CAPE BRETON HIGHLANDS NATIONAL PARK
I am in love. Well, yes, with Ben of course - but now a new love has entered my life. You think the Pacific Coast Highway is picturesque? Well in the words of Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel, ‘You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet”. The scenery along the Cabot Trail has to be seen to be truly appreciated, it is stunning. I once drove the Icefields Parkway with friends, we were in separate cars and when we stopped after a few miles one of them said to me "I have run out of Oohs already"! The coastal road here is on that sort of Ooh scale, exquisite. No point in me trying to photograph it, I never was any good at landscapes.
Today has been a Great Day, the sort of day I dreamed about when making that decision to embark on the road trip. Everything has gone right. Let me take you through it:
The night was spent quite comfortably in a newly refurbished chalet in Cheticamp. Normally they decline to accept dogs - but Ben is of course a federally registered service dog so everywhere HAS to accept him by law. However I have never yet played that card and would be loathe to do so - much better the establishment accepts my companion because they can understand how well behaved he is. Generally a persuasive phone call or failing that a walk into the front office will work wonders. And so it was in Cheticamp - we had a suite that had just been completely refurbished which was very nice indeed.
But I had a problem. I wanted to give Ben a whale watching trip and needed an extra day or two to get that organized. Not normally a problem but this is the single busiest weekend of the year on Cape Breton and there were no rooms to be had. Goodness knows I tried - web searches, phoning every hotel, motel and resort in the local Yellow Pages, calling the local tourism centre. But everywhere it was the same, no vacancies anywhere.
Before leaving home I had bought some ‘just in case’ supplies to carry in the van. One of these was a cheap sleeping bag from Canadian Tire. So I prepped the van in order that tonight I could stretch full length on one side of the van while Ben could sleep on his memory foam mattress on the other. He would be in seventh heaven sleeping snuggled up to Boss - I would probably not have quite the same reaction. But it would I realized give me something to write about……
Driving north out of Cheticamp this morning I passed by Pilot Whale Chalets and noticed that the ‘No’ had been removed from the ‘No Vacancies’ sign. It had been there yesterday so I did a quick 180 and walked into the office expecting to be told they had made a mistake. But no, they had just received a cancellation and really did have a room. They do not accept dogs normally - luckily Ben is not normal and so I did not need to play the ESA card. We have two nights there, booked and paid!
We called in at the visitor centre for the Cape Breton Highlands National Park to ask for advice on which trails to take. With Ben’s bad hip and my bad ankle we were not looking for any strenuous hikes. The rangers we spoke to were very helpful and - almost inevitably it seems - one of them has her own elderly border collie! We were given some helpful pointers although it was unfortunate that the trail I really wanted to take on the high plateau was closed for some repair work.
Pleasant Bay was our next stop, I had heard in Cheticamp that there was a boat there that was accepting of taking dogs on whale watch cruises. I found them and they were delighted to have Ben along as a passenger. There was about 90 minutes until the next sailing and so we headed for a short hike on a trail that ends at a waterfall.
Ben just adores walking in the woods at home and that transplanted very easily to the National Park. Off we hobbled and headed up to the falls. Not exactly Niagara but a pleasant enough trip through the woods, most of it alongside a rushing stream. Ben posed for a quick photo in front of the falls and we headed back to the van.
It is now getting toward midnight and I have a 6am start tomorrow so will save the rest for later.
PS. I FELL ASLEEP WHILE UPLOADING THE PHOTOS AND LOST THEM ALL. WILL LOAD AGAIN LATER