Taken 2008 June 10 in St-Esprit from the Fleur-de-Lis Trail 15 km (9.3 mi) north of the Grand River bridge
GPS 45°38.8??'N 60°30.7??'W
After returning to the Fleur-de-Lis Trail from Ferguson Road #2, 1.1 km (0.7 mi) later, one arrives at the edge of St-Esprit Lake, which one sees here in this view to the south. St-Esprit Lake, fed by several inland brooks, empties into the Atlantic Ocean through a very narrow passage in the sand bar (St-Esprit Beach) that has formed across its mouth; there do not appear to be any maintained roads which lead to St-Esprit Beach. The gravel in which I was standing when I took this photo was clearly intended to be used for launching a canoe or a small boat; that appears to be the only way of exploring this very pretty lake.
The trees one sees along the Fleur-de-Lis Trail in this area are almost all evergreens, as this photo shows. Many of them have been killed by the same spruce bark beetles that have ravaged the forests everywhere on Cape Breton Island, though the damage seems to be somewhat less on the Atlantic Coast than on the Gulf of St Lawrence Coast.