Day 48. Day 4 – Cabot Trail…Ride like the wind

Pleasant Bay to Margaree Harbour, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia

10/4/23. 41 mi. AIS: 3:54 10.5 mph. Elev 3002 ft.

Pretty damn good day! After a tough one it’s nice to have one not so tough.

We started the morning with the climb of MacKenzie Mtn within the first 5 minutes in the saddle. We could see a pullout up the mountain so we knew it was going to hit quickly. That was it for any extra warm clothes…they were discarded for climbing. Nothing up the MacKenzie mountain was as relentlessly steep as yesterday. It would be steep and then a pullout or it would ease off for a short time. This is how it was to the top. I might mention that the wind was favorably applying a tailwind for this climb. Wind out of the north again but we were headed south all day!

After the summit, the highway stayed high along a ridge with small ups and downs working our way to the top of French Mountain. We really enjoyed this climb and the view of the mountains and valleys. We were inland in the highlands until we dropped down the other side of French Mtn to the Gulf of St Lawrence. Once again, the views on this descent were stunning. Stopped often for photos. We could see the little town of Cheticamp (the church steeple) and parts of the highway to get there. We planned to have lunch in Cheticamp so we had a few kilometers to go. The road to town was a roller coaster of ups and downs. But the tailwind was working in our favor and nothing was very strenuous today.

Today we saw 3 other bicycle travelers with panniers headed up toward French Mountain. They were traveling the Cabot Trail in the clockwise direction. One young couple was heavily loaded in the rollercoaster section …with a headwind! I wished for them they had an Andre… they hadn’t even seen the 3 mile climb that was in their near future! I suspect their shoe treads were going to be put to the test soon.

We lunched in Cheticamp at a fiddler’s pub but it was too early for music. After lunch we had 16 miles to our “tiny house” rental for the night. We were ready to get there and the nice tailwind helped us make it quickly.

The tiny house is a collection of 5 houses overlooking the Margaree Harbour. They are so cute. Simple and modern. Ours has loft beds so there are some stairs (or a ladder) but we can do that for one night.

Jim makes his first beer run! We arrived about 3:30 and decided to eat- in with some of our leftover food I’ve been carrying for weeks (freeze dried and other). Because of this, Jim made the first beer run, 1.5 km back UP the hill to the gas-bar. Turns out the gas-bar doesn’t have liquor so he went to the nearby “licensed” restaurant and they sold him our 2 beers for the night! I mention this because on our Southern Tier ride our traveling partner Curtis took quite a few beer runs for the team! Thanks again Curtis for your extra miles😊 As I mentioned before, Nova Scotia is pretty tight with their alcohol sales. It’s not like Quebec that’s for sure! If we were smarter, we would have had Andre pick us up beers for the week and stock the fridge daily… too late for that.

Speaking of Andre… he showed up right when we hit the MacKenzie Summit pullout. Gave us the appropriate intel for the rest of the ride… the downhill, the rollercoaster, Cheticamp lunch spots and such. Left us with cookies, bananas and chocolate and was gone. We did run into him about 5km from our tiny house. He had just delivered our baggage and was returning. Gave us the thumbs up for this accommodation.

Tomorrow is our last full bicycle day! Wow, it has been such a memorable vacation. Finishing it with the Cabot Trail is like the cherry on top of a hot fudge sundae! And our weather? With the exception of downpours in New Brunswick and Hurricane Lee (total of about 5 days)… we had fabulous weather! We feel pretty lucky about that timing. We had very few hot days or even hot moments and maybe zero really cold days. It was truly perfect bicycling temperatures. What a splendid well planned adventure… thanks Jimmy!

Odds and Ends…

At the MacKenzie summit we met a couple from Alberta. We told them we were from Billings… and she says she knows a couple from Billings.. Elaine and Ken Kaufman… Jim responds yes! I worked with Elaine! It’s a small world isn’t it?!