Fini.

We decided to truck all the way to Baddeck today. Cape Smokey is a great downhill - good enough to break the speed limit. It went pretty smoothly despite the snapped derailleur cables, flat tires, and rubbing, disintegrating tires. We will take it easy for the day here awaiting our parents (and our ride home). We're a little saddle sore but feelin' fine.

If you're keen here's our route map (at bottom of post):

http://maps.google.com/maps/user?uid=112346647470576476542&hl=en&gl=us

Our parents came to pick us up so we didn't have to repeat ourselves.

Ingonish

We swung out onto the slightly less dramatic eastern coast known for it's sandy beaches. Well, we assume. We arrived in a thunderstorm / insane fog event(meteorologist speak). Parcs du Canada's campsite at Ingonish was closed, which was great; the hot water was still flowing in the shower - even better. It took the better part of the afternoon to shed 10 days of funk and dirt and crustaches.

Parc National des Hautes-Terres Du-Cap-Breton

Lovely ride (pics needed). BIG hills. We laid low in Pleasant Bay for a day in a vicious thunderstorm that knocked power out in the storm. Over North Mountain to someone's vacation home and camped on their back porch out of reach of bears and the like. We were serenaded by moose in mating season (I guess another reason to stay out of reach).

Judique to Broad Cove to Cheticamp

Gorgeous Country. We were once again randomly asked by the side of the road if we wanted to camp at what turned out to be the most beautiful beach in Nova Scotia (pics coming). We dined on Sausages and wine to celebrate.

to Cape Breton!

We ate brunch at a truck stop diner and pondered why we decided to come to Nova Scotia because it hasn't been over 13 degrees in 5 days. It is not warm here. We pedaled across the Strait and into Cape Breton Island. Just as Owen was complaining that his brakes were stuck again we came upon Bernie's Bike Shop (signified by a ten speed crudely thrown into a tree.

Wow, nothing could have prepared us for Bernie or his shop. His shop was a bicycle graveyard and he was a jolly, jumpy, leprechaun of a man. He's only a part-time mechanic, he divides the rest of his time between jumping out of choppers as a Firefighter and playing the banjo. He fixed the brake and told us a tale of two other Americans.

A couple from California who had sold their home because there were 26 shootings within 4 blocks of their house; they bought two bikes at the Salvation Army and headed east. By the time they reached Bernie's they were complaining about perpetually breaking spokes. The couple had each piled 300 pounds of stuff they found on their way onto these poor bikes. She didn't even have pedals.

When Bernie told them he would try to help them by suggesting they should lighten their load a bit. His customer responded by informing Bernie that there was a loaded gun on the bike. Obviously this subject was dropped when it was clear that this wack-a-loon was not above lightening his load by a few bullets and moving on. 26 shooting in and around you're house, eh?

We camped at a lovely picnic area in Judique. Cape Breton Highlands National Park here we come!

New Harbour to St. Francis Harbour

Wind sucks. We stopped along Lake Donahue to talk to a pair of fishermen from Glasco (Northumberland Shore) and checked out our host's gold front tooth with his grandmother's wedding band diamond encrusted on it. Classy.

We made a big breakthrough: our stove burns gasoline - 88 cents worth.

We camped along a 200 ft cliff overlooking the Strait of Canso. We climbed down and back up the cliff, spotted some seals, and ate an entire carrot cake.

Stillwater to New Harbour

Holy smokes, Batman. 50 mph straight winds, 90 mph gusts, 10 degrees, and 7 out of control forest fires. It was a tough day. We ate a nutritious lunch consisting entirely of cookies. I turned out to be a fitting lunch since both of us nearly tossed our cookies on the 5 minute ferry ride across Country Harbour. Waves splashed all the way across the deck, drenching all of our things. We were safe inside the captain's quarters.

We did not see a food based establishment all day so we were very pleased to come upon Irv's. Irv made us burgers and coffee at his lovely canteen about 30 miles east of nowhere on a gravel road to north nowhere. He restored our faith in the trip knowing that there are good people out here (or just plain people would do, maybe even cardboard cutouts in a pinch). We camped in an unowned field and slept fitfully in the howling wind.