Day 21 - Canadian Maritimes 2026 - TURNAROUND DAY - Cape Breton - Cabot Trail - Cheticamp Beach

 TODAY MARKS OUR "TURNAROUND DAY" ... AFTER 2,500 MILES, 

WE ARE AS FAR EAST AS WE CAN GET. 

TIME TO TURN AROUND NOW AND 

START HEADING BACK HOME!

It rained all night long in the snug little harbor of Hawley's Cove. Sound of the rain on the roof of the RV is soothing and helps us sleep comfortably. We are cozy warm in our RV even when it's cold and damp. We put Reflectix insulation sheets on the windows and we have the propane furnace running. We also have an electric mattress pad heater that keeps us snuggly and comfortable.  Now that we've upgraded our battery to a big Vatrer lithium, also we use our Bluetti power station as a plug-in power source, we can run those things all night long and not have to worry about draining our power.

We peered out the windows and saw both fishing boats still moored tight in the harbor. Guess we didn't have to worry about being parked in anybody else's way. Nobody was going fishing on this foggy wet rainy icky morning.

There were mud puddles all around us, but we were on firm ground, I am sure after many many decades of trucks coming and going from this little harbor.  We brewed up our coffee and decided to get a start on the day and hit the road. We weren't sure how far we were going to drive with this type of fog. Looking ahead on the weather reports, it looked like the next three or four days we're going to be rainy wet and windy in this area of Cape Breton.

The heavy fog was starting to lift, even though we could not yet see the tops of the hills surrounding us. It was almost eerie to watch the wisps of moisture work their way upwards into the sky, over the tops of the hills. That's something we don't see in Wisconsin.

Driving along the oceanfront, the waves were rolling in with big white caps.  The gusty winds as we were clinging to the little road along the shore were battering us around a little bit in the motorhome.  It was another "Two Hands on the Wheel" kind of day. 

We pulled over a couple times along the route to view the Atlantic Ocean in all its fury.  With the waves crashing on the rocks, we didn't see any sea wildlife along the shorelines. It was so blustery, we didn't even see any birds.

We worked our way around the northernmost route that the highway could travel. There were some teeny tiny roads that went north of the town of Cape North. But we opted to not take those. We wanted to stay on the main highway. When I say highway, we're only talking about just a smooth two lane road, no wide shoulders, and it's not any type of interstate. lol!

We are seeing a change in the terrain, it's almost all rocks and scrubby pine trees in this area. Very similar to what Door County is in Wisconsin, or up around Lake Superior.

Being in the most rugged land facing the North and the East, I think that these trees need to be pretty hardy to be able to exist and grow on the rock.  

It's amazing how much the road construction crews many many years ago chiseled through the rock to make this nice smooth road. This route was a lot easier driving than the one on the day before.

Once we looped around the top edge and started coming down the northwestern shore, tree species got a little more varied and we saw some deciduous ones again here and there. But the colors are not as vibrant as they were further south.  It seems their color change here is just at the very beginning for the Autumn weather. 

On some of the highest ridges we could look over these beautiful serene valleys. Could you imagine having a home with big picture windows facing out to look at this view everyday? Oh my goodness...

We worked our way along with this winding road, with the chiseled rock borders guiding our way. There were very narrow shoulders, there wasn't a lot of room to pull off anywhere, unless it was a designated pull-off spot for picture taking.

I was snap snap snapping pictures as we were cruising along.

This is what I meant about the trees growing in rugged hardy conditions. It doesn't even seem that there is any dirt. The roots are just clinging to the rocks and the whole terrain for them to grow on is nothing but a big huge rock! 

We were enjoying the nice smooth ride. The road really seemed to be in great shape. But of course, this time of year means there's a chance of road construction to get things nice before the snow flies. So everything we were driving on appeared to be pretty new. Of course, up ahead, we could see an orange sign. Yep.

Now it was time to wait. Yes, it gives us a chance to look around at the scenery and hope for some wildlife. We didn't see any. Finally the pilot car came and we could get around this first section. We were hoping it was just an isolated spot of a washout that they were repairing.

But no, no such luck. We ambled our way through stops and starts, weights and delays, and then crawling ahead of the slow pace. 

Have you ever seen a caution sign like this?

I'm not sure where the stones were flying from. If it was off the trucks ahead of us or from the cliffs alongside of us. Either way, we were fortunate not to have any hit us.  

We started seeing a few more towns. Things were getting a little more commercialized and geared towards the tourists. Things were not quite as rugged and rough anymore. We were seeing art galleries and coffee shops and gift boutiques as well as interesting bed and breakfast accommodations. Geodesic Tent Dome Glamping anyone??

The fog was finally lifting but it was still going to be cloudy and gloomy. I didn't have any high hopes for spectacular photography or anything visually enticing for today. Nor for the next 3 or 4 days either. But that's okay, we saw a lot of beautiful things on the day before to hold in our memories.

It seems like we were winding our way down down into the valleys, and then before we knew it we were climbing up up on another high ridge line. The scenes were unfolding before us, and changing with every turn.

The type of rock seems to be changing. It's more of a lighter gray and seems to be running in diagonal slabs. Can you imagine chiseling through this stuff just to create a road?  There were plenty of caution signs about falling rocks. In this photo below you can see why...

We are now about halfway down the western shore of Cape Breton. This is on the side that faces the Gulf of St Lawrence.  The winds seem to have died down and the waves were calming on the surface of the water. The rain was intermittently splattering on and off. But the road construction just never seems to end.

In this stretch, it appears to have large portions of the bank that had washed away. I think they were trying to get everything restored before winter hits. It must be a real challenge trying to get work done--- when the only route around the entire Cape is also your construction zone? 

Coming around a curve, it was amazing to see this huge rock with its diagonal striations. Just imagine the force and strength of the Earth as it was creating these rocks with glacial movements and pressure. Frozen water did that! 

The drops of rain on the windshield kind of messed up the photography. But the rain on the muddy surfaces made things slick and slippery. It almost felt like ice in some sections. We were going very slow and being extremely cautious. The motorhome and cargo trailer were also getting very, very muddy! Steve started to talk about trying to find an RV wash somewhere. Good luck with that.

We did reach one stretch of interesting rock that was more red again, like the iron ore that we are familiar with in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Most of the rock that we have been seeing today was gray. When this red rock was wet, it was even brighter than I think if it was dusty and dry.

We were skirting along the last edge of shoreline before reaching the town of Cheticamp. You can see up ahead the type of roads we were on, because it finally cleared up enough to give us a view of the terrain.  Lots of ups and downs along the rocky shoreline.

We followed along our concrete ribbon, safely avoiding the worst of the road construction and finding our way down towards sea level again.  We have sure run into the variety of altitudes and weather changes, and crazy road conditions today varying from smooth and new to ongoing rough and rugged repairs. 

We were finally down to sea level and just a few turns left to get to the small beach that we were intending to spend the night. We were breathing a sigh of relief that it was time to exit this driving experience and relax for the evening.

See that little strip of sandy land over there in that cove? Yep, that is Petit Etang meaning "Little Pond" in French.  We could see it while we were still driving higher on the hill...

But as we got closer, the fog moved in! We were really glad to be getting off the road, but we were worried about finding our turnoff to get to the beach.  Are running lights / fog lights really didn't do much to cut through the haze.

We found the two signs that we needed to find r turn, and drove past a bakery that was closed right now. But no fear, it would be open in the morning and Steve would be able to try out their delicacies. We drove on further to the north and found the final turn to Petit Etang.  It was too wet to even get outside and take a picture. You'll have to wait till tomorrow's blog to see our walk on the beach when it wasn't raining.

The rain was pouring down, and it was a relief to be off the road and relaxing now for the evening.  I had a pile of fresh veggies and some chicken to cut up. It was a perfect afternoon to simmer up a pot of soup. Homemade chicken vegetable noodle soup. The process is on the video link included down below. All I can say is that it was absolutely wonderful and the inside of the motorhome smelled marvelous.  

Soup is one of Steve's favorite meals...

The rain kept coming down for the rest of the day. I'm glad that we were off the road, and safe and sound. At least the temperatures were warm enough that it wasn't going to freeze. We were only going to be down in the 40s overnight. I cannot imagine it hitting down into the low 30s and trying to manage with ice everywhere and all of those hills??? 

Instead, we hunkered down and relaxed for the evening. Steve was watching some YouTubes and I was editing the next video on my laptop. This is really a pretty picturesque view for my little mini office from the cockpit of the motorhome.  I'm glad I don't have to deal with this type of rainy wet weather all of the time. But for a day or two, or three, I guess we can handle it. There's a beauty and a rugged rawness in this land that is appealing. But I really honestly don't think I would want to live here.

I guess that is all I have for this blog today. We are sad to be turning around and heading back, but also we know we still have another 2,000 miles or so ahead of us with more adventures.

Here's the YouTube that goes along with today's blog post: 

79 miles traveled 

2,578 miles traveled so far

cj cyt