Spectacular Views, Moose and Insect Eating Plants!

Friday, July 5, 2013

The next day, we were hoping that the weather would hold and we could do another hike on our way north along the Cabot Trail. We wanted to hike the Skyline Trail that goes out onto a headland on boardwalks and has spectacular ocean views. It was very hazy as we checked out of the campground. Back on the Cabot Trail we got involved in stopping to check out the geologic features and realized that we couldn't devote 3 hours to the hike and get to our destination at a decent time. Greg had a geologic map of Nova Scotia and once we got going on the Trail, Greg was like a detective solving a geologic mystery. Thankfully I enjoy geology too, so we gave ourselves to understanding the fascinating geological history of the Cape Breton Highlands. We stopped at various look offs to view faults, rock from varying eras, and 1.5 billion year old rock that is part of the Canadian Shield, the very ancient bedrock of Canada.

Grand Falaise - Granite thrust faulteded over younger volcanics under scree apron

Carboniferous sandstone

Pillar Rock Fault separates Basalt sea stack (Pillar Rock) from younger sedimentary rocks

Crushed and sheared rocks in the fault zone

More sheared and crushed fault Breccia

Presqu'Ile Beach, covers two fault zones

Along the way we also stopped at the short Bog Trail. Just before we reached there we saw a mother and baby moose on the side of the road. After living five years in Alaska, and having moose in our yard on a regular basis, Greg and I weren't obsessed like the other visitors, with seeing them. A local had told us earlier in the day that you only see moose in the early morning or the evening, not during the day. He had an Acadian accent and I thought he said you don't see moon during the day, and he must have thought we were really stupid tourists! Anyway, he was wrong, (on both accounts!) But, Greg spotted them, and he still has his moose spotting skills from Alaska!

Approaching Pleasant Bay

Lookoff at Cap Rouge with comfy chair

Interior uplands

No moose in the daytime

The bog was fascinating! There was an amazing amount of floral life for such a barren place. There were insect eating plants, like the pitcher plant, and tiny lavender and white orchids. Also, aquatic plants, lichen, peat, grasses, water plants, and stunted spruce trees. Moose are more abundant in the boggy, higher areas as the spruce bark beetles have been killing the spruce trees and as they do, the willows and birches fill in. The moose prefer them for their diet.

Pitcher Plant

Tiny Orchid, note grass blades

More tiny Bog Orchids

Cotton Grass

Darning Needles

Pitchers of Pitcher Plant

Blue Flag Iris

As we continued on, the overcast lifted, but the sky was still hazy, so the views though still spectacular, didn't have the sharpness and richness of color the mountains and sea have on a a crisp day. We drove out of the park on the northernmost stretch of the trail. The very top of Cape Breton is private land. Our destination was the campground at Meat Cove. The British couple we met in the Annapolis Valley stayed there after another couple they met on the PEI ferry recommended it. The last five miles of the drive was on a packed dirt road. We arrived by mid-afternoon with plenty of time to pick out the best campsite and look for whales!

MacKenzies River Valley

North Mountain exposure of 1.5-billion YO granite and gneiss of the Canadian Shield

Valley tracing the Aspy Fault

Meat Cove Road

Meat Cove campsite view