| Ted's
House - Motorcycle Trip Reports Canada, 1996 |
|
I awoke this morning to find the LL Bean dome tent dry as a bone, which is more than I can say for most of the others (many of whose owners had fled for their cars during the night's excitement.) I ambled down to the bathrooms/shower house and Meat Cove's allure started to wear off *very* quickly. Not only were they the most thoroughly disgusting things I had ever seen, the filthy showers had coin slots "$1.50 for 60 seconds" and as for the rest of the "facilities", it was strictly BYOTP. There are far more things I would rather do than packing up a campsite in the rain, getting a cavity filled comes to mind. With everything packed and on the bike, me miraculously dry and kept that way in the Stich I headed out onto that dirt road that the afternoon before had seemed so beautiful. Well now it was a hellish mix of deep ruts filled with mud, hidden washboards, and a thin veneer of silty gook the consistency of moose snot (which it very well may have been ... ;-) The Macadams held true and aside from an occasional backfire from my over-cautious engine braking and some scary moments on steep switchbacks I made it the 5 miles to the paved road OK (though the bike was so dirty Don Graling probably even would have said something!)
As I passed through Inverness I decided to get gas and pulled into an Esso (no Exxon up
here!) I overheard the weather report which reported 0% chance of precipitation the I pulled out of the Esso and performed an MSF quality 180, back up the road to the
Cabot Trail! I made my way back up the rugged coastline to Cheticamp and tried to find a
reasonably priced motel...$70 seems to be the going rate for the "small room &
small bed" cheap motels here so I skipped it and headed up to the Provincial
campground in Cheticamp. The After toasting some melted cheese sandwiches I begged a beer of the friendly couple next to me and went for a walk to stretch out the legs. As I looked up the sky was alive with shooting stars and I knew tomorrow would be a good day. Several towns, not too many miles, Next
Day... |
All Photos and Text Copyright©1996-9, Ted
Verrill |
Unfortunately I
missed the good part of the park, the northwest part, as it was so cloud-bound that I was
reduced to 2nd gear with emergency lights flashing. The day did not improve at all so
after a quick early lunch/late breakfast at the wonderful "Rusty Anchor" I
decided to head down to the "world famous" single-malt scotch distillery in
Glenville. Folks you can skip this one......It is a tourist trap and full of `bagos and
seniors from Florida. 
following day which had
the effect of instantly bringing a smile to my face. I was quite upset at having missed
the great portion of the trail to the fog and now I had another chance! After gassing up I
asked and old man sitting in an older wicker chair if the report was right. He laughed and
said it would be beautiful, but not to blink because it would change back to rain! 
campground was immaculate, the wood was cheap and aged birch (which
burns and smells wonderful!) and after I set up I headed over to the amphitheater for a
very cool slide-show and lecture on the wildlife around Cape Breton. Seems they have a
problem with flying squirrels that get their kicks by gliding down onto tents and
"bouncing" off the top of them. The squirrels love it and do it repeatedly! I
had no squirrel visits but a friendly red fox jumped up on my picnic table and stole a
blueberry muffin from right under my nose as I was sitting and reading a map. 