First Video - My Favorite Part of The Cabot Trail

Click here or on the image to see the video

Our ride to Nova Scotia was Epic Adventure 6. We started these journeys in 2012. Each trip has a "prize" destination. It's a focal point for each of us - and usually serves as incentive for the girls to ride. In '12, it was The Grand Canyon. '13 was Niagara Falls. In 2014, Yellowstone was the destination that had us all excited.

This year, the destination was The Cabot Trail on Cape Breton Island. The Cabot Trail is a highway and scenic roadway in northern Victoria County and Inverness County on Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia.

Cape Breton Island presents unparalleled adventure for motorcyclists with twisty, cliff-hanging roadways carved over several mountain ranges and along its dramatic seacoast. It’s exquisite natural beauty has won several designations including the #1 Top Island in the continental US & Canada and #3 in the world by Travel and Leisure. Most famous for the Cabot Trail, voted Most Famous Road in the World by H.O.G. and #1 Best Motorcycle Trip by USA Today, The trail is found in the Cape Breton Highland National Park. 

The route measures approximately 185 miles and completes a loop around the northern tip of the island, passing along and through the scenic Cape Breton Highlands. It is named after the explorer John Cabot who landed in Atlantic Canada in 1497. Construction of the initial route was completed in 1932.

We scheduled two full days on Cape Breton Island - first, to increase the likelihood we would have good weather in a place where conditions are unpredictable. We also wanted to ride the Trail both directions - counter-clockwise and clockwise. Finally, because I wasn't sure this would be the hook for the girls some other years had provided, we planned a day for the ladies to rest on the second day. We selected a resort as our lodging place. They slept in, enjoyed a spa day, and then we took them sailing in the evening. But during the day - we rode.

We were blessed with great weather both days. We completed the entire circuit in the counterclockwise direction with the girls the first day. Due to pretty extensive construction on the Trail, on the second day, we opted to start out at the resort riding clockwise, head up the west side of the Trail until we reached the longest construction area, then turn around and ride back to Baddeck. In doing so, we were able to ride our favorite part of the atrial two additional times - up and down from the Canadian Veterans' Memorial and Cheticamp.

Most of the videos I create will be quick highlights of the sights we enjoyed. The video here is pretty much all of my favorite part of the Trail, edited only at places where we stopped to get off and get a closer look at the rugged coast of Nova Scotia. So be sure you have 21 minutes to waste if you want to watch it all.

Video is captured using a helmet-mounted GoPro Hero 5 shooting at 2.7K - not 4K. (Be sure to select HD playback when watching!) Stills are captured using a Nikon D5300 and a Nikon S9900.

Music credit to Steven Curtis Chapman, Rascal Flatts, and my daughter, Lindsey Bryant.

Enjoy the video. Then get out and find the roads less traveled. Open your eyes and your heart to see the handiwork of the one true God who fashioned it all. If you can, enjoy the journey with lifelong friends, and consider yourself blessed by meaningful relationships. I certainly am thankful for the opportunity to adventure like this, and even more by the friends I share the experience with.