The Cape Auguet Sentier Écologique/Eco-Trail (with map) is Richmond County’s premier hiking trail: a 4.5 km (2.8 mi) trail leads from the trail head outside Boudreauville on the southeastern corner of Isle Madame along the west coast and salt marshes of Petit-de-Grat Harbour to the trail’s end in the middle of Mackerel Cove; it is shown in yellow on the map at the right (from a photo of the sign at the trail head). Alternative side and loop trails, shown on the map in red, blue, and green, provide additional views. When I was there in June, the red trail was closed on the northern end, though I was able to hike out to the shelter (indicated by the red circled 5 on the map) on the southern end.

To find the trail head, take either Route 320 or Route 206 to the point where they join in Arichat and continue on Route 206 towards Petit-de-Grat. After about 5 km (3.1 mi), you will come to a church in Boudreauville: at this point, Route 206 turns left across a bridge to Petit-de-Grat Island. Leave Route 206 here, i.e., without crossing the bridge, and continue south until you find yourself in the trail head parking lot, perhaps 0.8 km (0.5 mi)—I regret I did not write down the exact distances. When I was there 9 June, there was fine road signage pointing to the trail head at several earlier points along Route 206, but the critical sign at the church in Boudreauville was missing.

I had been here once several years ago, when I had explored along the coast a short distance from the trail head, but did not at that time hike any further. I have no photos from that trip, so it might have been in 2001, when I had no camera. In any case, I had always been intending to get back here and this year proved to be the year I did.

The hiking trail is a fine one, with boardwalks over brooks and wet spots and stairs on some of the steep cliffs that attest to the fine work done by the volunteers who built and maintain the Eco-Trail. There are six shelters along the trail (including the one at the trail head), each supplied with bilingual informative panels about the history, culture, and ecological significance of the area; since the sun had become especially strong and the trail’s constant up and down (though never more than 6 m (20 ft) at a time) had left me rather warm, wishing I had worn shorts rather than jeans, I really appreciated the opportunity to relax in a covered area, read the panels, and enjoy the superb views while cooling off in the gentle breezes.

The main trail offers excellent views of the coast, including a couple of lakes, salt marshes, and even a forest hike, though one is never far from the water. For two views from the trail, see here and here. A number of wild flowers, some exquisitely tiny and delicate, were in bloom and the incipient foliage of the deciduous trees was just at its bursting point; I also saw several stands of fiddlehead ferns. Shore birds were plentiful throughout the hike.

The end of the main trail is at Mackerel Cove, site of a small Acadian fishing settlement in the middle of the 1800’s. The horseshoe shaped cove has a rocky shore and, the day I was there when the sky was nearly pure blue, was gorgeous under the afternoon sun. Since the day was so fine, I lallygagged at several points to soak in the sights and ended up spending five hours out and back in this beautiful place. Alas, I had forgotten to bring along a spare memory chip, so I was rather constrained in the number of photos I could take; there were so many great views that I didn’t get that I’ll surely be back there again soon. It’s a trail I can heartily recommend without hesitation.

I had been looking for Big Lorraine for a couple of years, but had not seen any signs for it and had never found the road that leads to it. I happened to mention that to the owners of the restaurant in Louisbourg where I had breakfast that morning and they gave me the information I needed to locate it. Just outside of Louisbourg on Route 22, an unnumbered paved road leads off towards Little Lorraine. Proceeding north on that road after about 1 km (0.6 mi), one will see (but only if one is looking very carefully) a gravel road to the right; it would be indistinguishable from a driveway were it not for a sign, which can be found mostly obscured by brush at the right of the road, indicating that the land belongs to the Fortress of Louisbourg National Historical Site. (If you reach the bridge over Lorraine Brook on the Little Lorraine Road, you have gone too far.) Turn down the gravel road and continue straight until you find yourself beside a few houses where you can park at the edge of the road in such a way as to not block other vehicles (the road beyond the first house was not in great shape for a car, so I’d suggest you park near it and walk the rest of the way on foot).

At the end of the road, you will find yourself on the western edge of Big Lorraine Harbour, shown in the photo above. A path leads from there across the field along the shore of the harbour to the Atlantic coast. It took me about a half hour to reach the coast; as is my wont, I was shod in walking oxfords and that proved to not be the best choice, as there were some boggy areas that I had to work my way around, in one case dropping down to the rocky shore to do so. There were some lovely wildflowers blooming among the grasses in the field and the views of Big Lorraine Harbour were very fine as I progressed under a gorgeous sky and bright sun.

Once at the Atlantic coast, the views were magnificent in both directions. To the south, lies a rocky coast a good height above the water leading out to Lorraine Head, as seen in the first photo below (use the height of a tree to gauge the height of the cliffs). The trail I had followed continues south along the coast; I did not attempt to go further, given the inappropriateness of my footwear, but later learned that it follows the shore with an occasional detour through the woods all the way to the Louisbourg Lighthouse (see below for more information on this trail). To the north, as seen in the second photo below, the coast has a somewhat different character, though it remains very rocky; Little Lorraine Harbour and Baleine Harbour are the next two major inlets along this coast, which ends in Cape Breton, for which Cape Breton Island is named and which is its easternmost point. The day I was there, lobster fishermen were out in their boats checking their traps off shore.

The hike I took lasted hardly more than an hour, but it was a real delight because it was the first time I had been here and the first time taking a hike is always special; because the day itself was so fine; and because the gorgeous views more than repaid the little effort I had to expend to see them. I am now very definitely interested in hiking from here to the Louisbourg Lighthouse along this wild and beautiful coast!

On the east side of Big Lorraine Harbour, I am told that there is an old cemetery; it is shown on the topographic map at the end of a road approximately 2 km (1.2 mi) further east on the Little Lorraine Road past the turn-off into Big Lorraine Harbour. I have not explored that road, but it is now on my to-do list. Another informant told me that there is a coastal trail which runs along the coast all the way from Little Lorraine to the east side of Big Lorraine Harbour (a part of the trail which connects the west side to Louisbourg Lighthouse), but another local disputed that. In any case, it needs some investigation to find out: this is certainly a lovely area in which to explore the Atlantic coast!

After I left Big Lorraine Harbour, I proceeded northwards along Cape Breton’s eastern coast, stopping for pictures at Little Lorraine and Main-à-Dieu before driving around Mira Bay. On this coast, I had never before been north of Mira Gut, so this was all new territory for me. I spent some time exploring Waddens Island (I’m not sure that that is its proper name, since neither The Nova Scotia Atlas nor the topographical map gives a name for the island bearing the community of Waddens Cove), which has fine views of Mira Bay. Then it was on to Morien Bay and Port Morien, which were both gorgeous under the beautiful, though gradually whitening, sky. I drove north along the Long Beach Road eventually arriving at Schooner Pond Cove on the north coast east of Donkin. As I was busy taking photographs there near a road clearly labelled as private, a car came up and the two guys therein asked if I had been on the trail along the cliffs. When I said that I did not know of its existence, they told me that it followed the cliffs along the shore all the way to Wreck Point and Northern Head. I mentioned that the land appeared to be private and was told that it was now held by an Austrailing mining company who did not object to the trail being used by hikers. Since the day was still sunny and warm to the east and not too threatening (though by now quite grey) to the west, I decided to walk out along the trail to see some part of this coast while I was there.

According to the topographical map of the area, no point along this coast reaches 20 m (66 ft) in height, but it certainly felt as if one were at least that high and the added height allowed one to see parts of the coast that were obscured by land when one was at the water’s edge. When I reached the top of the cliffs, I was very glad I had my thick sweat shirt with me, as the breeze off the ocean was quite cool! I had noticed the severe erosion of the cliffs when I was photographing them from the Long Beach Road, so I made sure to stay on the ATV trail well away from the cliff edge. Once out by the ocean, the trail affords fine views of the coast in both directions. I saw a windmill farm I had not previously noticed to what I judged to be to the west of New Waterford, but the point to which my eyes were drawn again and again as I progressed to the east was the lighthouse on Flint Island in the Atlantic roughly 3 km (1.9 mi) to the east of Northern Head. The shore below the cliffs, when one could see it, was littered with huge slabs of flat rock. There were gulls everywhere, many in the air playing in the winds, which continued to freshen the further east I went, and others just a few feet off the trail resting from their play. Numerous wildflowers lay radiant in the grass beside the trail.

After roughly a half hour, I came upon the view seen in the photo above. At this point, the trail curves sharply inland and a huge water hole blocked the road. As I was puzzling out how I was going to cross it, a golf cart bearing two employees of the mining company drove up. We got into an extended conversation; they told me that the subsided land seen in the photo above was caused by the collapse of mines dug beneath the surface. They also said that the coal mines extend five kilometres (three miles) out underneath the sea floor here. By the time we had finished talking, the sun had disappeared and the skies to the west were now very threatening; given the water obstacle I still hadn’t figured out how to cross in oxfords, I decided to just head back to the car. That proved to be a wise move, as the skies let loose a torrent of rain just a couple of minutes before I reached the car.

This is a lovely, mostly level, hike and one I hope to do again. I will come prepared with woods boots the next time and hope to be able to make it all the way to Northern Head, a distance I compute from the topographical map as roughly 4 km (2.5 mi), from which there should be excellent views of Morien Bay as well as of the Atlantic coast.

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The full trail description is, however, available here.

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