Pollets Cove

Photo creds to Mark C with the GoPro on this one

This is one of the many very cool pics from this camping trip last summer to Northern Cape Breton. An experience of a life time for sure. Without a doubt one of the most challenging/ amazing outdoor adventure I've taken part in. After hiking up the first of THREE mountains I thought I was going to die, funny because the first climb is called Heart Attack Hill.(Side note, we were blessed with amazing walking sticks at the beginning of the trail, they were absolute live savers, take one!) The trail is very narrow and technical in places, and with the rain the night before it often disappeared under your foot. Without the walking stick to stabilize, you would be doomed to slide off cliffs into the swirling, rock-filled Atlantic Ocean, (aha, no but srsly!). After essentially bushwhacking and mountain maneuvering you would reach the top of a mountain and want to quit. Finally emerging from the narrow paths you would discover a view like never seen before. You would pause and enjoy the beauty, have some water, question life and your existence and then think, "this is totally worth the shit I just went through."

Looking back over the mountains you had just tackled; it made it easier to push forward to the next point. It also made you realize just how far you were from the Monks (the closest thing to civilization that we passed on the winding dirt road to the trail start.) My pack was heavy as hell, and it almost killed me a couple of times (shout out to Edgar for the loan of the pack), sleeping bag, tent, full rain suit, warm clothes, dishes, first aid, other footwear, canned food (dumb idea) etc etc, oh and some Rum (Captain 151, higher alc% with less liquid weight, genius I know) but all that shit adds up.Camping Tip: only bring what you need, make sure everything you bring has two uses, have a proper sturdy pack, and good footwear.( "alcohol has infinite uses, so it always comes" Bruce, 2013)

 To help pass the time, we created such trail friendly games as, "Hypothetical Situations" (yes its pretty much exactly what is sounds like, it also had an extremely catchy jingle.)

The last decent into the cove was filled with many emotions; one of the biggest was the feeling of accomplishment, quickly followed by hunger, exhaustion and pain. (good thing we made Snack Sacks TM)

This is a view from near our tent site looking back on the decent into the cove. Its hard to gauge the size and steepness of the mountain, but I will say that coming straight down the last bit would have been very difficult and so there is a little meandering trail present. Ben and I swam to that rock island, (which is also much bigger than it looks) it also is covered in bird shit, so I dunno if I recommend doing that. If you look closely you will see cows by the stream running into the ocean (the stream running, not the cows). After hiking the 5 hours or so in, we had to traverse that river, (I switched to flip flops for that) and it was just about dark when  we were setting up camp.(Long day when you include the drive from Halifax) There were a tonne of cows and horses there to greet us and show us to our suites. these were also the same cows who licked my face through the tent to wake me up. (sorry for thinking it was you Sarah)

this is our friend Milton offering to take Sarah's Bags

and this is me healing a horse 

This trip was not easy, the weather hiking in was very wet, the trails are extremely challenging (especially with full camping gear), there are no actual camping spots, no access roads out, or any sort of facilities near by, and there are many Coyotes to be heard from at night. Now let me say I am not saying these things to try and seem all awesome that I did it, or am trying to scare people off. I just felt that I was not as prepared enough both physically or mentally, thus didn't take it as serious as I should have. Blogs and trail reviews did say it was high difficulty, but its hard to gauge something like this till you're in it. So all I ask is that you, "stay alert, and stay safe" oh and also stay alive.

With that said, this trip was extremely fun, and rewarding and I am very happy to have done it, and very happy of the people I got to do it with. Looking forward to getting out there again this summer.

Here are the survivors/victors 

(Taken in Pollets Cove, Cape Breton NS)

Side note, there is an abandoned village up the river from where we were, we did not get a chance to explore it. But we are certain it is infested with zombies, so if anyone checks it out please lets us know. unless you turn into a zombie then you can frig off and stay there.   Happy Camping