Hiking the Acadian Trail, Cape Breton
The main plan for Saturday, July 4th, Day 37 of our trip and the 5th day in Nova Scotia, was for me to hike the 8.4-km Acadian Trail in Cape Breton Highlands National Park.
The trailhead was only 15 km from our RV park, so we had lots of time to detour to Chéticamp Beach and perhaps even get to the Enragée Point Lighthouse on what is known as Chéticamp Island even though it’s not really an island.
We got to the beach just before noon and it was very quiet, perhaps because of the strong wind. Then our island tour flopped because the road was closed except to local traffic because of construction. But looking at Google Maps now, that’s not the road we were on. Oh well…
The visitor centre where the Acadian Trail starts was also fairly quiet, so parking was easy.
As soon as you walk in the door, a large banner cautions that reservations for parking are needed to hike the Skyline Trail. Not to hike the trail, just to park there. That was the planned hike for the next day, and yes, we had a reservation 🙂
Cathy thought I might want to talk to someone at the information desk about stuff. Nope, I like mysteries 🙂
Walking to one of the two trailheads, I went by the day use area. Very nice.
The campground was almost empty.
There we go – the start, at 1:05 pm.
I took a photo of the map just in case. Distance 8.4 km, time 3-4 hours, elevation 20-365 meters. It’s generally considered to be a moderate hike.
Within a few minutes, flowers brighten up the trail. These may be Wall hawkweed (Hieracium murorum).
It was getting very warm. My Strava page says it was 20°C but it felt about 5 degrees warmer than that. The flowers were sure happy 🙂
By the time I passed these rocks, 30 minutes from the start, I was soaked in sweat. Yuck.
Haze limited the views to the west, but to the north the highway snaking through the mountains was still impressive.
After 45 minutes I had only reached the 2 km pin (at the lower left of the photo) – oh well, speed is never the point.
I was loving the forest – the colour, the smells, the variety of trees and other plants.
At about this point I chatted briefly with a fellow about my age who was headed downhill. He said it was much cooler on the other side – “but of course you have to get to the top first.” As I was nearing the end of the hike, I saw him going down the trail on an ATV, then at the bottom he was being treated for heat exhaustion and dehydration 🙁
I was stopping often to study and photograph flowers, most of which were new to me. These are both hawkweed, the orange ones being Orange hawkweed (Pilosella aurantiaca).
Almost at the top.
Crossing the summit, I could already feel the temperature change, even out in the sun.
Though the heavy forest canopy had pretty much stopped flower-appreciation, walking downhill at a comfortable temperature (probably 19-20) was wonderful.
Then I came to a creek, which the trail followed for probably over a kilometer, and my progress really slowed – I took a lot of photos along it.
Okay, that’s enough creek – you get the idea! 🙂
And then I met a frog! I thought it was a tiny species of frog, but no, this is a baby American toad (Anaxyrus americanus) – a toadlet, about the size of my thumbnail (2 cm long).
A White Admiral butterfly (Limenitis arthemis) was very cooperative about posing for a photo.
Almost at the bottom.
The final photo from the trail is of a group of American Yellow Fly Agaric (Amanita muscaria var. guessowii).
When I reached the RV, my tracker said I had walked 9.63 km with 381 meters of elevation gain. I had been gone for about 3 hours and 45 minutes.
For dinner, we went to the Harbour Restaurant in downtown Chéticamp – we were able to park a couple of blocks away. Seen from our table, this was once the Chéticamp Harbour Range Front Lighthouse, but the harbour range pair of lights was discontinued in 1986. The tower remained white for some time after being taken over by the community, but is now painted like the Acadian flag.
To add to the ambiance of the restaurant, a couple of lobster boats cruised by 🙂
I ordered the Acadian-style Morue en cabane – cod slowly cooked with chives and pork scraps – and it was excellent. Quite a change from my usual fish and chips cod 🙂
The restaurant had been fairly quiet, but all of a sudden right at 5:30, people started pouring in. We were finished our meal, and so they could turn the table we didn’t delay our departure.
The next day, we would drive further up the Cabot Trail and I had a reservation to hike the Skyline Trail.
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