Cape Breton: A Trail and Then Some

The Cabot Trail could be the oldest autumn trail in the recorded history of North America, and it’s only two days of spectacular driving northward from the fall foliage of New England.

Explorer John Cabot landed here on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, in 1497, just five years after Columbus knelt on the sands of a New World far to the south. The Vikings were probably here much earlier, and by 1504 Breton fishermen were busy in these waters.

The Cabot Trail and the approaches to it are scenic wonders in any season, but its autumn colors are still to be discovered by most U.S. travelers who follow the foliage. Local artists say that this summer’s rains, mists and sunshine will produce one of the most colorful autumns in many years.

The Canada Winter Games will be staged here on Cape Breton Island Feb. 14-28. Some 3,000 of Canada’s top amateur athletes will compete for gold, silver and bronze medals in 17 events.

The alpine and cross-country ski events will be held on the Cabot Trail, the cross-country competitions at Cape North and the downhill at Cape Smokey, close to the resorts of Ingonish Beach.

Rich With History

But Cape Breton Island is more than the Cabot Trail.

This resort community of Baddeck was the summertime home of Alexander Graham Bell, who invented the telephone. The Bell Museum here tells the story of his life and inventions.

This year, Baddeck hosts an arts festival that spotlights its resort attractions and all-year school of fine arts. Alexander Graham Bell National Park is the site of the Harvest Home Fest on Sept. 20.

A little more than half an hour to the south, via a short drive and a ferry ride across the Little Narrows of St. Patrick’s Channel, the Iona Connection is becoming a popular destination--off the beaten track but on the road to everywhere in Cape Breton.

Iona is the site of the Highland Heights Inn and the adjacent new Nova Scotia Highland Village on a hillside evocative of Scotland, overlooking Bras d’Or Lakes. It is a heritage center to which people of Scottish descent from all of North America are addressing inquiries to trace their roots.

Scottish Culture Preserved

If you need more to enhance a Cape Breton Island visit at any season of the year, there is the Gaelic College at St. Anns, the only college in North America devoted to the teaching of Scottish Gaelic culture, language and history. The Great Hall of Clans capsules its story.

English, French, Gaelic and the Micmac of the early Indians are four languages that can be heard daily on Cape Breton.

Sydney, largest community on the island and founded as Spanish Bay in 1784, is the commercial and tourism center that contains about one-third of the island’s accommodations. St. Patrick’s Church, on the Esplanade and near downtown Wentworth Park, is the museum of Cape Breton history as well as the oldest Roman Catholic Church on the island. It is built of stone quarried from the harbor in 1828.

The 587-foot Caribou makes two round trips daily from North Sydney to Port aux Basques, Newfoundland. Ice-strengthened for winter crossings, it travels at 22 knots, offers food service, lounges, berths and cabins.

South of Sydney, the Fortress of Louisbourg recreates a French colonial town of the 1740s. Early Scottish settlers were displaced at Louisbourg by the French, who in turn gave way to the British Empire in North America.

Outdoor Attractions

Cheticamp is a busy Acadian village along the Cabot Trail. Its Les Trois Pignons culture center preserves French history. The Margaree River and Harbor along the trail are centers of trout and salmon fishing, with a Salmon Museum, hiking paths and one of the island’s finest sandy beaches.

For bird watchers, the offshore Bird Islands are nesting grounds for the Atlantic puffin, the great cormorant, the razor-billed auks and more.

We drove to Cape Breton from Halifax along Marine Drive of the Eastern Shore, a panorama of small towns, fishing villages, rugged shoreline and remote cranberry barrens. Willy Krauch’s smokehouse is a must-stop in Tangier for conversation and salmon snacking. No fisherman would want to miss the Fisherman’s Life Museum at Jeddore.

The Marquis of Dufferin Lodge at Port Dufferin is symbolized by the profile of a marquis in top hat. It is in a home built in 1859 by a sea captain who became a successful merchant and politician.

At Sherbrooke Village we relived the Gold Rush days of the 1860s and ‘70s. The restored village is a presentation of its architecture and life style in the late 19th Century, complete with a coach barn, jail and Temperance Hall--all attended by villagers in the dress of that era. Sherbrooke will begin autumn with a Harvest Festival on Sept. 7.

Games and Music

Antigonish Town and Country are considered the Highland Heart of New Scotland. St. Francis Xavier University has enriched the cultural life of the county since 1853, and the Highland Games have been staged here in July with the skirl of bagpipes since 1863. The golf course will soon color with autumn, then be ready for cross-country skiing. Keppoch Mountain also attracts hikers and skiers.

We drove across the causeway and bridge to Port Hastings on Cape Breton Island, then on to overnight with our Iona connection. Bruce McNeil, who with his bride, Sheila, manages the 26 lake-view units at The Highland Heights Inn, is on the board of the volunteer society of residents that manages the Nova Scotia Highland Village on 43 hillside acres next to the inn.

We shared the dining room with a group of alumni from the University of California, Berkeley. They were based here while touring around Cape Breton Island.

In the twilight, while a bagpipe player strolled in front of the Inn, Prof. Jim St. Clair, who teaches at the college in Sydney, walked us around the 14 buildings in the Village open air museum that charts the cultural and architectural evolution of the Scottish people in Nova Scotia. Daily from June 15 to Sept. 15, guides who can turn a Gaelic phrase conduct the tours. Orientation classes also teach basic Gaelic phrases.

Cultural Melding

“Our language, our music and our architecture--and above all, a melding of many cultures--are part of the Cape Breton experience,” St. Clair said. “Ideally, a museum should bring the local people and the visitor together, and that is what we try to do.”

At the Alexander Graham Bell Museum in Baddeck, local people also helped guide us. Three major exhibit areas tell the story of his life, from his Scottish heritage and education to the telephone that was the most famous of his accomplishments.

Bell’s work in aviation principles helped to launch the first powered flight in Canada in 1909. He later helped develop the hydrofoil. His contributions to medical science included the forerunner of the iron lung, and a vision of the use of radium in cancer, years ahead of its actual application.

But of all his accomplishments, the one closest to his heart was the use of “visible speech” in teaching the deaf. A charming girl, deaf since childhood from scarlet fever, came to his private school for the deaf in Boston in 1873. They fell in love. As his wife, Mabel Bell was an inspiration and partner throughout his life, and she helped to set up the memorials that are part of Baddeck today.

Recalled Bell’s Words

As we went on from Baddeck to the Cabot Trail, we recalled Bell’s words: “I have traveled around the globe, I have seen the Canadian and American Rockies, the Andes and the Alps and the Highlands of Scotland, but for simple beauty Cape Breton out-rivals them all.”

These words, and all the other Cape Breton and Marine Highway experiences we shared, helped bring us closer to the bays, beaches, rocky headlands, quiet forests, villages and resorts along the Cabot Trail. Cape Breton Highlands National Park across the northern part of the trail has seaside and forest trails, along with one of the finest 18-hole golf courses in Atlantic Canada.

Our double room at Highland Heights Inn, overlooking the water, cost $51 (Canadian) or about $38 (U.S.). The rate for a double at the MacAulay Family Inverary Inn on 11 waterfront acres in Baddeck is $65 (Canadian) or about $48 (U.S.). The inn has indoor and outdoor pools, tennis courts, marina facilities, bicycles. From its Scottie’s Fish House restaurant, you can catch a glimpse of Beinn Breagh, the preserved summer home of Alexander and Mabel Bell.

In addition, the Cape Breton Tourist Assn. can direct you to double accommodations starting at $24 (Canadian) per night in bed and breakfast inns and farm homes throughout the island. For information before leaving home, contact the Tourism Division, Canadian Consulate General, 510 West 6th St., Suite 712, Los Angeles 90014, phone (213) 627-9511.