Reader Ride: Nova Scotia, Canada - The Cabot Trail

The shrill announcement is loud and awakes us from a sound, gently rocking sleep to proclaim we are one hour away from docking at North Sydney, Nova Scotia. Four of us, on adventure motorcycles, are traveling on the North Sydney-Port Aux Basques ferry from Newfoundland to the northeast coast of Nova Scotia. Our plan is to ride the famed Cabot Trail, which skirts the province’s northern tip before we head west and back toward the USA.

The motorcycles are first to both board and depart the ferry. There are a couple of shiny clean V-Stroms waiting to go the other way. We don’t have the heart to tell them that the toilets were not working on the 8-hour trip over. An obviously well-traveled guy on a big Harley pulls up to my filthy BMW GSA and asks about the Trans-Labrador Highway, which we had just completed. I suggest that his bike is probably not the best selection to travel hundreds of gravel miles, but his reply is that he has done Alaska, so I wish him well.

We’re off, and it is sunny and warm for a change. We meander past signs announcing Big Bras d’Or, and my juvenile mind wonders what that is all about. Soon the addiction peaks and it’s time for morning coffee and a Danish. A quick break at Coastal Waters Restaurant in Ingonish allows us to purchase the lone Cabot Trail T-shirt, which can only be obtained by being there on two wheels. We pass a lot of craft stores, and I find it amusing that one sign portrays golf balls and block ice for sale. Now that’s a combination I wouldn’t guess.