Ride Day 4: Southward Down the East Coast

 We’ve rounded the northern corner of Cape Breton and today we turn right, southward. More headlands and lumps and lots of new adventures.

  

 We kind of transition today between the Highlands toward the midlands of the island. Fewer hills. The last one on the chart above is last big hill, at least for the next few days.

We woke up early this morning and looked out to a beautiful view over the bay, with a bit of fog rolling in It is cold, too, about 5 degrees C. We had a breakfast of coffee, cheese and apples (remember, nothing is open up here) and Picky Bars. Then at 0800 the power went out. Apparently today was a planned outage for the entire east coast of the island from 8 until 1400. Might as well ride.

We took a bit of a scenic detour where the route normally headed inland. We wanted to stick to the coastline. We were in the fog about half of the time and we got super cold and wet -- the fog was thick enough to soak our clothing.

Fabulous views

As we made our way south the fog decreased and the sunshine warmed us up nicely. We stopped in the little village of Ingonish at an open cafe -- the power had by this time been restored -- and got a coffee. That helped with the cold, too.

The last hill of today's ride is Cape Smokey. Just before the hill started we rode past the local ski area. It looks to have one T-bar and a gondola. Looks fun.

The Cape Smokey Ski Area (in the background). The guy in the foreground is selling golf balls...

Near the top of Cape Smokey, looking north.

At the summit, looking south

Happily, the fog stayed just offshore.

The descent off Cape Smokey was pretty awesome with perfect roads and no traffic. 

We are staying in a little cabin at a mountain biking area. There is nobody else here and it is nice and quiet. 

Home for the night.

We rode about 10 km down the road to the Wreck Cove General Store, which thankfully was open and licensed, and bought some stuff for dinner and a few beers.

A pretty well-stocked little store

From Breton Brewing, Sydney NS

Tomorrow we continue south to the relatively big town of Baddeck. We'll stay there for 2 nights and try to wash some clothes. Stuff like that. The forecast is for rain. We'll see.