Cabot Trail

     Late Wednesday afternoon President Pratt asked us if we'd be interested in going to a baptism on Saturday in Sydney (Nova Scotia, not Australia) on Cape Breton Island. He likes to have a representative from the mission at baptisms whenever possible. Often he is able to attend, but when he can't, he usually has a member of the mission presidency or a senior couple from another area. This is the first time he's asked us. He told us we could close the office on Friday and leave Thursday night. No, it's not a two-day trip to Sydney, but he thought we should take some time to see one of his favorite places in the mission: the Cabot Trail. Just over 24 hours later we'd packed up, put in a full day at the office, and were on the road.

     We got off to a good start, making it to the lower end of Cape Breton Thursday night and waking early Friday morning. We soon saw why President Pratt loves the area. Some of the sights were too majestic to capture on camera, but we'll share some pictures anyway. It was all so beautiful, even in a stark way. We're looking forward to seeing it again in warmer weather without all the snow. We didn't always get out of the car to take pictures because it was windy and cold.

     Cape Breton Island is a large land mass surrounding and surrounded by lots of water. Bras d'Or is a large inland sea in the middle, and there are lots of bays and coves around the outside of the island as well. It's connected to the mainland by a short causeway, but it's definitely different. For one thing, there's a lot of Celtic influence--signs, shops, culture. There are lots of little towns. We laughed because sometimes the signs almost seemed larger than the towns! Part of that was due to the time of year and many places were closed for the winter.

     We passed an old guy who was hitchhiking and decided to turn around and pick him up. By the time we got back to where we'd seen him, he was gone. Several kilometers down the road we saw him again. Apparently the first ride he got didn't take him far enough. We picked him and up took him into the next town where he was picking up a prescription. The only thing he wanted to talk about was the lottery.

     Toward the northernmost end of the island is a national park called Cape Breton Highlands National Park. Cabot Trail runs around and through it. The description "where mountains meet the sea" is very appropriate. The roads were open around the park, but we didn't have to pay an entrance fee. We decided it wouldn't have been worth their time to have a ranger at the entrance shack since we rarely saw other cars. It was still just as beautiful, but the hiking trails weren't accessible except by snowshoe. We didn't plan for that contingency when we packed everything up in Salt Lake. There were some scenic overlooks where the plows had piled the snow too high to see over.
     We saw two moose but weren't close enough to tell if they were male/female or female/calf before they ran into the trees. We didn't get the camera out quickly enough to get capture both of them.

There are MANY small but unique churches all throughout Nova Scotia

Many of the graveyards feature a huge cross with Christ

One of our favorite things was all the frozen waterfalls along the side of the road. They are gorgeous in this frozen state--alas, the limitations of the camera. It would be interesting to see them again in the spring for a different kind of beauty.

Lobster traps, a very common sight here

Less common are the snow crab traps

And even more common than churches are the lighthouses around nearly every corner.

This is an operative lighthouse. If it hadn't been closed for the season, we easily could have climbed a few stairs to get to the top. It's maybe 8 feet tall.

     This lighthouse was just a few miles on down the road. It was  more than twice as tall.

















     We have much more to share about our weekend, but since this only takes us up to about noon on Friday, that will be for next week's post. To be continued . . .