Riding the Cabot Trail, one of the world's great motorcycle roads

BADDECK – Until you’ve ridden the Cabot Trail, you can’t say you’ve ridden all the world’s great motorcycle roads!

It’s a 300-kilometer thrill ride with enough twists and turns to suit any experienced rider as it rises steeply enough to pop your eardrums and drops fast enough to leave your stomach up around your ears.

And best of all, it’s through some of the most beautiful maritime scenery I’ve ever seen with wild rocky cliffs rising out of the wide blue Gulf of St. Lawrence.

I left Prince Edward Island on the Wood Islands ferry to Pictou, Nova Scotia on NS Hwy 104, the Trans-Canada, and spent the night in a comfortable motel in Antigonish.

Bright and early, under alternating cloudy skies and clear with temperatures already in the high 20s, I headed across the Canso Causeway that connects Cape Breton Island to the rest of Nova Scotia.

 

I stopped for a quick bite at Farmer’s Daughter Country Markets in Whycocomagh. It’s a business which seems to know its clientele well. All bikers are offered a five-per-cent discount on food items. Gotta love that! Makes a nice change from Tim Horton’s.

I ripped up NS Hwy 105 ¬ or Mabel and Alexander Graham Bell Way following the northern shore of Bras d’Or Lake, known locally as North America’s largest inland sea. Perhaps in total area or its mix of fresh and salt water. But I think Lake Superior would give it a run for the title!

I breezed through Baddeck, famous for Bell’s experimental work on telephones, his work with the deaf and his first tests on Canada’s first airplanes and hydrofoils in his laboratories here. He and his wife lived in the town for 30 years and Bell is buried on Beinn Breagh, his estate above the town. On Feb. 23, 1909, Bell's Silver Dart was the first airplane to take flight in the British Commonwealth, taking off from frozen Baddeck Bay piloted by John Alexander Douglas McCurdy. This flight was recreated with replicas of the Silver Dart for both the 50th and 100th anniversaries of the flight.

After the 140-kilometer run from Antigonish, I had already had some fast challenging riding, but then I made the turn-off for the Cabot Trail. And some of the best riding yet on this 14,000-kilometer fun run!

Some folks recommend going round the loop clockwise, others counterclockwise. I preferred the latter, with the sea on my right and the rock face on my left as I started out. The way it rises hundreds of meters above the water only to fall steeply again to the shoreline reminded a lot of our trip in 2009 to the Cliffs of Moher in Galway, Ireland.

I was already getting hot in my riding suit with temperatures topping 30 degrees and nearly 100 per cent humidity making for a muggy morning. But I wouldn’t have cared if it was raining or snowing! I was so stoked to be finally riding the trail on the Bike-a-Lounger, my 2001 BMW K1200LT!

This bike is a bit of a tank in city driving and I just don’t trust my ability to keep it upright and moving in the desired direction on gravel. But it’s a nimble, highly responsive beast on the well-paved Trail, throttle cranked in the climbing, sweeping curves; dropping two, three, even four gears, heart pounding and wind whistling in my ears to make a tight right hand then dropping a hundred or so meters in a single long bend! Oh baby!

It’s generally true that the best motorcycle roads follow water or run through the mountains. The Cabot Trail embodies both these elements. And the best of both can be found is up the Atlantic shoreline north to Cape Smokey! Hope you enjoy the short video I lifted from YouTube. It illustrates the ride beautifully.

What a blast! I stopped for lunch in Ingonish at the Coastal Waters restaurant and pub -- which the Cabot Trail Biker site bills as the official biker joint on the Trail -- and then headed back north for more two-wheeled excitement!

What the route through Cape Breton Highlands National Park lacks in Cape Smokey’s intensity, it more than makes up for in terms of sustained curves, bends and twisties. I know it may sound cliché, but the Beemer and I were one as we climbed and slid effortlessly through breath-taking coastal landscapes and forested glens more beautiful than any I’ve ever ridden!

In a trip full of spectacular motorcycle rides, this was truly one of the best.

I considered spending the night in Cheticamp, but decided to push on through, cutting across the island at Margeree Forks and overnight in Baddeck.

It was only when I stopped amid the resort hotels and restaurants of this picturesque town that I realized just how tired I was! After 350 of the best kilometers on the trip so far, my right wrist and throttle hand ached with a vengeance, my legs were cramped and I was soaked to the skin!

But I didn’t care! I had ridden the Cabot Trail. And I will again! Maybe even on my return to Nova Scotia from Newfoundland in mid-August!

It’s one of those things that you could do again and again and never tire of seeing its sights.

Speaking of which, please consider a donation to my Ride for Sight. The money goes to the Foundation Fighting Blindness to fund Canadian researchers looking into the causes and prevention of blindness. Please consider making a donation here to their work.

Ride for Sight is Canada’s largest and longest-running motorcycle charity endeavour. Bikers cover their own expenses so that every penny raised goes to the foundation.