Havre Bouches to Craigmore   |   Campsite: 45.78216° N, 61.47698° W

I wake at 4:00 to a light rain against the rain fly. My morning is slower than usual, as I am aiming to be 3.3 kilometres down the road by 6:30 in order to arrive at Gary’s Groceries when it opens. The small village of Havre Boucher is a checkpoint on this segment of the walk, as initially, I believed it was the only place to refill water before the town of Port Hawkesbury 5 kilometres out of my way toward Cape Breton. However, I have located a coffee shop about 10 kilometres past Gary’s Groceries on the highway that will serve as a very important point to restock on water. It is located on the Trans-Canada Highway directly before the causeway across the Strait of Canso, which means that I am able to conveniently refuel at this point. I stock up on drinks at Gary’s Groceries, talking first with Gary about the walk, and then with his daughter Angela—who is in for coffee on her way to work at the local hospital—at the cash. I ask if there are any public parks nearby where I would be able to enjoy my drinks and snacks, some of which are freshly-baked molasses cookies that are given to me as Gary also bakes fresh goods for the business. Debra, Gary’s wife, invites me over to the deck on their home next door, and we talk. She suggests that I walk the trail section that begins at Troy, continuing all the way north to the town of Inverness—all parts of the Great Trail that winds around the coast. Debra has walked it in sections and thoroughly enjoyed the experience, recommending I walk it rather than the roadway. She mentions that it is well-marked including access trails into each of the towns along the roadway, and provides beautiful views of both St. Georges Bay and later The Gulf of St. Lawrence. This is excellent news, and I am excited to see it all! They wish me luck, I thank them for their hospitality, and set out again, ascending a steep 200 metre hill out of town, walking the quiet two-lane Highway 44 until it meets with the Trans-Canada 104 Highway. I stop for an hour in Aulds Cove to cook brunch, pause for coffee, fill all water bottles, and journal the morning. Just down the road, there is a gas station with a liquor store where I pick up two pints. One I enjoy on a picnic table overlooking the water, and the other I pack for later. As I am enjoying the view of the big water a couple approach. A car alarm sounds and I joke, “We try to enjoy some nature and this is what we have to listen to!” They ask about what I am doing, and the man says that he is jealous and that he would love to do something similar for seeing the world. I ask about them and they tell me that they are on day eleven of a twelve-day bus tour of Nova Scotia—tour busses that I will see plenty of when I reach the Cabot Trail section of the cape. They are now on their final stretch to Halifax where they will catch a flight home. We wish each other good luck and safe travel. The final segment to walk using the Trans-Canada is a long, narrow strip across St. Georges Bay that has been designed purposely for vehicles to pass. No provisions for pedestrians were built into the design. There are no gravel shoulders, however, there is space on the outside of the causeway piled high with various sizes of stones and tufts of grass. I manage to get across to the other side, stopping at the Tourist Information Office where I meet Amy who answers all of my questions and confirms everything that I have been told so far about the Ceilidh Coastal Trail (or Celtic Shores Coastal Trail). She also informs me of the provincial park rules of use for when I arrive at the north end of the Cabot Trail. As I walk into Cape Breton, rain begins to fall—not hard, but enough to soak everything and form puddles over the ground. I walk the road for about an hour, then I find the first trail access point outside of Troy. Covered picnic tables greet me and I am able to change comfortably into more hefty rain gear. The next hour of trail walking is in the rain, but it begins to lessen by 2:30, stopping by 3:00, with the sky beginning to show signs of clearing by 3:30. Every bend in the trail reveals such pretty vistas! This is certainly one of the highlights of this walk to this point. I soon find the most incredible camp spot. It is perfectly placed in a growth of trees, perched on the edge of a cliff overlooking the Gulf of St. Lawrence with a beautiful view of the upcoming shoreline and bays. I end my day right then and there, with a respectable 37 kilometres having been walked. Tomorrow I will pass through the town of Judique where I will be able to restock water. I put a few minutes into journalling the day, make a cup of hot chocolate, cook some dinner, and hang out, relaxing overlooking the magnitude of the water from the vantage point of a campsite perfectly positioned with a bird’s eye view. This surely is my best day so far: amazing walking, meeting cool people, incredible trail walking, and by far the kind of campsite I have been hoping to sleep in! The clothing and tent are dried, and I ease into an incredibly mild evening with a soft breeze until sleep angles in around 7:30 / 8:00.

Today’s distance walked: 38.27 km    |    Total distance walked: 2,184.68 km

“Everything around me was darkened, and my body, surrounded by that darkness, felt weightless. I saw myself walking through the flowered fields of Aghata, where I met my grandmother and an uncle who had been important to me when I was a child. I felt the vibration of time in its grid of quadrants, where all roads are joined and mixed, becoming identical despite their being so different from each other.” – Paulo Coelho, “The Pilgrimage”, p. 200.