Port Hawkesbury to Baddeck

We waited for Haven Coffee Bar to open at 9:00 for our morning espresso fixes and for sandwiches for lunch. We then headed out along the #105 east (TCH), following the Blue Ridge. There are no more coal mines on Cape Breton and only one in Nova Scotia, at Stellerton near New Glasgow. Gypsum, however, is still extracted and we passed the Melford Mine. According to Wikipedia, in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, Nova Scotia gypsum was highly sought after as a fertilizer by American wheat farmers, so much so that there was a lively smuggling trade which resulted in the “Plaster War” of 1812.

The weather was misty, alternating between showers and a fine drizzle in the morning, and then developing into a heavy thunderstorm in the afternoon as we approached the north shore of Bras d’Or Lake, an inland sea of partially fresh/ salt water. We are staying in Baddeck, a town at the start and end of the Cabot Trail loop. Alexander Graham Bell spent most of the second half of his life in the area and was apparently accepted as part of the community.

We are on the traditional territory of the Mi’kmaq People, specifically the District of Onamag. We passed through the communities of Waycobah and Wagmatcook.