Thursday: The Sun Came Out

We woke up expecting rain and instead we got the best damn maritime weather anyone could ever want. Highs in lower 70s with warm sun and a few scattered clouds. So after 20 hours of driving and rainy weather we decided to hike the crap out of Cape Breton. We ended up doing 3 hikes: middle head, franey mountain and freshwater lake. Not bad for 1 day.


Middle head runs 1.25 miles out on a peninsula past the Keltic lodge. It was a great opener for the day. It took us about an hour and a half.



The trail was full of little streams and distant views of the island.



We noticed that grass and flowers grew throughout the mountain hikes in the area. This was something new for us, as the Adirondacks seem to peek with rock faces, not grass fields.



The trail was tree covered, but when we stepped out past the branches and onto the rocks beyond, we caught some great views below.



At the furthest point of the peninsula, I stepped out to the edge of 300 feet plus drops (Mario would have vomited).





After middle head, we drove up a dirt road in second gear to the trail head of Franey Mountain. We parked, sprayed the bug spray and endured the never-ending climbing pain of Franey. Jimmy would have loved it. After scrambing up river beds and dramatic stairways and sweating our faces off, we took a break at what we throught to be the top, but we were still a long way off from the peak. In the end, the five mile hike took us two hours.




When we finally reached the top, we kicked open the door to a shack and explored the inside.



After franey literally beat the crap out of us, we had a picnic on Ingonish beach (thanks Kayleen) and hiked around freshwater lake. We found Ingonish beach and freshwater lake both wonderful and fascinating. The clear fresh water lake sits less than 50 feet from the ocean, but is seperated by a mile long 15 foot high deposit of beatiful granite. Ingonish beach has both rock and sand. However, the granite covers the sand in the winter to prevent erosion. Then in the summer, the water pushes the granite back away from the sand. This natural process leaves the beach safe from erosion and keeps the fresh water lake intact.