Taken 2009 March 29 in the Polletts Cove Aspy Fault Wilderness Area from Bald Mountain
GPS 46°57.091'N 60°32.788'W
This photograph is copyright © 2009 by Hector Hines,
remains the sole property of the photographer,
and has been used here with explicit permission.
This fine panorama shows some of the eastern portion of the Polletts Cove Aspy Fault Wilderness Area at the northern end of Cape Breton Island; among numerous other natural features meriting protection, this pristine wilderness area holds stands of old-growth (“virgin”) mostly deciduous, but mixed, New England-Acadian forests, seen here in their winter colours. Taken from the edge of the snow-covered ridge seen in the immediate foreground, locally known, I am told, as Bald Mountain (unnamed on the topographical map but easily found using the GPS coördinates supplied by the photographer) and from an elevation of 322 m (1056 ft), this marvellous view looks a bit to the east of north. The ravine seen in the foreground holds the Salmon River, which runs northeasterly from Bald Mountain and then later turns due north, entering into Bay St Lawrence (the water) about 1.6 km (1 mi) east of Capstick. In the far distance is Bay St Lawrence under a coat of ice (this photo is from the winter of 2008-2009); it is unclear to me whether the band of grey-blue beyond the ice is open water in the Cabot Strait or a fog bank. At the far right of the photo is the end of the Cape North massif (locally called Money Point¹). The lake seen at the left of the photo is MacEacherns Lake, about 4 km (2.5 mi) southwest of Capstick. The mountain rising at the far left of the photo ends in Black Point along the Bay St Lawrence coast between Capstick and Meat Cove.
This fascinating back country view is something I have not seen with my own eyes in any season, so it is certainly a treat for me to see it in this photograph. I can more easily imagine it in its summer colours than I’d have been able to visualize it as it appears here in its winter colours.
¹ The end of the Cape North massif terminates in two distinct headlands: Cape North is the more western and northern of the two (it is partially visible in the photo above), while Money Point is southeast of Cape North (and is hidden by the massif itself in the photo above). Since using Money Point both as the name of the massif and as the headland requires disambiguation as to whether one is discussing the headland or the massif, I use in this web site “Cape North massif” when naming the massif and “Cape North” and “Money Point” when naming the headlands. Such disambiguation is also required for a number of other local names, e.g., Meat Cove is both a cove and a community on that cove; Bay St Lawrence is both the bay at the north end of Cape Breton Island and the name of a community on that bay; Cape North is both a headland of the Cape North massif and the name of a community considerably further south on the Cabot Trail; Pleasant Bay is both a bay and the name of a community; etc.↩