I discovered Logans Glen Road, which ascends Whycocomagh Mountain, in Google Earth at the time I was trying to find the Lewis Mountain Trail a couple of years ago. Added impetus to check it out came when I learned about Logans Glen Falls from the very helpful Nova Scotia Waterfalls web site. This day, being in the Whycocomagh area, I decided to try to find it. This road has no signage and is not shown in The Nova Scotia Atlas, though it does appear on the topographical map. Repeated reconnoitring along the busy Trans-Canada Highway (Highway 105) had turned up nothing looking like a road where it should be, so, after breakfast, I fired up Google Maps on my iPhone and set off down the Trans-Canada Highway towards Baddeck, following its spoken directions. Google Maps directed me to turn into what appeared to be a driveway marked with house number signs 11103, 11111, and 11123, which I did after overshooting it the first time (traffic moving at 100 km/h (62 mph) on a two-lane highway makes that very easy to do). Once off the Trans-Canada Highway, Google Maps directed me to turn left immediately, onto what looked to be a driveway for a house at the left, but Google Maps had it correct: it was a road, not a driveway (the house has a driveway of its own off Logans Glen Road). A small selection of the many photos I took from the road that day are on this page; those of Argyle Brook and Logans Glen Falls are on the following page.
ISO 200 42 mm ƒ⁄9 1⁄320 sec
Taken 2013 July 10 in North Side Whycocomagh Bay from the Logans Glen Road
1.9 km (1⅕ mi) from its start on the Trans-Canada Highway (Highway 105)
GPS 45°59.737′N 61°02.833′W
110 m (360 ft) off the Trans-Canada Highway, just past the house on the left, the road makes a sharp turn to the northwest. A short distance beyond that curve, I got very uncomfortable driving, so I backed down the road and parked at the side just beyond the curve in an open area there. I then hiked up the road looking for the falls. What I found did not match what I expected to find, so I kept on going, accompanied by the merry chatter of the brook falling down the mountain. After several hundred metres/yards of steady, but fairly gentle uphill climbing, I looked up and was startled to see a vehicle coming down the road. A lady and her father were in the truck/van, much higher slung than my Prius, and we chatted a bit. They told me the falls I'd seen were the Logans Glen Falls and that there were no higher falls further up the brook, but that they had an old homestead on the mountainside and invited me to walk up there from which there were views of Whycocomagh Mountain I might be interested in photographing. As the distance involved was only 2 km (1¼ mi) from the Trans-Canada Highway and since the brook was singing so prettily as I climbed, I decided to take them up on their offer. They said that the road was provincially maintained up to their homestead (originally granted to a Logan family and passed on eventually to a daughter who married a MacLeod, the name of the current owners) and a logging road thereafter; it was in generally very good shape, though there were a few problematic spots for my low-slung Prius, so I was glad I was walking. Photo #1 shows Logans Glen Road some distance up the mountain; Argyle Brook is at the left below the road. It looks perfectly driveable here, as indeed it proved to be most of the way. But I was quite happy to be walking it, as it was a lovely day in a lovely place and one always sees way more on foot than from behind the wheel.
Photo #2 was taken about a third of the way up to the homestead. This is a pretty typical view of the both the road and the brook, where both are side by side as they progress up the mountainside in the glen.
[continued below]
ISO 200 28 mm ƒ⁄4 1⁄80 sec
Taken 2013 July 10 in North Side Whycocomagh Bay from the Logans Glen Road
640 m (⅖ mi) from its start on the Trans-Canada Highway (Highway 105)
GPS 45°59.157′N 61°02.327′W
ISO 200 58 mm ƒ⁄20 1⁄80 sec
Taken 2013 July 10 in North Side Whycocomagh Bay from the Logans Glen Road
1.5 km (0.9 mi) from its start on the Trans-Canada Highway (Highway 105)
GPS 45°59.512′N 61°02.696′W
Photo #3 was taken somewhat earlier and looks up at the side of Whycocomagh Mountain above the road. Open spots like this one alternated with spots where the trees formed a canopy over the road.
Photo #4, taken from between photos #1 and #2, looks up and behind from where I stopped to catch my breath at the top of a short, steep hill that had me puffing good; alas, a bit of haze discolours the upper part of Whycocomagh Mountain, but enough clarity is present you can make out the details. Argyle Brook is a faithful companion all along the route I walked, at the side and usually below the road, as it is here at the right of the photo.
[continued below]
ISO 200 105 mm ƒ⁄6.3 1⁄640 sec
Taken 2013 July 10 in North Side Whycocomagh Bay from the Logans Glen Road
1.8 km (1.1 mi) from its start on the Trans-Canada Highway (Highway 105)
GPS 45°59.664′N 61°02.814′W
ISO 200 18 mm ƒ⁄9 1⁄320 sec
Taken 2013 July 10 in North Side Whycocomagh Bay from the MacLeod homestead driveway
2.2 km (1⅜ mi) from the start of the Logans Glen Road on the Trans-Canada Highway (Highway 105)
GPS 45°59.811′N 61°02.709′W
Photo #5 is a wide-angled view taken well up the long driveway of the 100-acre MacLeod homestead looking west at the side of Whycocomagh Mountain, whose top is seen to be a ridge with occasional rounded humps rising above the valley carved by Argyle Brook, whose source is on the plateau just north of the 46° line.
Photo #6 was taken from the same spot as photo #5, but looking to the north. Here, the end of Logans Glen can be seen some distance off, where the valley climbs up to the top of the plateau. Notice how the subtle red hues of the grasses left of centre add to the beauty of the scene. I returned down the driveway to the road and walked a short distance along Logans Glen Road beyond the MacLeod homestead driveway, but decided to leave it for another day, as I was still recovering from my long hike in Cape Mabou of two days earlier; I’d guess I was about three-fifths of the way up there by height. Google Earth shows several connecting roads, likely logging roads, that all lead to Lewis Mountain Road (the topographical map shows only trails, not roads); from my experience at the other end on Lewis Mountain, which offers a maze of different roads that lead to various logged areas and then dead-end, make sure you remember exactly how you came if you attempt to reach the Lewis Mountain Trail from this road. At some point, I hope to have a leisurely walk up from the homestead to see exactly where the rest of Logans Glen Road goes, if indeed it is possible to follow it the rest of the way to Lewis Mountain.
[continued below]
ISO 200 18 mm ƒ⁄10 1⁄400 sec
Taken 2013 July 10 in North Side Whycocomagh Bay from the MacLeod homestead driveway
2.2 km (1⅜ mi) from the start of the Logans Glen Road on the Trans-Canada Highway (Highway 105)
GPS 45°59.811′N 61°02.710′W
ISO 200 105 mm ƒ⁄6.3 1⁄640 sec
Taken 2013 July 10 in North Side Whycocomagh Bay from the MacLeod homestead driveway
2.2 km (1⅜ mi) from the start of the Logans Glen Road on the Trans-Canada Highway (Highway 105)
GPS 45°59.813′N 61°02.706′W
Photo #7 was also taken from the MacLeod homestead driveway. The grass hasn't been cleared off the fields for some years but they remain open, if somewhat overgrown. Lots of wildflowers were in bloom all around the house. These are white musk mallow struggling for survival in a bed of day lilies, only one of which (not visible in this photo) was in bloom. What a lovely spot with great views! My thanks to the owners for their generous permission to visit this homestead.