Sunday August 2 2009, after two years of trying to get a few friends together and get vacations matched up we were finally going to do it. We met at Hunters Breakfast in Wiscasset and filled our stomachs with everything that gives us bikers our stamina. Bacon, sausage, fried eggs, and potatoes, pancakes with lots of syrup, and of course coffee, more coffee, and then of course one more for the road. Then we were on our way. OH wait a minute, you have to have the pictures of getting ready to leave with your buddies. Alright we are on the road, the adventure begins. I am told, I will lead because I have a light bar and I am more visible, it sounds like common sense to me. As a matter of fact we ran the same order for the whole trip, except for a couple of on the road pictures. Route 27 to Route 3 we were in Bar Harbor in no time flat. We had booked a room right across from the Cat terminal at the Days Inn. I believe it was $155 a night. About $55 each not bad. Would I recommend it at that price?, No. It is nothing special, but it charges high because it is right across the street from the Cat terminal. OK we are settled in, 2 double beds and a cot. Most of the motels we stayed in had this arrangement so we just rotated, it worked out fine. So what now?, food!!!! seems like we are always hungry. So the first meal on the road was at the Log Cabin Restaurant. Probably familiar to most of you if you have been to Bar Harbor. After a good steak, we decided to ride up Cadillac Mountain. I have been up there many times, but always enjoy the view, and of course the bike ride up and down was really enjoyable. Monday August 3, we roll across the street to the Cat Terminal, (it is conveinent being across the street). We are told to line the bikes up on one side of the parking lot. We are 2nd, 3rd, and 4th in line. We were told to be there an hour early, I can see why, by the time it was ready to load there were about 30 bikes of all shapes, sizes, makes and models. A couple of busses, many large campers, and alot of cars and trucks. None of us has ever taken a motorcycle on the ferry so we are anxious to see how we are going to secure them to the deck. Well they loaded all the bikes at once, you are lined up between tie downs on the deck and you have to go and retrieve straps which hook into the tie downs. Run the straps over the seat in a cross and crank them down. No big deal. I had been on the Cat once before however it was so foggy you couldn't even see the decks out of the window. Well this morning was sunny, but you could see the fog off in the distance. And sure enough, after about twenty minutes of running in the sun we went into fog and it never left. Even when we landed in Yarmouth it persisted. The call came, every one to their vehicles. There was a mad rush to the belly of the craft. We did not have to wait long to get off. Now what about customs? Again no big deal, ride your bike up to the booth, they ask for your passport, a few questions about your trip intentions and out the other side. But you cannot stop any where inside the terminal grounds because it is a secure area. So up the hill to the infor center where we gather and discuss events and check bikes. But hey we are here!!! we are in Canada and all is going well. We will be following the trail system that Nova Scotia has set up. So on to the Lighthouse Route we go. The fog persists, but is not dense, you can see the scenery but just not at a distance. Actually seeing the houses and harbors, coves and boats in the fog seemed a bit surreal. It was kinda cool. After this day the fog was only a factor in late evening and early morning the rest of the time it was sunny and great riding weather 70's and 80's we rode into one rain storm for the whole 8 days and we saw it coming so we stopped and prepared. Good thing we did, for about fifteen minutes it rained so hard we had to stop along side the road because none of us could see. After that passed by nothing but sunshine.
Instead of trying to explain day by day what the trip was like, I will just mention highlights and yes one low light which turned out quite nice in the end. Not to far into the trip, we came around a corner and the road was full of pheasent chicks, we all made moves we didn't think we were capable of and no harm done to us or them. On another day, I had a very close encounter with a baby coyote who decided to run out in front of me. Of course he stopped right in my lane and jumped straight up in the air, I can still see his eyes, they seemed so large :) any way I held my line and layed on the brakes. When he hit the road he went right back to where he came from. I looked back and the two guys with me were doing all kind of un-natural things trying to get stopped. It was one of those moments when you say Oh Shit !!!! and then you grin from ear to ear. No more close encounters with wild life for the rest of the trip. Kind of disappointing actually, we were up for seeing moose and deer and bear which they warn you about on the Cabot Trail, and with all the ocean we saw we thought we might see a whale. No luck. Mid week we had a bike break down, my friends Yamaha would not start, it would not even click. So we started looking to see if it was something simple. When we took the side cover off the battery you could see the sides on the battery had swelled up alot. I mean the sides were bulging. None of us had ever seen this before. It was above our mechanical knowledge. So we started to look in the yellow pages for Yamaha bike shops. The closest one was a long way away. The young lady at the motel desk suggested someone who works on bikes local but was not a dealer. So we called, he came and got the bike, trailered it to his shop determined what the problem was, (turned out to be a regulator) he scavenged one from his bike grave yard out back put in a new battery and we were on out way again. He didn't charge for the tow and cheap on labor. The only expensive part was the new battery. They new we were on vacation and took good care of us. I can't come up with the name of the shop right now, but I will post it soon. Great Great people. Speaking of great people, every one we met was real friendly and went out of their way to be sure we had a good time at their motel or restaurant. The roads for the most part are in excellent condition for motorcycles. However we hit one stretch from Truro to Walton which is on the Evangelin Trail along the Minus Basin which was really terrible. I am surprised we did not leave any bike parts thru there. The Trans Canada highway is a great road for making time. (no tolls), You can run 65 plus most of the time. We always found the traffic light on this highway. We made a 489 mile dash to Bear River on this road to check some old grave yards for some relatives of one of the guys I was with. We found plenty of old grave yards with the help of towns people but no relatives. A little side note here, we were getting gas about every hundred miles, sometimes you can go along way between gas stations and it worked well for getting off and stretching also. Well this one time, one of the guys says why don't we stretch a little on gas this time, we were on the Trans Canada highway and there must be exits close ahead right!!!!!!!!!! Wrong he ended up going to reserve, I ended up going to reserve. Now we both have the same bike so our reserve is close to the same with variations of course. It is about 25 to 35 miles. Well we kept riding and no exits. At 33 miles on my reserve I see an exit. We take the exit out to a stop sign with nothing in site. Right or left ???? I went left, we rode for about a mile when we hit a neighborhood. A woman was mowing her grass so I stopped and asked where the closest gas station would be. Wouldn't you know it, she tells us to go back the way we came, get on the highway and about two miles up the road take the exit and the gas station would be on our left. Shortening the story abit we got to the exit came to a stop sign, and there was the gas station. The guy behind me runs out of gas. The moral of the story get gas often ofrit can ge very stressfull :) We stayed in Baddeck for 2 nights a great little town, they had a car show going on and a firemans muster competition. Our motel was right across from the Bras d' Or Lake a beautifull spot the wind was high and the waves were too. Plenty of sailboats of all sizes could be seen. By the way it is salt water, I thought it was fresh because of the name. Well now the Cabot Trail. First off I didn't know you had to pay to get in, Oh Well . We were planning on doing it counter clockwise but things happen so we ended up going clockwise. Looking back no big deal, it is awesome no matter what way you go. It lives up to it's hype and then some. As far as motorcycles go it has it all, elevation changes, twisties, long straights, good road surfaces. Surprisingly not much traffic the day we went. And I have heard the same from others who have done the trip. And of course the scenery, you can take pictures all you want, but until you are there in person and let all your senses soak it all up it cannot be described. Put it high on your bucket list. Actually put all of Nova Scotia on your bucket list, it is well worth the time and money. OK, so now it is time to come home, so we are way down in Bear River which is close to Yarmouth. If we ride back up to Amherst, we are looking at two days of riding and we will have to go back over the rough section I was telling you about earlier. Well we difinately did not want to do the Cat again. So we looked at another option, we could take the Princess of Acadia ferry from Digby Nova Scotia area to St John New Brunswick. When we looked into it we were surprised at the cost $80 each for us and the bike. The decision was unanimous, we are sailing on the Princess. Now if you are thinking of takeing a ferry this is the one. I liked it so much better than the Cat. It is so much more of a sailing experince. You can actually go out on the decks, now that's sailing. And they have all the ammenities that the Cat has right down to the one arm bandits. Alright, great boat trip, and of course we gassed the bikes just before we got on the boat (never make the same mistake twice) so we are good to go when we get off. We depart the boat at about 10:30 P. M. we are across the border into the U.S.A. in Calais soon after, and again no problem. There are people everywhere, large crowds, we ask and are told there is some kind of festival going on it is celebrated every year. Hands across the borders or something like that. Bands are playing, law enforcement is directing traffic because no one is paying attention to traffic lights or cross walks. It's a little crazy. To bad we didn't know about it sooner. So we are told you won't get a motel around here tonight. We are a little surprised and tired, but we figure we will ride down a few towns a get a room. Well we rode and rode and all we saw was no vacancy signs one after the other. Now we are tired, we are traveling route 1 in the dark, sometimes you don't see a town for awhile. Oh and did I mention it was raining off and on. Well we finally got a room in Ellsworth around 1:30 in the morning. We all slept real good. The next morning, we went and had a good hot breakfast and laughed about the whole thing. We were home around 12:30, a little under 2300 miles. We spent another hour just talking about the trip, and where the next one will be. Oh yea, after this experience, there has to be a next one. A little more ambitious this time, maybe the Keys, yea Key West would be a nice trip. Then I could wave and toast to you all on the HogsBreath web cam. Maybe toast you 7, or 8, or 10 times, Maybe------------

It would take much more than the eight days we had to see all of the flavor of Nova Scotia. It would take at least several days to see some of the towns on the Cabot Trail. However just doing the loop was awesome. The trip was awesome, and the friends I was with were awesome Thanks Roland and Jeff for helping me complete something that was right at the top of my bucket list.

Total trip cost for me: a little over $900, cheap enough for all the good times and memories. Remember you only pass this way once.

I have edited the post to add the name of the business that treated us so well when we had a bike breakdown. GASIT ENTERPRISES LTD. Small Engine Repair Baddeck Nova Scotia (902) 295-3221 If you are ever in the Baddeck area and need help, this is the place you want.

Ride Safe
Randy

Ride Safe Everyone