Cape Breton Highlands National Park, Nova Scotia

I woke up at 9:00am and discovered that my family had already finished eating breakfast (sardines, cold milk, and bread) and was impatiently waiting for me to do the same. When I stepped out of the tent, I found that the sky was filled with ominous-looking clouds, which threatened our streak of days without rain this trip.

At 9:30am, we began to drive towards Meat Cove, the northern-most point of Cape Breton Island. After only driving for thirty minutes, rain began to fall. By the time we reached Meat Cove, the combination of rain and fog (the collisions of the Gulfstream and Labrador ocean currents) forced my family to turn the vehicle around and head back to Cabot Trail (what a waste of thirty minutes)! With a rainy afternoon to kill, I decided to take our family on a hike. Sadly, I chose the Branch Pond Trail (8.1 kilometres long), which cuts through the most wilderness area of the Highlands and climbs up the Highlands' interior plateau.

 



Grouse camouflaged
in the dense vegetation

We arrived at the trail's parking lot at 1:00pm and for a full hour, my family hiked up the trail and saw no signs of life (human or animal). I was particularly frightened by the fact that numerous black bears inhabited this area and felt that my family would be defenseless against possible attacks. Oddly enough, the only animal we encountered throughout the whole trail was a grouse (to the left)!





A spectacular view from the top of the
Branch Pond Trail

After thirty more minutes of hiking, we reached the lookout. I was expecting something Skyline-esque but sadly, this was not the Skyline Trail. Instead of the most spectacular views in the Atlantic Maritime, our ninety-minute hike was rewarded by some cheap and unspectacular view of forests, even higher highlands, lakes, and bays in the distance (as shown in the photo to the right). My family was exhausted and ticked off and began to descend back towards the parking lot. My dad and I decided to continue hiking (the trail continued to wind itself up past the lookout) and found ourselves following a trail that was as wild, rugged, and remote as an uninhabited island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean (yikes).

Along the trail, I discovered several moose footprints, several bear footprints, and several piles of dung of both moose and black bears. Coupled with the haunting scenery (this was no ordinary trek through the woods in Toronto), I wanted to turn back, but my dad made me press on. Soon, we encountered another hiker! He told us that the trail would get even more rugged up ahead, where thorns and prickly plants would cover the trail (showing how remote and wild this trail had become). My dad remained optimistic, even though a professional hiker (hiking stick, hiking backpack) had told us (sandals, walking sticks, no backpacks) that he had given up on the trail. Two minutes later, we met a hiking couple and engaged in a friendly conversation. At this point, I believed that should we encounter a black bear (who probably never met a human in its life because of the remoteness of the trail), the black bear would attack mercilessly and our names would appear as the top headline of tomorrow's newspaper (two hikers found mauled on the Branch Pond Trail). My dad was equally as scared as I was at that time and thus we decided to turn around and run back!

At 4:00pm, we returned to the parking lot and hastily drove away. We reached Ingonish Beach at 5:00pm and quickly found a campsite. Before we could unpack, rain began to fall from the sky. My family was drenched with rain after setting the two tents up. Wet, dirty, and tired, I decided to take a shower before it got dark. 





Franey Trail's Lookout

The rain never let up (frontal rainfall), but luckily, there was a picnic-shelter area and my parents decided to prepare our supper there. In the meantime, I discovered that had we taken the Franey Trail, we would have been rewarded with this view (briefly compare with the spectacular view from the Branch Pond Trail)!

After supper (comprised of fish balls, noodles, and veggies), my brother and I jumped into our van and proceeded to watch Kung-Fu Panda (on our portable DVD player) twice! I don't think that I have ever been that bored on this trip (except for maybe the first day).

At 9:00pm, my brother and I left the van, were greeted by a hoard of mosquitoes and pounding rain, and ran as fast as a hiker being chased by a black bear to our tent (which was only five metres away)! After settling down and worming myself into my sleeping bag, I heard an annoying buzzing sound (similar to the melody in Flight of the Bumblebee) and promptly turned my flashlight on in search for the villainous mosquito that had invaded our tent. After five minutes of searching, I finally spotted the bad-boy and squashed it with a tissue paper. By that time (9:30pm), I crawled back into my sleeping bag and immediately fell asleep.