Description
- Background
- Port Tupper lies across Ship Harbour from Port Hawkesbury at the northern end of a peninsula whose southern end is Bear Head. Much of this peninsula is an industrial area adjacent to the Strait of Canso and hosts a paper mill, an electrical generating plant including a windmill farm, an oil refinery, and perhaps some day a liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) terminal. Notorious in Canadian political history for a scandal that touched a former Canadian Prime Minister in the 1990’s, this area is mostly off-limits to tourists. However, Bear Island Road, the main road traversing the length of the peninsula, is open to the public and offers a few views of the Strait of Canso and of Guysborough County on the opposite side. It is barred by a chain link fence just south of Ship Point, well before one reaches Bear Head. There is a Bear Island off Bear Head, but no road leads to it, so I do not know how to explain the road’s name, unless it be that the whole peninsula is itself known as Bear Island, though the topographical map shows it to clearly be a peninsula and not an island. All of this is significant because you have to take Bear Island Road to reach Port Malcolm Road, the junction for which is a short distance north of Ship Point.
- Google Maps Name
- Port Malcolm Road
- Local Usage
- Port Malcolm Road
- Direction
- Southwest to Northeast
- Start Point
- 45°34.380′N 61°20.219′W at its junction with the Bear Island Road
- End Point
- 45°36.138′N 61°15.897′W at its junction with Highway 104 in Lower River Inhabitants
- Length
- 11.6 km (7⅕ mi)
- Classification
- Local Road
- Surface
- Gravel
- Condition
- Good
- Route Description
- From Bear Island Road, the Port Malcolm Road proceeds to the east past oil storage tanks and enters a forested area that leads past Landrie Lake, a reservoir used to supply water to the industrial area at Point Tupper. Once past the lake, you leave behind all vestiges of the industrial area and begin to pass through terrain that has been at most lightly touched by human habitation, following the coastline along Caribou Cove. You soon reach Port Malcolm, a small collection of homes, offering good views of Chedabucto Bay and Inhabitants Bay, the outflow of River Inhabitants, both with numerous islands offshore. Continuing along the shore and passing by a lagoon with good views across the bay, the road soon reaches Port Richmond and turns inland; there it crosses a bridge over Little River where the maples along its bank offer a fine display of colours in the fall. Continuing eastward through mostly forested terrain, at the 9.8 km (6.1 mi) mark, the road turns to the north and then to the northwest as it arrives at Highway 104.
- Vic’s Scenic Rating
- ☆☆☆ = worth a detour
- Comments
- The road from Whiteside to Louisdale briefly offers views of the Big Basin, an arm of Inhabitants Bay; otherwise, the Port Malcolm Road is the only road I am aware of that offers views of this remote area so close by Port Hawkesbury. When the fall colours are on, it is a very pretty road to travel.
