tmacphail.ca

This morning it briefly poured rain while I sat around at the hostel but was done before I left. I stopped down the road only a few minutes after leaving to have breakfast because I was only carrying enough food for tomorrow’s breakfast and wouldn’t be able to buy more today.

Leaving Pleasant Bay involved what I estimate to be the worst mountain climb of the entire trip. I believe North Mountain rose about 400m in no more than 6km of road. That is a sustained grade of nearly 7% the whole way with some parts being even steeper I’m sure. To top it off, the weather was unseasonably hot with the temperature being in the high twenties combined with a high humidity I hadn’t felt since southern Ontario. I was stopping about every 500m for a break. Luckily there wasn’t much traffic on the road so I could use multiple lanes to zig-zag when restarting.

I had lunch at a nice picnic area near Neil’s Harbour where I also changed out of my cold weather clothes. I had been wearing them because of the rain in the morning expecting there was a chance it would start up again. When it didn’t and instead became sunny and hot I was sweating like crazy. There were several more smaller but still tough climbs as the road went along the eastern coast of the national park.

I camped at the Ingonish Beach campground in the park. It was nice but was more of a walk than I expected to get to the beach. I sat on the beach reading for a while but decided not to go for a swim. There were many people swimming though and being constantly crushed by the crashing waves. The waves could actually be heard all the way back in the campground throughout the night.