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Day 33 - 5/23

This morning I said my goodbyes to Barb and Boyd, both of whom I will miss and definitely plan on keeping in contact with, and was heading north on route 102 towards Cape Breton at 11:30am. Through Truro and onto route 104 east to the causeway that goes across to Port Hawksebury and then north on route 105 to the Cabot Trail.

The Cabot Trail starts out a little dull when going up the eastern coast of Cape Breton. It might have been better if I hadn't been in a big low lying cloud bank most of the way, but the road surface was extremely poor and though twisty it had little to offer other than dense trees and bushes on the sides of the road. Once at Ingonish things got markedly better. The road smoothed out some and the scenery took a turn for the good. Once I hit the Cape Breton Highlands park the road got wide and very smooth, thanks to federal money, the clouds moved back from the shore, and the scenery was awesome. The best part of the Cabot Trail was the northwestern side north of Mabou. It was great motorcycling country with roads snaking up and down the 1,500 foot highlands and awesome scenery at every turn, it certainly shared some commonalities with it's scottish brotherland.

South of Mabou was bland in comparison to the glory of the northern end of Cape Breton, and as it was nearing dusk I hurried down to Port Hawkesburey to find a hotel for the night. I had been planning on staying at a hostel in Mabou, but it had been converted to an inn and was $75 a night! That's canadian funds of course, but at off season in the middle of nowhere you think they'd be a little more flexible on price.

All in all a good day with wonderful scenery and I got fairly good weather, though chilly, for most of it.

Total Mileage for Day: 449
Mileage on Odometer: 24,836