Pleasant Bay

• Post script on last night:  We went to a bar in Cheticamp and enjoyed a local female folk singer.  Her music was in both English and Acadian (French).  She was entertaining and got better as the number of beers we consumed increased.  The beers were entirely for medicinal reasons.  We were tired from yesterday’s ride and faced a very difficult ride today and need to assure a good night’s sleep.

We woke up in Cheticamp to strong winds blowing off the ocean.  Once we decided to roll, we headed north on the Cabot Trail fighting side winds before turning inland when we enjoyed a few miles of tail winds. Shortly after that we entered Cape Breton Highlands National Park and met 3 roadies that were also going to Pleasant View.  While our ride would be only 28 miles over the mountains, they planned to return the same day.  The first 10 miles into the park we stayed close to the ocean, enjoying the views but still fighting the winds as we went up several steep climbs. At about the 10 mile mark we started to climb French Mountain.  French Mountain is 1,500 feet of climbing over 5 miles.  In it self the climb would not have been bad, but about half way up, the cold rains dumped on us and the winds made progress slow. We only had a relatively short drop before we next had to climb MacKenzie Mountain. Once we finally started down, the sun came out.  We stopped to take pictures and talk to other tourists and started to warm up.  While the strong winds buffeted our downhill ride, we were thawing out and enjoying ourselves as our ride again became scenic as we dropped to the ocean.

Our stay in Pleasant Bay makes Joe homesick.  His hometown is Pleasant Valley and he lives at 2 Mountain View Drive.  We are staying in the Mountain View Motel.  Joe asked for number 2 but that was not available.  When registering the clerk told us that tomorrow’s weather is going to flip from today’s cold rain to hot temperatures and clear skies.

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