Cycling The Entire Cabot Trail or Day Tripping Only the Best Parts

It's the northern half of the Cabot Trail, roughly from Margaree Harbour clockwise around the Trail to Cape Smokey, just south of Ingonish, where one sees the truly great scenery. This upper half of Cape Breton Island is the locale where the majority of scenic images of the Cabot Trail are taken.  This is also the region containing Cape Breton Highlands National Park, whose wider road surfaces are more condusive to cycling and whose terrain is world famous for its climbs, descents and viewscapes.

For this reason we encourage visitors to consider basing themselves at the island’s northern tip (The Top of the Island region), for a number of days and riding our rental bikes on day trips from their home base, rather than cycling the entire Trail.

This approach has a number of advantages:

• It minimizes problems with fog, rain and wind (Cape Breton's in a maritime climate, remember) that are more  apt to occur while trying to cycle the entire Trail;
• It ensures that one has a motor vehicle for evening use;
• Luggage is left at “base” rather than being transported by bike over the mountains, and riders, being in one location for a number of nights, unpack and repack only once in a multi-day period.
• Other outdoor activities available in the area, such as kayaking, hiking and whale watching can be easily accessed and used to compliment the cycling.  For example, cycling in a cool rain is often uncomfortable, but if paddling a kayak or whale watching from a covered vessel in that same cool rain one often forgets that it’s raining;
• Weather forecasts describing the three somewhat distinct weather conditions that exist at the Top of the Island (ie: westerly, easterly and northerly exposures) can be used to plan day trips, allowing cyclists to minimze chances of riding in inclement weather;
• Day trippers can use Sea Spray’s shuttle service for transport over the mountains to distant starting points, allowing them to ride back to their accommodations.  As well, groups containing cyclists of mixed abilities can plan a number of drop-off points, minimizing fatigue for weaker riders while including challenges for stronger cyclists...and everyone arrives home at the same time, smiling...especially after having taken our suggestions and including a short hike to view moose.
• Since at Sea Spray automobile racks are included with our rentals, our clients choosing a non-cycling activity for part or most of the day can still, if they wish, “rack the bike” and drive to a trailhead for a short “sunset” ride at day’s end, or “after the rain”.

Our recommendation from years of assisting cyclists:

• Book our rentals for a week, thereby receiving our weekly discounts and keeping the bikes for “quickie” rides. 
• Then plan three solid riding days, mixed in with a couple of non-riding activities, such as hikes, whale watches, kayak tours or just walking our miles of deserted beaches.
• Use the local long-range forecast to plan your cycling days, and “fill in the gaps” with the other activities.  And remember the “quickie” rides for sunsets, local photo ops, and so on.

Feel free to contact us for additional guidance.