Tamaracks along Highway 327

4.3 km (2.7 mi) west of the end of Highway 327 (the Gabarus Highway) in Gabarus, one arrives at the junction with Fourchu Road, where Highway 327, as the Fleur-de-Lis Trail has become, turns north towards Marion Bridge (at GPS 45°50.195'N 60°11.379'W ). 3.4 km (2.1 mi) later, one arrives at a side (gravel) road leading to Oceanview. This road runs along the cliffs one saw at the back of Gabarus Bay and, I hoped, would lead to some fine views of Gabarus and its surrounding area. I drove 2.9 km (1.7 mi) down this road to its end, which apparently at one time before the reconstruction of Fortress Louisbourg continued on to Louisbourg, but saw nothing from the road (which is lined with trees that shield the road from the ocean) other than private lots, most apparently unsold, from which the views I had hoped to see are probably available, though I honoured the many “No Trespassing” signs and did not attempt to determine whether they were.

Returning to Highway 327, I continued driving north and 0.6 km (0.4 mi) later stopped to take this photo of the tamaracks I saw there. When I lived in southern New York State, a small stand of tamaracks thrived in the forested land not far beyond the edge of my property; I was always very intrigued by them, watching them turn a brilliant gold in late autumn and losing their needles completely only in mid-winter not too long before the onset of spring. Once having lost their needles, their bare branches in winter made the trees look dead until, once again early in the spring, they re-grew their needles. The varying but extraördinarily brilliant shades of greens in the needles I had been seeing for the past couple of days all along Cape Breton’s Atlantic coast convinced me to get a photo of them for my collection. As the photo above shows, the trees here had only recently reäcquired their needles.

As this web page tells us, the “Latin name for Tamarack is Larix laricina. Other common names are Eastern Larch, American Larch, Red Larch, Black Larch, takmahak, and Hackmatack, which is an Abenaki word for ‘wood used for snowshoes’”. Tamaracks are decidedly versatile trees; as the referenced web page indicates, they can be used for food and for medicine as well as for their wood; have a look at this fine web page for a host of information about this beautiful and useful tree.

[2012] I have since seen Cape Breton’s tamaracks in late fall and in winter; their fall colour is a considerably softer hue of gold, rather than the brighter, somewhat orange-tinged, gold colour I remember; moreover, they lose their needles earlier and regain them later than those in my former back yard.