Day 4: August 26, 2006

Day 4 was mainly occupied by a half day sea kayaking trip. Before the kayaking, however, we had time to quickly hike the Middlehead trail. The trail starts in the Keltic Lodge parking lot, and goes out from there towards the end of the peninsula. It is breathtakingly scenic on Middlehead, with sea on three sides and a nice ocean breeze. It is about as close to being at sea as you can get while still being on land.

View from Middlehead (just north of Ingonish)

From Middlehead, you can see Cape Smokey. The two of them combine to form Ingonish Harbor. Cape Smokey itself rises some 950 feet above the sea in very short order. The main road goes up and down Cape Smokey and is very steep, especially the portion south of Cape Smokey.

Cape Smokey, as seen from Middlehead

The sea kayaking started in the marsh at the tip of Ingonish Harbour and went to the end of the harbour itself, covering a distance of about 3 kilometers. Along the trip, we saw an immature bald eagle, and the weather turned to rain. After the kayaking we had lunch in Ingonish and then drove up the coast to White Point. White Point is another rocky, wind swept peninsula jutting out into the Atlantic. It is very dramatic, and we could see rain in the distance. It was also very windy and less than warm.

White Point

White Point

White Point