Glasgow and Pacquette Lakes Walk

Glasgow Lake in The Cape Breton Highlands National Park



The view from the turn around point of our walk from Paquette Lake to Glasgow Lake.
From this point it is a complete 360' panoramic view of the highlands that few tourist and native Capers will ever see.
This is the scene that awaited the Island Hoppers on our latest trip to the National Park on Sunday, 24 Sept. 2006.

Thank You to Terry Crawley for the latest pictures.

More photos can be found on our Photo web site. Click on the site to the right of this page.

With the Glasgow Lake Walk Event under his belt, Terry has now completed his first 10 events with the club. Good Show Terry!

On this Walk Event Nancy and Jerry Haley from Sydney joined us for the first time and from all indications they will be joining us again in the near future. Welcome aboard folks, I'm sure you will find us a friendly group of walkers.

My Thank you to all who participated in the prewalk on Tuesday Sept 26th at St Alphonse Church In New Victoria in preparation for the Celtic Colours Festival coming up on 7,8 and 9 Oct 2006.

TWO WALK EVENTS -- HIGHLAND NATIONAL PARK

We have two Walk Events remaining for the month of September:

[1]

DATE & TIME: Sunday Sept. 17th, Registration at 1:30 PM and the Walk begins at 2:00 PM

WHERE: Warren Lake Picnic Area in The Highlands National Park

The Guided Walk around Warren Lake is Approx 5k and the remaining portion of the walk continues to Broad Cove Mtn via Warren Lake Road and return to the picnic area is a total distance of 11k.

Joe MacKinnon will lead the walk around the lake and Rollie Coombes will continue with the Broad Cove Mtn portion.

Broad Cove Mtn is quite steep and I advise all participants to take their time ascending this Mountain, excellent views of the highlands, Cape Smokey, here you are above the the eagles who soar along the shoreline and forest below you! Don't forget to take your camera and binoculars.

[2]

DATE & TIME: Sunday Sept. 24th, Registration begins 1:30 PM and the Walk begins at 2:00 PM

WHERE: Glasgow Lakes/Paquette Lake in The Highlands National Park

-- From Neil's Harbour continue for 9k along the Cabot Trail towards Cape North
-- Watch for Highland National Park Road Signs indicating Glasgow and Paquette Lake Trail on the left side of the Highway. The road to our start Point is approx 2ks in land from the main highway.

This is not a steep mountain trail though it mostly follows a dried up river bed and is rocky in some places; however once we reach the turn around point you will realize that you have been walking in the Highlands of Cape Breton as the panoramic view before you unfolds the secrets of this fantastic National Park.

This is our last adventure into the Highland National Park as a club for this season and we will not be here for 2007 as well. This is the last chance to walk the highlands as a group for at least another year or so.

If you are interested in walking or hiking the highlands the annual " Hike The Highlands Festival" takes place in the second or third week of Sept. Unfortunately this group out of Ingonish and the Northeast Highlands Association are not affiliated with the IVV and I repeat myself by saying unfortunately their walk/hikes are not sanctioned by the Canadian Volkssport Federation, they are a separate group.

We (The Island Hoppers) are holding the only 2 IVV sanctioned events in The Highland National Park as indicated above for this year; one event on Sun. the 17th and the other on the 24thl Regretfully we are not a part of the "Hike The Highlands" festival.

SPECIAL EVENT ON THE MIRA

OUT ON THE MIRA!

We invite club members and friends to join us for a scenic 2 hour boat tour on the Mira River.

Please note there is limited space for 23 passangers and bookings will be on a first come first served basis at a cost of $15.00/person. RESERVE A SEAT NOW.

Mira Boat Tour will be held on:

SATURDAY, 30 SEPTEMBER 2006

TIME: 2:00PM (please arrive at least 15 minutes before departure time)

START POINT: Mira Boat Tour Dock on The Brickyard Road, from Sydney take Rte 22 the Louisbourg Hwy and continue to Albert Bridge, cross the bridge and turn left (East)on to The Brickyard Road and continue for approx. 1.5
Km and watch for the sign "Mra Boat Tours" located on the left and just before the Mira Provincial Park.

For more info please contact Elsie Buck at 562-3117 to RESERVE A SEAT NOW or

Cape Breton Island Hoppers



Due to scheduling difficulties our Mira Boat Tour that was to be held in October during The Celtic Colours Festival has been cancelled!

TOWER ROAD WALK

We had a very good turn out for this walk even though six of our members had signed up for the walk events in Cape Chignecto with the Central Nova Volkssport Club.
Participating with other volkssport clubs can be a good thing for our club as well as the host club; I encourage all members to visit other clubs when they are holding special walk events as this encourages their members to come and visit Cape Breton as well. All of us can be ambassadors for our club and the island.

The Tower Road Trail proved to be an easy walking trail along a portion of the "old Sydney & Louisbourg Railway" the Marconi Towers Road and Sand Lake Road with an excursion across a footbridge at MacAskill Brook. There was even a stopover at the former "Marconi House" now owned by Doug Cunningham who was gracious enough to give the group a breviated tour of this "designated Nova Scotia Heritage property", unfortunately the home is not open to the public and if anyone requires more information on Marconi and his work here in Cape Breton please check out the Marconi Museum at Table Head in Glace Bay.
Doug is the brother of Shirley Pettigrew our walk leader for this delightful event and on behalf of you the club members my sincere thank you to Shirley and Doug for allowing us to view this home and for a great day of walking.
This walk will be highly considered for another year on our schedule.

Prior to the walk I had the privilege of introducing Karen and Bernard Lalanne from Coxheath, Sydney. Bernard and Karen walk each day for 40-50 minutes and decided to make this a challenge walk for themselves as they had never walked 10k before. They completed the event with a lot of enthusasim and ready to go on the excursion with us in the highlands on 17 September at Warren Lake and Broad Cove Mountain. Welcome to the club folks we are pleased to have you join us at any of our walk events! My thanks also to Doug and Kathy Grant for introducing the Lalannes to volkssporting.