The predicted overnight rain never happened, so the bikes came out of the trailer this morning. After the usual leisurely breakfast of coffee and muesli, we topped up the tires, checked the oil and talked to lots of folks who were interested in the bikes.
We then headed off to do a portion of the Bras d'Or Lakes Scenic Drive. We followed the Quebecois couple on the V-Strom out of the park and they disappeared up the highway while we toddled into Baddeck. After stop at the visitor center and for fuel, it was off to the highway.
This was a good practice ride for Ellen since it had a bit of everything. We rode a fair bit of the Trans-Canada highway, including over a big hill with a switchback on the way down, the big bridge across the Lake, a few miles of gravel, a lot of twisty back roads (including a bit of the Cabot Trail) and a ferry. Ellen did well on all of them.
We followed the Scenic Drive out to Ross Ferry, a little provincial park and then looped back to the highway to the exit to Englishtown an the cable ferry across St. Ann's Bay. The road from there was nice and twisty up to a connection to the Cabot Trail. We followed the twisty Cabot Trail to the highway, then back to Baddeck for coffee (not great) and on to the park.
We did about 90 miles in total and a good time was had. We saw many motorcycles, mostly Harleys on the highway and BMWs on the back roads.
We were hoping to start our Cabot Trail mini-trip in a couple of days, with a local ride tomorrow and packing up the camping gear, but rain is forecast for Thursday. We'll see what happens.
Some photos of our Northumberland and today's rides
Today's Route:
View Bras d'Or Lake Drive 1 in a larger map
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