Views from the Little Grassy summit

Thursday, the forecast was for strong morning sun, but what greeted my eyes when I arose was overcast everywhere with clouds halfway down the Highlands to the village below. I had hoped to tackle Wilkie Sugar Loaf this day, which I hadn’t previously hiked up, but it was most definitely not a day for that! After a leisurely morning and lunch at the restaurant, some sun began breaking through the clouds, so I climbed up to the summit of Little Grassy, from which the view to the east is the gorgeous one seen in photo #1. Cape North is at the far right of the photo in the background; the Cape North Massif is shrouded in clouds. Black Point is the slope in the middle ground that ends in the sharp triangular point with the interesting rock formation in the form of an arc, clearly bent under some kind of incredible pressure many æons ago. A rock quarry, from which many of the rocks used to stabilize the road and the beach were taken, can be seen at the top of the arc; the horizontal slash from the quarry to beyond the centre of the photo is Meat Cove Road, which, after going inland along the canyon carved by Jumping Brook, crosses it and climbs up the hillside in the centre right, where it reäppears.

Photo #2, taken later in the afternoon from the turn-off just south of the bridge over Black Point Brook halfway between Black Point and Capstick, shows the clouds hanging low over the upper half of the Cape North Massif across Bay St Lawrence, which meant that the summit of Wilkie Sugar Loaf (not visible from Little Grassy) would likewise have been in the clouds.

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Although the white clouds in photo #3 attest to plenty of humidity and dissipated haze in the air over the Cape Breton Highlands Plateau, over Meat Cove itself, the sun was now out in force and it was a beautiful day. Meat Cove Mountain is in the middle right of this photo, which offers a fine view of the mountain itself, showing the southern summit, the ridge, the col, the northern summit, and the rock face below the northern summit. As well, the course of the Meat Cove Mountain Trail along the bed of the unnamed brook it follows can be readily made out as it ascends to the col. In the centre of the photo, the course of Edwards Brook can be made out descending down the mountainside to where it joins Meat Cove Brook just south of the beach. Hines Oceanview Lodge is at the left of the photo below and to the right of the highest house seen there. The slope of Black Point begins at the far left of the photo.

Photo #4 is a telephoto view of the Meat Cove Beach and the Meat Cove Campground area. The point that closes off the beach area can be seen more fully here. The cliffs on the west side of that point are considerably higher than those on the beach side.

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At the dead centre of photo #1 is the waterfall formed by Jumping Brook where it drops into Meat Cove (the water); it is not very visible there, but photo #5, taken with a telephoto lens from the Little Grassy summit, shows it much more clearly. The many dots in the water are, of course, floats for lobster traps. The lovely blue hues of the waters of Meat Cove reflect the fine blue sky that so beautified this day in the village.