Ride Day 8: Off Cape Breton Island and Toward PEI

 

To get to Prince Edward Island we need to leave Cape Breton Island and onto the mainland. To do this we go west to the little town of Antigonish.

 

This morning dawned perfectly with nothing but sunshine ahead. Although we started out with coats and leg warmers, by the end of the day we looked like we were riding in summer!

We started out on the Ceilidh multi-use trail but after about 5 km came across a washout that we couldn't ride across. So we turned back and started over. Do overs!

Starting out on the Ceilidh trail

Washed out. Dang!

Back on the road we soon came to the Canso Causeway, the road that connects the mainland to Cape Breton Island. I was a bit nervous about riding this stretch of road because there is little shoulder and lots of fast traffic. But my worries were unwarranted and we crossed without any issues at all.

Crossing the Canso Causeway

The next 50 km were just awesome. We rode a quiet route, Nova Scotia 4, and the road was perfect and we saw maybe 2 cars. We then had a few km on the TransCanada Highway. But the highway had been reconfigured between today and whenever the electronic maps in our Garmin GPSs were set up, so we ended up riding about 20 on the highway. It wasn't bad as there are nice, wide shoulders, but the cars go fast and that is a bit uncomfortable.

We made good time to our destination, Antigonish, and arrived about 1500. We cleaned up and rode back into town for food and refreshment. Antigonish is a very cute college town and has a great downtown (albeit small). We found a super brewery called Candid Brewing, and they are celebrating their first year anniversary today. We had a good beer and then grabbed some pub food down the road.

Candid Brewing. The food sounded good but didn't start until about 2000 and we are pretty tired and would never make it that late...

Tap perusing 

Downtown Antigonish

After eating some dinner we went back to Candid and got a can of IPA to carry back to the casa.

Tomorrow we're off to Pictou, near the ferry for Prince Edward Island. But we put a twist into our plans. More to follow on that. The weather looks even better tomorrow. Whoa!