Taken 2009 October 12 in Gussieville from the Gussieville Road across from house number 136
GPS 45°54.237'N 61°27.769'W
Given the late Thanksgiving dinner, I had no need for supper, so I simply continued on towards the Monday evening concert in Judique. From the Mull River bridge on Worths Road, I ascended to the Mull River Road and turned left onto the Whycocomagh Road. In Glencoe Mills, I turned right onto the Glencoe Road and proceeded on to Long Johns Bridge. There, I turned right onto the Rear Intervale Road and headed towards Highway 19 in Judique North. About 1 km before reaching Highway 19, Gussieville Road leaves the Rear Intervale Road to the left (at GPS 45°55.097'N 61°28.154'W). Since I had plenty of time before the concert, I decided to drive up the Gussieville Road.
Earlier in the year (21 June), I had driven the opposite direction on the Gussieville Road, but I must have been distracted (as I know I was no hurry that day) since I missed the relatively short section with the fine views and, in fact, had altogether forgotten I had previously been there until I came across an entry in my log book for the spring trip while writing this essay. This evening, however, as I climbed the Gussieville Road, my eyes were drawn by the fiery bright sunset one sees above—it’s not for nothing that Inverness County is known as Cape Breton’s “Sunset Side”. I got out of the car to take a photo of it and then discovered that, from this point, one has great views of Cape George and the mainland across St Georges Bay; of Indian Point Beach and the area near Michaels Landing; of McKays Point at Judique North and the shore north towards Little Judique; and of Henry Island. There is no other vantage point in the area of which I am currently aware that offers these views from as high up. In short, it is a great spot for photography, to which, now that I am finally aware of it, I will certainly pay a visit in the future to get better photos than those I could take in the reduced light of this evening.
While I was admiring the views, I also noticed a number of brightly coloured trees nearby and in the distance along the coast. I resolved to return here under better light, but that never happened on this trip. Next fall, for sure, I’ll be here if there’s any decent light to be had to catch the beautiful fall colours I saw there in very muted form.
In the photo above, the view is of mainland Nova Scotia across St Georges Bay; the distinctive profile of the land as it approaches Cape George is visible at the far right of the photo, but Cape George itself is beyond the edge of this photo. Just as I finished taking this photo, it began spitting rain. It was, by then, time to leave for the concert anyway, so I thumbed my nose at the skies and drove on to Judique. The concert was superb, one of the best of the festival, so that took some of the edge off my growing aggravation at the weather.