Ingonish to Hunter Mountain Chalets

The last blog post took us from Sackville, New Brunswick to the Brown's at Margaree Centre and then to Ingonish.

Brace yourself as this is a long post including a lot of images, as it takes us from Ingonish all the way to Hunter Mountain covering some of the best parts of our trip on and off the Cabot Trail!

Our Chalet at Hunter Mountain Chalets

Speaking of images, remember to click on any image to view a larger version.

We traveled Tuesday from Ingonish to Pleasant Bay then Wednesday to Hunter Mountain and are currently at Hunter Mountain Chalets just off the southern portion of the Cabot Trail.  This is such a great place that we plan to stay for at least 3 days. We have had quite nice weather for the past couple of days and the weather guessers are promising more for the next day or two.

Sunrise at Hunter Mountain Chalets

But it is important to say that, in spite of the rain and cold for much of the time this has been a great trip because the area is mostly beautiful but also, to a large degree, because we have taken our time and let the trip evolve each day. Of course, we had to plan accommodation locations ahead, but we kept the daily driving distances short to allow lots of time to stop and walk a bit, take photos and just enjoy the scenery and some chats with local people.

The Entry drive way and Office at Hunter Mountain Chalets

One in particular will be remembered as being quite special.

On leaving Ingonish we stopped for gas at a small “full service” gas station, Caper Gas  Drive ‘er (this is not a spelling error!).
I commented to the person filling our tank, who was also the owner, that full service places are pretty rare. This initiated an interesting, informative and wide ranging conversation about the economic circumstances of not only gas stations but this part of Nova Scotia. For example, he said that to convert his business to self service would cost $150,000 which he cannot afford. He can barely stay open in this region where there are 2 profitable months, 2 or 3 iffy months and the rest profitless months!

Along the Coastal Loop by Aspy Bay on route to Pleasant Bay

He can stay open because, having been here for decades his family does not have a mortgage to pay. Others are not so fortunate. There are few to no jobs so the young people leave and the population loss decreases even local demand seriously affecting the local economy. This poor economic condition shows in the deterioration of the provincial roads even on the “famous” Cabot Trail and this deterioration is emphasized in comparison to the excellent roads in the Cape Breton Highlands National Park, a federal jurisdiction.

Until the area can be rejuvenated by making it a year round economically sound environment things are not likely to improve. But our conversation was not all doom and gloom as he says some promising things are happening. He also gave us some excellent advice about how we could find the best routes and resources on and off the Cabot Trail.

Community of White Point near Scotch Cove

When we left our friend at his work we departed with a new perspective on the region. And armed with his excellent advice, we found the route and the scenery from Ingonish to Pleasant Bay which was by far the most spectacular to that point.
From Ingonish we traveled on the Cabot trail for about 10 kilometres along the coast to Neil’s Harbour where the Cabot Trail turned inland. Here, on the advice of our gas station friend, we turned off the Cabot trail onto a “scenic route”, the Coastal Loop, which took us to and along the coast of Aspy Bay to some spectacular scenery in an area where whales apparently travel and, with luck, might be seen. We were not that lucky.

At White Point we went down to the wharf and had a chat with a couple of fisherman and asked about the large "baskets" we had seen stored along with lobster traps and wondered about their use. (See the photo of these large orange coloured baskets beside lobster traps in the last blog post) They explained that they are used to catch Snow Crabs in April. Several fishing boats were in the dock area apparently getting ready for lobster fishing which begins next Friday.

View from White Point with the "pointed" mountain marking
Cabot's Landing in the distance.

We considered going to Meat Cove, the most northerly point on Cape Breton but our friend, while partially supporting the idea had said that it was a 2 hour journey and not likely to provide more than we would see along the coast of Aspy Bay. After a lot of stopping and photo making, time tends to pass and we realized that we did not really have enough of it to go to Meat Cove. Our gas station travel consultant had also advised us to look across Aspy Bay from White Point and find a pointed mountain - “we say it looks like a breast” he said with a mildly embarrassed smile. “That, according to Nova Scotians, is the area where John Cabot first landed in North America.”

So, we decided to go in the direction of Meat Cove as far as Cabot landing at Sugarloaf to visit the general location of Cabot’s arrival. There appears to be some competition between Nova Scotia and Newfoundland on this event, each claiming the historic spot. When we arrived at Cabot's Landing Provincial Park, you guessed it - it was closed.

So, from there we retraced our “steps” back to the Cabot Trail and on to Pleasant Bay. Now, when we spotted our Pleasant Bay accommodations we gasped a bit at the overpowering array of pink and blue buildings and lamp posts and virtually everything paintable! Thankfully, the inside was spared the outdoor paint decor. Another definitely spartan space — a small room, a bed, tv set, one ceiling light (there were a couple of other lights on the wall but we were unable to find a way to turn them on), a small table and a bathroom. The only restaurant in Pleasant Bay was not open. We decided to stay only one night.

We set out fairly early on another overcast and cold morning to find a place for breakfast and with high hopes that our booking in Hunter Mountain would be more to our liking.
At the entrance back into Cape Breton Highlands National Park we found the visitors centre to be not exactly open but sufficiently open for us to pick up a topographical map, some books and a few other bits and bobs that we didn’t really need.

The very friendly park folks told us that in the beautiful town of Chéticamp just down the road we would find a Co-op grocery store, a liquor/wine store and an excellent breakfast at Evangeline’s Family Restaurant, and they were correct on all counts!

The rest of the drive to Hunter Mountain took us through more excellent scenery and back through the area of the Margaree’s - remember the Margarees? We passed them all and about 30 Km or so  later with some trepidation we prepared ourselves for the first view of Hunter Mountain Chalets. To our relief and delight what we found was a terrific place!

It was immediately apparent to both of us that we should stay here for more than one night. After we signed in the proprietor, Roland, said he would take us to our lodgings and provide an orientation and he did. There is a small kitchen and the living space and bedrooms are both spacious and welcoming. Roland, who is extremely friendly obviously cares deeply about this place.

His attention to detail is reflected in the quality of everything about the buildings and rooms from the excellent German designed windows to the European beds and the Van Gogh and Monet prints on the walls! - as well as the carefully laid out and marked walking paths on the extensive property! Roland carefully and thoroughly explained how everything works including the recycling arrangements, the history and nature of the walking trails as well as the controls of the TV and he actually set up the TV so we could watch the Jays game!

We have seen nothing even close to this. And at a price much less than we paid at substantially less appealing accommodations. Definitely a three day stay!

(I should tell you that, though I am talking about Hunter Mountain Chalets here, only the last photo has anything to do with Hunter Mountain. The others were made well before we reached here. It's not always easy to coordinate the text with the images that I want to include.)

We would like to stay longer but we should be in Truro by Saturday. So, on Saturday when we reluctantly leave this place, we will face a relatively long drive back to Sackville where we will stay one night before leaving on Sunday for the Gaspé.

Sunrise at Hunter Mountain Chalets