my dad and i embarked on our first annual motorcycle road trip in the summer of 2015.
We headed to Nova Scotia's Cape Breton Island to circumvent the Cabot Trail, one of the world's premier motorcycle routes.
To save us a few days of riding, we opted to jumpstart the journey with a 6 hour overnight ferry from Portland to Nova Scotia. The photo to the right shows the bike tied down under deck, with our two saddle bags of belongings. Despite the enormous size of this ferry, I lasted about 30 minutes before dizziness and nausea took hold and forced me to bed.
We emerged in the morning to Canadian sunshine and blue skies!
Lunenburg, Nova Scotia
We rode north from Yarmouth to Lunenburg, a colorful, 47-block port community of fishermen and shipbuilders. We stopped for the charm, and stayed to check out the Fisheries Museum of the Atlantic and have lunch. A few minutes outside of the town is Blue Rocks, a quant, rocky fishing village. We took a winding route along the peninsula, reminiscent of Maine's own coastline.
We continued north to Queenstown Beach, and ended up stumbling upon the Salmon River Country Inn just in time for a homemade German dinner from the owner herself! The spot was idyllic, and we had the whole inn to ourselves (excluding the creepy collection of dolls in the entryway....)
The lovely owner insisted we check out Clam Harbour beach just up the road… and we had the entire beach to ourselves. After a morning dip, we jumped back on the bike and meandered up the coast to Antigonish, stopping along the way to snack on smoked fish (we were surrounded by Nova Scotian fisheries, after all).The smoked chili salmon was my favorite. In our ultimate pursuit of the Cabot Trail, we crossed the causeway over to Cape Breton Island and spent the night in Baddeck.
Cape Breton / Cabot trail
The Cabot Trail winds 185 miles around the northern part of Cape Breton Island. It's immediately clear why it's considered one of the most scenic
motorcycle roads in the world. The trail towers over the sea and hugs the cliffs, overlooking pristine beaches. It’s an exhilarating ride. At the end of
the day, Inverness beach was the real show-stopper, and where we decided to spend the night.
Inverness Beach
Shout out to Wreck Cove General Store, where we entered full-blown tourist mode and conveniently forgot we were traveling on a motorcycle.. forcing us to start tying things to the bike frame.
Prince Edward Island
On the fourth day of our trip, we (along with dozens of tractor trailer trucks and tour buses) crossed the ferry over to Prince Edward Island. I'm not sure whether to credit the gray, overcast weather, but the colors on PEI were absolutely swoon-worthy. It was a whole new palette of colors up there — pastel versions of what we're used to in Maine.
We warmed up over steaming bowls of clam chowder at cozy Brehaut's cafe, then rode towards the beach.
Well, that was our plan. We rode in circles for over 2 hours in the northern part of the island, passing abandoned farm houses and acres of windmills, searching desperately for a place to sleep for the night. When dusk set in, we knew we were in trouble. Without a gas station or neighborhood in sight, we opted to make the dark, rainy drive down to the historical capital, Charlottesville, for the night. All things we try to avoid on the motorcycle: cities, night driving, and rain. Fortunately, we found a welcoming B&B with vacancies just next door to a pub still serving dinner…
Suffice to say, one day was enough for us in PEI. We headed back to New Brunswick via the 8-mile long Confederation Bridge. Back on mainland, the sun re-appeared and we spent the afternoon at the Hopewell Rocks, unique formations carved by the tides and erosion over thousands of years. Alma's Alpine Motor Inn was home for the night, with ocean views over the Bay of Fundy. The Bay of Fundy has the highest tides in the world! 160 billion tons of seawater flow in at high tide. Check out the buoy on the tippy top of the tide marker my dad is standing next to at low tide. Alma was peaceful and beautiful, and we were reluctant to leave. On our ride back to Maine, we stopped by the port city of Saint John and savored the end of vacation before crossing back into Maine.
