The Rideau River at Burritt's Rapids, Ont.
Where are Kevin and Ruth now? Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

Where are Kevin and Ruth going next? Cancun, Mexico on November 11th.

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Salmon Pools Trail

Just got back from a three hour hike. Today we did the Salmon Pools Trail which starts out behind the campground at the Cheticamp Visitors Centre of Cape Breton Highlands National Park. Overall, I give this trail a 4.0 out of 10.

The trail goes for just over 6 kms (3.8 miles) following the Cheticamp River into the hills. Return trip was 12.2 kms (7.6 miles) and it took us just over 3 hours, but we also stopped for lunch and a couple of breaks.


I didn't enjoy the first few kms of the trail. It's really more of a dirt road than a trail, and a park worker went by on his ATV a few times. It's almost like they've enlarged the trail at parts just to be able to be used by the parks maintenance ATV's. Some of these trails are a little too "maintained" for my liking.


Whiskey stayed behind to guard Sherman!

Every now and then there was the opportunity to take a path down to the river for a view. Otherwise, you were just walking through the forest. After the second pool, the trail did actually become a trail. I guess most visitors usually don't make it that far. In fact, we didn't see anybody else on the hike except for the worker on the ATV until we were almost back at the campground.


Stopped for lunch at the end of the trail

Trail map

Took this to show you that we actually had some blue sky today! Actually, one of the best days since we arrived in Nova Scotia towards the end of March.

Cape Breton Highlands National Park is celebrating it's 75th anniversary this year. If you hike 75 kms of their trails this year, you get a special gift. So that's our goal for the next week is to hike 75 kms worth of trails in the park. So now, we are at 12.2 kms!

Tomorrow morning we're going to do an 8.4 km trail in the morning, and a 9.2 km trail in the afternoon! Depending on weather....

7 comments:

  1. Wow, what a beautiful hike! Glad you enjoyed yourself, the scenery is spectacular!

    John
    relaxedrush.blogspot.com
    connectedtothevinephotography.blogspot.com

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  2. Good hiking trail, but since it is nearly a hundred here, it is hard to think about that kind of hike.

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  3. spectacular scenery and how great that the weather is finally co-operating!

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  4. This place looks beautiful I absolutely LOVE the picture at the top of the blog. Great work!

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  5. Thats a great idea for the gifts, and incentive to get people out there to see the park.

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  6. We'll be cheering you on all the way to the 75 kms. We have rain and more rain and more rain here in MT so it was nice to see your picture of the blue sky.

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  7. John and Ellen...You think that scenery was great, just wait for the next hike.

    Chuck and Anneke...Yep, that is pretty hot for hiking. So far the weather here is holding up and has been a perfect temperature for hiking.

    Sue and Doug...Let's hope it continues for a while, we were due for it.

    where's weaver...Thank you!

    George and Suzie...Don't know what the gift is but we're not expecting very much from them, but yes I am sure it will help get some people out and hiking.

    Jim and Sandie...Thanks! Sorry it's raining there, we sure know the feeling...definitely had our share over the past two months.

    Kevin, Ruth and Whiskey

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