Views from the Northern Fishing Cove Look-Off

From the Chéticamp River Bridge, I continued north along the Cabot Trail and, given the still cloudy nature of the skies, didn’t stop until I reached the Boarsback, a narrow ridge with the Fishing Cove River Valley on the left and the MacKenzies River Valley on the right, when the sun began to light up the hillsides. Overjoyed, I pulled off at the northern of the two Fishing Cove look-offs along the trail. The photos on this page were taken from there.

A small community was once located along the cove down below in the 19th century and a lobster cannery was built there in 1897, but by 1915 the community was abandoned and its settlers moved elsewhere. It is now the site of a Parks Canada backcountry campground, reached by two hiking trails, the longer south of the Boarsback and the shorter north of the northern Fishing Cove Look-Off. It’s a lovely spot, as I discovered in 2007, when I hiked the shorter trail down and back on the same day. One of my photos from that hike is here. I still have very fond memories of that day!

The Fishing Cove River can be seen winding its way to its mouth in photo #1. It is easily fordable, though when I hiked there in early October, it was frigidly cold! Several wooden platforms are scattered along the river banks for use by campers, who frequently stay overnight at this romantic spot, though I’m told that the insects are quite hungry there during high summer (I encountered none in October). Campers frequently see moose drinking from the fresh water of the river and evidence of their presence is seen all along the trails.

Photo #2 is a close-up of the mouth of the Fishing Cove River and the cove at its end. After crossing the river, I had lunch on the rocks at the edge of the cove. I tried scaling the banks to reach the field seen at the left of the photo, but was neither brave nor agile enough to get over some rough spots (I have learned to be very conservative when hiking alone) that would likely have proven easy for a younger person. I contented myself with the views from the cove’s cobblestone beach, which were very fine in any case.

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Photo #3 looks to the left of Fishing Cove at the slopes of the Cape Breton Highlands on the south side of the Fishing Cove River. Once inland from the coast, where the trees are nearly all evergreens, plenty of deciduous trees can be seen, though many of them are bare, apparently raked by strong winds; the remainder are mostly oranges, with an occasional bright red and still some occasional laggard green trees visible. This contrasts rather sharply with the northern slope seen in photos #1 and #2, where the colours are at or close to their peak, with very few greens visible.

Photo #4 looks to the right of Fishing Cove at the portion of MacKenzies Mountain that is on the far side of the northern trail; this summit is nearly all evergreen with a scattering of deciduous trees, but the proportion changes quickly as one goes down the slope.