WELCOME TO CANADA
WELCOME TO CANADAAfter the race, we gathered together as a team, then went to the community centre for a quick lunch (or chip snack in my case), awards presentation, a final goodbye to everyone, then Elizabeth and I continued along to Ingonish and the Keltic Lodge. One interesting quirk to the journey was taking the "ferry" which provides a shortcut that Denise told us the locals take. It was literally a 5-minute trip, connecting one part of the island to another by a boat using a cable. We actually thought we were drifting before leaving the dock and hadn't even gotten out of the car before we realized that the ferry ride was over!
Our drive to the Keltic Lodge was lovely as the sun was out and it was nice to see this part of the Cabot Trail without either running it, preparing for running it, or recovering from running it! Needless to say, there are many scenic viewpoints along the way; with a few strategic photo stops, we made our way to Ingonish and the Keltic Lodge. This is a great setting, right along Middle Head peninsula, and as it was still early in the season, we basically had the entire resort to ourselves. Our cabin overlooked the water, with a distinctively retro 70's decor for the main common room and bedroom, and an up-do-date and huge remodeled bathroom.
After unpacking, we decided to do the short 4km hike around the Middle Head trail, which juts out at the extreme into the Atlantic Ocean with sheer rocky drops and crashing surf. And extreme wind!
I was rather sore from the nearly 39km of hill running over the weekend, but still managed to enjoy the sights and sounds of this trail, especially catching glimpses of a working fishing boat picking up its catch at the end of the day.
Despite frequent sightings of moose droppings all over the trail, the parking areas and even right in front of our cabin, there was no moose to be found...
To end our day, we backtracked a bit into the small town of Ingonish and had a lovely dinner at a fish-oriented restaurant which actually had a couple vegetarian-friendly options, which we enjoyed, including a salad with remarkably good home-made dressing. Exhausted for the day and barely making a dent in my glass of wine, we headed back to the Keltic Lodge for a quiet sleep.
05/28/09 by visitEarth
May 23
Woke up much earlier than expected to a lovely day with expected temperatures of 12 C degrees. After a nice breakfast at Bell View B&B (Elizabeth had some lovely French toast), it was time to get ready for my first leg, leg #4 which climbs up Cape Smokey over a distance of 2 km. There are some fantasticly fit and fast runners, especially doing this pretty tough leg.
Today was a really fun and challenging run, with the first 9km consisting of ostensibly "rolling hills", which in reality are some extended grades. After that began the steady climb up Cape Smokey which is nothing but straight uphill, encouraged by passing support vehicles honking their horns and yelling positive thoughts out their windows.
At the crest of Cape Smokey began the long steady downhill towards the finish over a distance of another 9km. This part was fast and fun, and allowed me to make up some time from the uphill portion, although I made a point of saving my poor quads for tomorrow's leg. Finished the 20.01km portion in 1:33, an average of 4:39/km which I was pleased with. Even so, I only finished 25th out of 70 runners, showing just how tough the competition is. Incredibly, the winner of this leg averaged 3:30/km!
After my leg, it was time to relax, refuel and replenish electrolytes while we followed the next leg and through to the start of leg 6. Then we turned around to begin the drive back to Bay View and while Elizabeth stayed up a bit, I fell asleep quite early to get some rest for tomorrow morning's leg.
May 24
Woke up early and very stiff this morning, but tried to get motivated for my second leg of the Cabot Trail Relay Race. It was an early rise and breakfast served by Denise at Bell View B&B, then off we went to the final leg, leg #17 of the race. Karen came in strong, then I began the quad-fatiguing climb and descent of Hunter Mountain. All in all it went quite well, averaging 4:36/km over 18.70 km. The finishing experience in Baddeck with several hundreds of teams and locals yelling encouragement down a funnel of people on the downhill city centre street is something I won't forget.
This is what tired after two legs of the Cabot Trail Relay Race looks like!
05/28/09 by visitEarth
Today was an incredibly warm day, almost 30 degrees in Halifax. We started with a bit of breakfast at the Garden View B&B, then spent the morning exploring downtown Halifax. Walking across the Commons park area, we meandered down to the harbour front, which wasn't all that exciting, at least this early in the season. We followed the boardwalk then made our way up Spring Gardens where many of the really cool and funky shops were, including a great candy store called Sweet Janes.
It was then time to have lunch before starting out drive up to Cape Breton Island, so we made our way to Heartwood Bakery and Cafe. On our way, we came across (apparently) the only downtown city centre riding stable in Canada. We were fortunate to find a helpful rider who actually gave us a complete tour of the stables, the indoor riding arena and the outdoor ring; very unusual to see a horse riding school right downtown! And not to be outdone, before reaching our lunch destination, we spent some time in Halifax's public gardens, which are very beautifully designed and maintained.
So... finally off to Heartwood, where we had an incredibly tasty and filling lunch. Elizabeth had the picnic-inspired hummous sandwich, coleslaw with sesame dressing and dill potatos; I had the vegan pizza made on a kamut crust, which was far more creative and delicious than it may seem!
All full and barely able to stay awake, we packed our things, left Garden View and began the drive to Baddeck, the gateway to the Cabot Trail on Cape Breton Island. We met our host Denise and the Bell View B&B, and it really is a great view. Nestled with a view of the Bras D'Or Lake, the largest saltwaker lake in the world, the room was spacious and elegantly appointed. Time for a good night's sleep for the big race day!
05/27/09 by visitEarth
We woke up early this morning to prepare for our respective days of horse riding and trail running. Elizabeth had a grand old time at the Broadleaf Guest Ranch, while I ran along the dykes and marshes of Funday Bay coast. It was a warm and sunny day, but with strong winds from the ocean, a gloves and extra jacket were still in order.
When we were both done, we packed up from the Artisan Suite and drove out to the Joggins Fossil Cliffs. It was extremely windy - I'd say one of the windiest experiences I've ever had down along the shoreline. 29 degrees Celsius yet a winter hat, winter coat and gloves were still in order! All of that said, it was a remarkable experience; fossilized trees from over 300 million years are all over the place, with some tree stumps visible as well. The camera doesn't pick them up too well, but there are even fossilized trails from ancient insects measuring between 3 and 6 feet long and 1-3 feet wide!
Our guided tour ended up being quite personalized (literally just the two of us), and when we were done, it was just too cold to explore on our own so it was time to continue our drive to Halifax. We went straight to dinner at Satisfaction Feast, where Elizabeth had a lovely vegetarian fiddlehead pasta while I had a vegan brocolli and tofu in peanut sauce dish. Of course, the highlight was desert - vegan chocolate truffles and chocolate peanut butter balls. Scrumptious!
We scraped ourselves out of the restaurant chairs and 2 minutes later checked into the Garden View B&B, which does have a magnificent little garden view out the back. Speaking with the owner Joe, we learned that the house if over 100 years old and has been in the family for over 3 decades now! Still full from dinner, I did a little evening exploration and walked the permiter of the Citadel, which is a national historic site. As sun set in a little after 9:00pm, I made my way back for a good night's sleep...
05/26/09 by visitEarth
Fully satisified, it was a return to the Artisan Suite for a quick lunch, then an extended revisit to the Hopewell Rocks. This time we had more than two hours to do a full exploration, with many photo opps as more and even larger interesting rock formations appeared and became accessible from the low tide.
Some of the highest tides in the world at 40-50 feet, the lower parts are the mud flats which are largely impassable they are so thick and sticky. This was definitely the highlight of the day, as good lighting, warm weather and a scarcity of other visitors made this feel like quite an intimate experience. Although we're missing out of some of the local activities such as kayaking and whale watching, it may possibly be more than compensate by the lack of tourists this time of year.
Finally, we wrapped up our day with a shared dinner with our host Wendy atop the Artisan Suite, overlooking the marshes and shoreline of the Bay of Fundy inlet. On the running side of things, just before dinner I was able to get in a nice quick 6km run up Old Grub road to the top of the hill and back down; then after dinner, I joined Wendy and Steve for an evening run down the road, including a nice side trip down to the marsh and back up.
05/23/09 by visitEarth
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