Taken 2002 August 1 from the Railway Trail south of Long Point
GPS 45°47.1??'N 61°28.6??'W
Below Long Point, Creignish Mountain and the Strait of Canso become more prominent and begin to dominate the landscape more and more. The hills to the middle and the right are on the mainland of Nova Scotia. 2002 was a very dry year and the green grass that one normally sees had become somewhat brown this year. It is the beauty of scenes such as this one that draw me back here time after time.
I would be remiss not to mention the wild rose bushes that are found in abundance all along the St Georges Bay coast; some are in evidence here to the right of the trail. In mid July and August, their aroma and beauty adds to the delights of this area of the Railway Trail (and many other sites throughout Cape Breton).
A word of warning should be given about the long grass which grows profusely along the Railway Trail for most of its length: it hides what are often very sharply tapered deep ditches faced with slippery crushed stone—this is a railroad bed, after all. The year this photo was taken and not too far from here, watching the scenery and not the trail, I wandered a bit too far off the trail and completely unexpectedly found myself suddenly lying on my back staring up at the sky; extricating myself was a bit tricky as I had landed (fortunately without broken bones or other serious damage) in the middle of a stand of wild rose bushes. Scratched by their thorns and bleeding lightly (not a problem as I carry a first aid kit in my backpack), I finally got free of the roses and back onto the trail without too many more scratches and learned a valuable lesson about keeping to the middle of the trail!
[2012] The state of the trail seen in this photo is very different now, widened and with a fine sand surface; the long grass has long since been cut back and the trail’s new surface makes a sharper contrast with the edges of the trail that is now very hard to miss. Still, it is worth bearing in mind that scenery watching and wool-gathering while hiking can distract when one should be paying attention to where one’s feet are going!