Hey Bikers,
All right – a lot of you have already rode The Cabot Trail, Cape Breton, mainland Nova Scotia, and I hear quite a few are including PEI in your travels. Earlier in the 2010 season, I had a link to HOG’s survey of the best place to ride. I’m not sure if I was the only one asking people to vote, but 97% voted the Cabot Trail. So we know this place is Motorcycle’s Epic Ride. I mean, if you don’t enjoy riding from Ingonish to Cheticamp…sell the bike.
I say a bunch of things…but now it’s time for you. What did you do that you would change next time? What would you skip? What would you do twice? Any good advice from folks that are farther away about getting here? By posting on this page, you could make a fellow bikers’ trip way better.
Seek the unbeaten trail…..
When you are going counter clockwise around the trail, just past Belle Cote you will cross the bridge over Margaree Harbour. Turn right just past the bridge and go along Shore Road, great scenery, little traffic and nice turns. Oh, you can find this road about 15-20 km north of Inverness, turn left off route 19.
Enjoy the ride…
Daniel,
It was a treat to meet and speak with you at Coastal Waters on Wednesday. I will be wearing my Original Cabot Trail T-Shirt often and I am sure I will be the envy of all my riding buddies. My friend Hal wore his OCT T-Shirt for the final leg of our ride back to Virginia today. We made 3600 miles on this trip. The Cabot Trail was definitely the highlight of our trip. Awesome scenery.
If you will remind me when you begin taking donations for the 911, I will send you a check. If you ever get down to Virginia or nearby, please let me know in advance and I will plan a ride.
Ride safe!
Chip Galloway
p.s. I could not find the picture we took together. I want to show it to my wife.
Hi Chip! Pics uploaded and if you click on ‘em, the high res version opens up for your saving pleasure! We’ll see if I can get some time for a journey to Virginia in the future – Thanks for the invite! –Daniel
Hey Daniel,
It was good to meet you on the trail. Both Murray and I had a great run…although it was a 15 hr day and 5500 km week long trip back to Ontario. Would highly recommend traveling through the white mountains in Vermont.
In any case, as promised here is a link to the youtube video of our ride up old smokey.
Any troubles, just search “busaview” on youtube.
All the best,
Todd
This summer my hubby and I trailer his new Harley from Ontario to Nova Scotia to tour the Cabot Trail and experience Nova Scotia. All I can say is just beautiful, the best riding ever. My hubby loved every turn and corner that we encountered and everyone was just so different. I took over 1000 pictures on that back of that bike. The scenery, the people, the province itself, just the best. We will be back. Thanks to everyone we meet along the way!
Emily and Jamie
Kind words about Nova Scotia, thank you. From my experience, it is the kindness and generosity of everyone making the trip here that stands out. Lots of places to ride that new Harley, nice of you to come see us – thanks! Please do come again! Daniel
Looking forward to our trip to Nova Scotia and the Cabot Trail. Coastal Waters programmed into the GPS as a necessary stop.
This will be our first REALLY long distance trip since buying the beemer last fall.
My wife and I took our last really long trip along the entire lengths of Skyline Drive and the Blue Ridge Parkway. She was four months pregnant at the time (our son will be 30 in November)
Staying at a recommeded hotel, and looking to meet and greet every and all
Thank you for keeping this site running. It’s been exceedlingly helpful in the planning stage
Steve and Ann
Landing, NJ
Today we met Daniel Ross at the local Truro gas station, both on journeys in different directions.
I myself have driven sports bikes since i got my license and today talking to him bout the trails and things to see i might get a slow and steady bike so i can enjoy every aspect of this ride i will take threw the cabot trails.
Can’t wait too ride those trails again this summer!
Thanks for a wonderful talk and explaining your license plate to us. lol
Hope everyone has a safe trip & a awesome time!
This is an email from Michel Levesque from Quebec. June 2011 has been 9 degrees colder than our average June, with rain and wind. Helpful insight into his challenges here, must read if you are planning a spring visit.
Hello Daniel,
We are back in Montreal. Well, the trip was not a full success. Over our 11 days trip, we had only 1.5 day with some sun. The rest was either rain, cloudy, cold, very windy or a mix of all. However we did enjoy our trip of discovery. The Cabot trail is very nice and should be wonderful under the sun. The Louisbourg fortress is a must to see. A big part of Canadian history.
On our way back, we hit huge rain shower…what a mess. Anyway, we are planning to return eventually. Hopefully, next time it will be sunny.
One point I was a bit disappointed, is the fact that many places were still closed even if we were in mid-June. We did not expect that. Actually, on the Cabot trail we only find 2 restaurants that were open. And with the weather we had, we wished to had more. Next time, we will try to go in August.
Look at the picture attached to this email. Also note on the bike I have a tank bag. It is attached to the bike by 3 nylon strap/bungies. Well, it was so windy around Cheticamp that the bag lifted and twisted until it jammed in my handlebar on the right side. I almost lost the bike at this point.
Thank you for all and have a nice day,
Michel
Hey Daniel, after reading your page last year I decided that I wanted a t-shirt, I got one. My husband, my two daughters and a friend of ours rode the Cabot Trail on July 1st, and we stopped at Coastal Waters and we each bought a shirt. We had sun for the most part of that ride, needless to say the view was breathtaking and the moose that we saw was a thrilling surprise. It was well worth the trip from Meteghan, NS and we hope to do it again but in the opposite direction.
Melissa D.
Hi Melissa,
Thanks for the support! I rode to Meteghan a couple years ago for my first ride of the year – love that warm Valley air. If you attend the Wharf Rat Rally, come find me! Email me some photos of your trip and I’ll get them on our photos page. ..Daniel.
Well, here we are……on top of the world!
Looking down on you poor, lowly, 9-5 working schmucks (sorry, just had to rub it in).
We rode the entire Cabot Trail yesterday in a clockwise direction.
It was FANTASTIC!!!!
I’ve only been riding for a little over a year (this time around), but I think I will be hard pressed to find a better ride than this.
189 miles according to Silver’s (my bike) tripometer.
22 miles from Skir Dhu East, which is terrible.
Rough, rough, pothole dodging road.
After that it’s mostly very good pavement.
Traffic is light in most areas, with only a few congested spots.
Spectacular Views!!
Cheticamp to Skir Dhu is our favorite part.
Which is at least half the ride.
It’s all coastal, cliffside, mountainous, twisted, breathtaking (in more ways than one)….Road.
Everything Touring Bikers look for in the perfect road is right here in Nova Scotia.
Good pavement, light traffic, spectacular views, twisted roads with good elevation changes (450 meter highs, roughly 1,500 feet), and great pit stops.
A great example of a Top 100 Roads winner!
Joe’s blog from
http://www.touringbikers.com/Touring-Bikers-blog.html
Daniel, you’re living the dream!
On top of Cape Smokey in a thunderstorm………..
We just experienced the Cabot Trail at its ultimate challenge.
We’re west of Ingonish Eating a fantastic meal of fish and chips at the Sea Gull Restaurant.
Full bellies topped off with Keith’s Red beer.
Now ready to take the 20 minute ride back to our house in Skir Dhu.
The sky blackened and let loose some pelting rain with no end in sight.
So we got out the Fire Orange rain gear (we like to be seen) and headed for home.
This piece of the Trail is like something you see out of a James Bond movie.
Where he’s being chased by the bad guys on a cliff hanging coastal road.
That’s the cape Smokey section that we had to ride up and over.
Luckily the bad guys weren’t chasing us, but the Moose were just waiting to jump out…or so we thought.
We did have a mini van in front doing 35-45. We called him the “moose slayer”.
Untill he chickened out and pulled off the shoulder.
Another car did the same…..wussies.
So we continued our edge-of-death ride all by ourselves.
Thunder and lightening all around. Rain stinging my face like tiny meteorites crashing to earth.
Glasses fogged and dripping rain. Not to mention the water running down the back of my shirt.
Well, as you can tell by the fact that I’m writing this, We came…..we rode….we conquered!!!
Ohio Joe,
http://www.touringbikers.com/Touring-Bikers-blog.html
We came, we rode, we bought our T-shirts What can I say..beauty on a previous unseen scale No moose though Some great video up and down some of the mountains Even Irene posed no problems except for an ocassional gust of wind
Someday back for a little longer than 4 days.
Thanks for all the tips on the trail
We ride a 2004 BMW R1200CL named Frank..cause it’s a beemer. Get it?? Frank..Beemer….Frank Beemer?? It’s a joke son GO HOKIES
Steve & Ann
Landing, NJ
Thanks for putting this site online. We used it to help plan our trip from Ohio to the Cabot Trail. The Trail was awesome. We didn’t have a lot of time on it, but it was an unbelievably great trip.
We got our tshirts and had a great lunch at the Pub too.
http://lcchoppers.com/the-cabot-trail/
Cheers!
It’s a little sad to see that only a few people actually understood the description of this forum. Most people decided to inform everyone else of the trip they had rather than informing others what they liked or disliked or what they would do or not do again for the sole purpose of educating those people who hadn’t rode the Cabot Trail yet but planned to at some point but It is entertaining to know that everyone had a good time or ate great food or rode in another part of the country other than the Cabot Trail. ( yawn) No disrespect but most people are not really that interested in how long it took you to ride back home or what kind of weather you had to endure along the way. Does anyone know where they might sell badges that say ” I rode my bike from home to the Cabot Trail and back home again” Just curious as they sell similar ones at Sturgis for people who are not afraid to ride more than a hundred miles a day and I would love to purchase one. Just a thought but I bet dollars to donuts that if you had that printed on a shirt you’d make a fortune. God bless and remember to keep the shiny side up. Cheers
Hi Robert,
You’re kinda right… but it just isn’t the way the site worked out. I think what happens is that riders do the Trail, and then it is over. They don’t go back and post anything because that trip is in the past and they have to catch up on work and regular life stuff. It isn’t like they get an automatic email that says ‘You rode the Trail, what would you do again and what would you avoid?’ Since 2009, there hasn’t been one poor review of a hotel or anything like that. I guess everyone just has a good time here or their happiness level is directly linked to the weather they had. So, if you and others feel that there’s not enough critical info, I don’t know what I can do to change that online. Maybe I can put a survey in with the T-Shirts I sell (and yes, I sell a bunch because the bikers are so kind and stylish). I could have the waitresses at Coastal Waters throw the survey in a box and I can post a page on what they say… And sure enough, I received stickers today that will get affixed to bikes and helmets that say they made it here and back again. C’mon up, give rave reviews to those deserving, and let everyone know who and what to avoid. Ride safe this season, God bless. Daniel
Hi Daniel,
I road the trail on May12 this year. As for clockwise or counterclockwise, I went counter hoping the direction of the sun would make it warmer for that time of year. I stayed at Aberdeen Motel which was great and perfect for enabling a full day of sun on the trail. Beatrice was also very accommodating to my undetermined arrival time. Your site mentioned approx. 4 1/2 hrs to complete the trail. My advice to riders like myself from landscapes like southwestern Ontario, would be to plan the full day on the trail to have time to stop and enjoy the scenery as well as the ride. Coastal Waters just opened that weekend so I had a great lunch, meet Jason, bought some local jewelry for my wife and daughter and of course your tshirt. Great design! I missed your comment to riders that the bypass road for the Englishtown ferry is in rough shape. To other riders if your hitting the trail soon, TAKE THE FERRY if it’s running!
Thanks for your informative website! It was one of the main factors for me to come and ride the trail.
Safe Riding!
Ted H.
Fantastic feedback! Thanks Ted! The bypass road you are talking about has another 8 km being rebuilt this summer. This road will be awesome in a couple years. For 2012, it has the roughest spots on the whole Trail for sure. 4.5 hrs is ‘saddle-time’. I think it is a full day too. Leave based on when you want to finish. ie, finishing at 6pm means starting at 10am. Or perhaps longer depending on how many photos you usually take. I’m really glad you came down and would love to post a photo of you and your bike, hint, hint. Thanks for the kind words, will share your advice!