Day 9, July 27th

Slept poorly in the tent. Back isn't used to hard gravel ground. I used one of those little blue pads you can buy, but it's crap. To add to that, i had some kind of forest rat rummaging through my luggage that was under a tarp outside the tent. Don't think I had any food in there. At first i thought it may be a bear (there are some in the park I was camping in) but i got up and went out to look. I scared away the little chipmunk. damn him. The shower at the park was one of the best I've had all trip. The water was hot and there was a lot of pressure. Packed up and checked out of the camping spot.

note to self: get inflatable mattress.

Today I was going to do the Cabot Trail in the Cape Breton Highlands National park. I was all psyched since people were telling me it was the best thing since sliced bread.

The western shore of Cape Breton through the park is quite a nice ride with many places to pull over and look at the scenery of the coast. Once you turn more inland the road is still nice, but looking at trees can get a little boring.

I was looking at the GPS and I could see a road splitting off the Cabot Trail at Pleasant Bay, going north to Red River. I didn't know what was there as I didn't read any guides or touristic information on the area. I just felt like exploring, and figured if there's a road, there's usually something interesting at the end of those roads. I decided to turn off Cabot Trail onto that dirt road in Pleasant Bay. It's a gravel/dirt road and anyone that saw me waved to me. Nice people in these parts. Slowly continued on this dirt road and then about 8 km later, a buddhist statue!!

Today was to be a very long day, leaving the campsite at around 9am and getting a room at a motel that night at about 9pm, only having gone about 400km. but many pictures were taken and and I had a pretty good day in general.

-continued in next post-