Woke up to a Happy Birthday greeting from Rick and a reminder that today was my 65, officially and senior now. We woke up early, it was clear and warm, and we were both ready to roll at about 6:30.

One thing I noticed is that these towns close up early and open up late. We didn’t want to wake anyone up with our bikes so we coast them down the hill to the street and fired them up to start this day.

At his point of our Cabot Trail experience, I was a bit underwhelmed. I always go in rides without expecting much, but so far, just nice views, pleasant people and quite towns that we have passed through. Don’t know what the fuss was about this trail, but I didn’t read up on it either. All that changed today, because I guess we choose the correct way to see it.

We continued into the morning and now we were entering the national park, or skirting it on the side. We started climbing some good elevation. Up to this point we basically were riding at sea level =/- 300 feet. Now we seem to be climbing roads at a 7 to 8% grade and lots and lots of green trees. We are also climbing inland. we eventually hit a platue and ride a bit flat before we drop on twisty roads and climb up on twisty roads again, but heading towards the water as you can feel the cooler air. Then we come over a ridge to see the vista of the rugged coastline of the Cape Breton and the road we will be traveling on in the distance. Reminded me of Bir Sur in California, mountains on one side and the coast on the other. Beautiful view as we stopped to take pictures and videos and we did that until we reached the town of Cheticamp – that’s right, the locals pronounce it shittycamp.

We stopped in Cheticamp for breakfast where Rick treated me for my birthday and then we headed out on highway 19 along the coast until we reached Port Hasting and the swing bridge over the channel. From there we just kept going till we decided to call it quits in Moncton NB for the night

Cabot trail 2023-07-09 video.