Northwestern and Northern Views
from the Churchview Road Summit

The trees seen at the far right of photo #5 on the previous page are part of a stand which block the views to the right from that vantage point, so I had to move further east along the summit to get views of the northwestern and western panorama, where trees are even more problematical for the camera. Alas, once I moved, I didn’t think to capture wider-angled views, as I had done for the western panorama, so nearly all I have are telephoto views taken by Big Bertha, which segment the landscape into too many small slices to present in full here. So, instead, I present the one relatively wide-angled view I have and supplement it with additional Big Bertha views of small portions of the terrain.

Photo #1 looks down Churchview Road, seen in the foreground, from the summit. This view is nearly northwest; the mouth of the Mabou River is just to the left of the prominence right of centre, the edge of the Cape Mabou Highlands that rises above Mabou Harbour Mouth, the left portion of which is Mabou Harbour Mountain. The mountain just to the left of the evergreen at the right is in Northeast Mabou above the Mabou River and that behind the tree at the far right is Cape Mabou from Northeast Mabou running on towards Glenora Falls. Alpine Ridge is on the far side of the Mull River valley and merges with Southwest Ridge (Mabou Ridge) at the far right of the photo. Rocky Ridge spans much of the photo in the far distance; a large gap on Rocky Ridge separates photo #5 on the previous page from this photo. The fields in the centre right are blueberry fields along the Whycocomagh Port Hood Road. Glencoe Mills is at the left of the photo.

Photo #2 looks to the west northwest well to the left of photo #1; this view is fairly close to the right edge of photo #5 on the previous page. The triple silos at the left of the photo are 18.3 km (11.4 mi) away on Justin Road on the side of Rocky Ridge, which continues across the entire width of the photo. The Alpine Ridge is a separate slope about 5 km (1.6 mi) distant from the silos, though the lens makes it look as if they are adjacent here. The field that runs from the centre to the far right with the long row of plastic-wrapped round bales is along the Alpine Ridge Road. Closer at hand is Glencoe Mills: the buildings at the bottom right are along the Glencoe Road, a small piece of which can be seen to the right of the house; the other buildings are along the Upper Glencoe Road, which runs obliquely to the Glencoe Road. The road moving diagonally from right of centre to the right edge of the photo lined by evergreens is the Whycocomagh Port Hood Road.

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Photo #3, which does not overlap with photo #2, looks north of west northwest towards Glengarry, whose buildings on Rocky Ridge along Hunters Road can be seen in the far distance at the right. Alpine Ridge is again superimposed on Rocky Ridge, but is lower. A dark gap in the evergreens right of centre marks the Whycocomagh Port Hood Road. The Mull River valley, covered with evergreens, runs across the full width of the photo in its centre. The line of utility poles across the bottom right of the photo marks the Whycocomagh Port Hood Road as it proceeds east from its junction with the Glencoe Road in Glencoe Mills; another portion of the Whycocomagh Port Hood Road can be seen left of centre at the bottom on a curve just past that junction, which is hidden by the terrain here. The utility poles at the bottom left are along the Glencoe Road.

Photo #4 looks to the northwest across two ridges to the edge of Cape Mabou in Northeast Mabou at the far horizon. I call the nearer ridge, which is superimposed against the ridge beyond it, “Miramichi Ridge”, because it runs from the Whycocomagh Port Hood Road south of the Old Mull River Road to Miramichi, south of Brook Village. The ridge in the middle distance, whose summit is in the green field at the far left of the photo and outside its scope, is the Southwest Ridge (Mabou Ridge), easily identified by the communications tower which, from this vantage point, appears higher than Cape Mabou (it is newer than the data on which the topographical map and The Nova Scotia Atlas are based, so I do not know its actual height). The Mull River flows between the “Miramichi Ridge” and the Southwest Ridge across the width of the photo.

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Photos #5 and #6 form a panorama to the north from the Churchview Road summit showing the eastern edge of Cape Mabou from north of Mabou Village to Foot Cape.

In photo #5, Southwest Ridge extends in the middle ground across the left half of the photo; Rankinville is on the far side of the ridge. If you squint carefully beyond Southwest Ridge just to the left of the tallest tree in the foreground left of centre, you can just barely make out the slope of the summit of Mabou Mountain extending to the left; I’m sorry it’s not better defined than it is, but it and Cape Mabou behind it are both nearly the same colour. Hawleys Hill would be on the far side of Southwest Ridge directly behind the tree. The green field right of centre is in Smithville. Glenora Falls is at the centre of the photo at the base of Cape Mabou.

Photo #6 overlaps a fair amount with photo #5, but shows the continuation of the Cape Mabou plateau as it passes Riverville and Glenville at its base and then descends towards Inverness village at Foot Cape at the far right; were the trees on the summit not in the way, it would be possible to see the village from here to the right and outside the scope of this photo.

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While I was at the summit, I did not see the windmill on Cape Mabou that was erected this summer; it was only once I got home and looked at the photos that I saw it. If you were able to pick it out in either photo #5 or #6—it appears in the originals of both–your eyes are far better than mine.

Photo #7 is Big Bertha’s take on the area at the left of photo 7, which survives compression to show the windmill in the centre of the photo large enough for normal eyes to see. It is 24 km (14.9 mi) away from the Churchview Road summit. One can even make out the descending ridge running from the far left to about a quarter of the way in from the left that marks the Glenora Falls Road, which runs through the valley carved by the Northeast Mabou River, which rises near the top of Cape Mabou, on the far side of that ridge and climbs up to the Cape Mabou plateau at the far left of the photo. The indentation left of centre at the base of Cape Mabou is the glen through which the MacLennan Road runs. The topographical map shows an old trail running up from the end of the MacLennan Road to come out near the windmill on the plateau.

Photo #8, taken the next day from the base of the windmill, shows the tall structure in all its glory; I had to use a very wide-angled focal length to fit it all in! I had planned on hiking out to Beinn Bhiorach that morning, which was gorgeous when I left the motel, but, after breakfast, a short back country drive, and errands in Mabou, by the time I reached the trail head (which is just south of the windmill on the other side of the Cape Mabou Road), the clouds were piling in and the morning’s beautiful light was already gone, so I abandoned that plan and continued touring.

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Before leaving the Churchview Road summit, I wanted to pay tribute to an evergreen tree at the summit. The summit was cleared some years ago to remove the many dead white spruce trees there, killed or fatally damaged by the spruce bark beetle, leaving behind only relatively young evergreens, of which there are not many, and deciduous trees where they had established themselves. This adult evergreen is one of the few exceptions, standing tall and proud on a summit subject to howling winds and foul winter weather, looking little worse for the wear. I thought it deserved a place in this essay.