directly below ("door facing AWAY from
cliff" reads the sign at check-in), the wine I shared with the couple next to me is
taking its effect and I am feeling more sleepy than I have in a long, long time. 