Taken 2010 June 18 in Red River from the Red River Road
3.9 km (2.4 mi) from its junction with the Cabot Trail in Pleasant Bay
GPS 46°50.774'N 60°46.423'W
The morning after the Meat Cove Look-Off expedition, I hiked up Little Grassy, a prominence along the coast west of the village, not as high as the ridge I had climbed the previous day, but a dandy climb for me nonetheless; it was also the first time I had been there. The weather had not at all improved and the photos I took on that hike show only beautiful views darkened by clouds and a fair amount of haze. A squall which I saw coming across the Cabot Strait terminated my stay on Little Grassy a bit prematurely, as I hurriedly regained my car, getting wet as the storm overtook me, but not near as wet as I’d have been had I not hurried back. That day was the last of my June stay in Meat Cove, as I had to drive back to Chéticamp for a musical feast featuring Ashley MacIsaac, Maybelle Chisholm-McQueen, Marc Boudreau, Robbie Fraser, Mike Hall, and Brenda Stubbert at Le Gabriel in the evening.
On the way there, the weather noticeably improved, so I drove out the Red River Road in Pleasant Bay in hopes of getting some more recent photos of the area for my collection. Alas, all of the photos of the beautiful coast line past Pleasant Bay out to MacKenzies Mountain that I took from out the Red River Road turned out too hazy for use here; however, the shots of the mountains inland turned out much better than the coastal shots. The Nova Scotia Atlas names the massif at the right of the view above as Icy Mountain, though for sure there’s no ice visible here! It also names the mountain at the left as Baldy. The Red River runs along the base of the mountains; the houses belong to Red River village, part of which is hidden behind the slope in the middle ground and the trees in the foreground. The road crosses the Red River in the village and then loops back around to the shore again (it can be seen to the left of the roof of the barn with the rounded roof at the left of the photo), where it ceases being paved and becomes a gravel road leading north along the coast past Gampo Abbey to the Polletts Cove Trail Head at the end of the road.
Somewhat closer to Pleasant Bay, two other mountainous masses named Roberts Mountain and Andrews Mountain rise above the Cabot Trail in the Grande Anse area; the Hike the Highlands Festival scheduled one of its hikes this fall up the former and the accompanying slideshow proves that they had superb weather and even more stunning vistas from the top. I am not currently aware of any trail up Icy Mountain, but surely the vistas, especially of the back country, would be marvellous from the summit just right of centre in the photo above! All three of these summits are in the Polletts Cove Aspy Fault Wilderness Area.