Meat Cove – Cape St. Lawrence – Lowland Cove loop trail

more extreme caching near Meat Cove, Cape Breton

(hike fotos on flickr)

Lighthouse ruins at Cape St. Lawrence

The Meat Cove – Cape St. Lawrence – Lowland Cove loop is a great beginner hike with lots of rugged coastal scenery. It would be an ideal spot, for example, to take a scout troop.

The three hour hike demands some planning and careful packing but the terrain is not overly challenging and the trails are easy to follow.

Youre mostly walking on woods roads and four wheeler trails – and anywhere the motorized mules can go, a hiker can go easily and without worry of losing the path.

The loop makes a fun day-hike or a super overnighter with lots of beach and woods to explore.

There were in fact people camped at Cape St. Lawrence when I did the hike in early July 2009. I wish I had thought of it. In retrospect it seems silly that I paid to sleep on the ground in Meat Cove.

My alarm clock going off in Meat Cove (set for 5.17 am)

Not that I regret it. The Meat Cove campground is in a great location – literally at the end of the road – with a fantastic view over the water to St. Paul’s Island and of Nova Scotia’s most northern headlands.

This tiny community (notice I didnt say village – i think that would be saying too much) is a perfect base for exploring the hills and coast around the northwestern tip of Cape Breton Island. There are lots of other hikes out of Meat Cove besides the Cape St. Lawrence – Lowland Cove loop: there’s Meat Cove Mountain, the Little Grassy trail, a trail to a former zinc mine and of course, the beach below Meat Cove itself – with a waterfall tumbling over a cliff and directly into the ocean.

The campground’s Chowder House restaurant is a tasty place to fuel up and, as it turns out, meet German tourists. The Chowder House doesnt offer breakfast but the local community centre does and you can get on the Internet there.

You pay for both showers and for firewood at the campground. If tenting (20$) is too rough for you, there are also some simple cabins here for 60$ a night. Next time I may just plan to arrive in Meat Cove with enough time to hike to Cape St. Lawrence, park my car at the campground (for a “small fee”) and stay overnight out on the coast.

In 2009 my alarm clock was a stunning sunrise from my bivysack at 5.17 am. After a quick cold breakfast I started walking at 6. The trail is uphill to start but the worst is at the very beginning and the rest of the trip is mostly slow and easy down to the coast.

Lighthouse ruins at Cape St. Lawrence with the Cape Breton Highlands behind

There’s a geocache (GCXAN8) hidden at Cape St. Lawrence and I used those coordinates to guide me to the coast. The cache description also includes these tips:

Head up the trail starting at N47 01.527 W060 33.680 and just follow it until you come to the second trail on the right (marked by flagging tape and two yellow signs). Follow that trail through the woods (saw a moose here) and down the steep Bear Hill. After the hike down the hill, continue along the trail to the cache. You will see the ruins of some old lighthouses in the cache area, and you can see St. Paul Island way in the distance on clear days. Good luck!

After an hour’s easy hiking I was on the coast and looking for the geocache. I didnt see any moose. My log is below (FTFY means first to find this year):

FTFTY
7 am

after watching a glorious red sunrise from my bivy at the meat cove campground i got up at 6:00 and started walking. beautiful out on the coast – there was a camp of sleeping muggles there – i made friendswith the dog. he wanted to come to the next cache i think – but i sent him home.
warm windy sunny bugless beautiful day
quick easy find

T4TC
“D

Seaside sculptures

I could easily have spent more time here just soaking up the early morning sun, poking round the lighthouse ruins and drinking in the sea breeze, but i was curious as hell to explore further down the coast.

Close to 2k south was another cache in a spot known as The Fox Den (GCXANA).

Fox Den
FTFTY
7:45 AM

what a great hike. i love hiking the shore. love it. climbing rocks, checking the coves to see what driftwood or garbage or buoys they have collected, watching the birds and the whales – and the scenery out here – sunny windy bugless perfect summer day on the coast quick find – thanks so much for bringing me

ill be back
“D

Fishing near Lowland cove

Another two or three k south down the coast, all in all a full hour from Cape St. Lawrence just going easy and taking my time, I came to Lowland Cove.

Rannie Gillis, a Cape Breton historian who writes motorcycle travelogues for the Cape Breton Post, wrote in a column on Sept. 20 2010 about his motorized trip to Lowland Cove that the place never had any permanent residents.

There is however a plaque in the cove dedicated to the memory of John W. Fraser who lived alone out there for 12 years. There was also perhaps a lightkeeper at Cape St. Lawrence. And a quick search of the internet revealed a genealogical site listing several more frasers born there.

There is no doubt however that the area (like Pollets Cove) has been used as a summer pasture for horses and cattle since the 1850s. When I arrived that morning there were three horses grazing there.

just a few of the wild strawberries i gathered in lowland cove

There is a fast clear stream and well-established campsite in Lowland Cove with a breathtaking view of the great headlands to the south. I had the good fortune to watch a fisherman hauling lobster traps south of the cove in the shadow of those high hills.

Best of all though were the wild strawberries carpetting the ground here. i feasted and feasted on the tasty little devils.

i had a bit of trouble and a bit of luck with the third cache of the hike. (The word SPRUCE is in all caps in the log below because the clue for the cache was “in a pine bush”. But there was no pine for miles round this spot. It’s a pet peeve of mine that people are always misnaming trees in the geocaching clues. rather than help, it often confuses those of us who know the difference. the misnomer however wasnt my problem on this trip. DNF means did not find)

Lowland Cove (GCXANC)

Grazing near Lowland Cove

two quick finds and then…

the GPS led me to small SPRUCE bush – scratchy – but i looked quickly – nothing – scratched myself some more – still nothing – across the stream? up the slope? along the stream? checked a bit of the stream for an ammo can (what do i know?)
gorged myself on strawberries -handfulls of them – so yummy
looked again – practically stood inside SPRUCE bush.
arrggh
went for a picnic out by the coast, looking down at the waterfalllooking again – everywhere – ok, i give up. so much for my DNFless streak…
wanted to go for a peek round the next point. had to cross stream practically at waterfalls edge – whats that? a big white tub? could it be?

The Lowland Cove cache, rescued and contents spread out to dry

yes, wedged in the rocks at the bottom of the stream was the cache. everything in it a soaking mess. turns out sportsman was right to worry about the spring flood…

i put the mess in the BUSH – right in the scrathiest bit of her – but i think pushkin youll have to plan a trip out here soon and fix’er up and maybe choose a safer spot before next spring.
so glad i found her – and such a fluke

it took me another to get back to meat cove where i had a big breakfast at the community centre – beans and fishcakes and coffee coffee coffee – and apple pie to wash it all down.

i also filled my waterbottles at the community centre and headed up the trail to look for the last cache (at that time) in Meat Cove:  Meat Cove Mountain (GC148CH).

Looking down from Meat Cove Mountain

the trail starts just around the corner from the community centre, although as i remember it from a year ago, the trail head wasnt especially well-marked. once on the trail, you just keep heading up. a tough climb considering id already been hiking all morning but no more than an hour i think – at any rate the view was worth it – in one direction you can look back a long deep valley into the highlands and in the other you are peering right down on meat cove – all 12 buildings or so – oh and out over the ocean of course.

i didnt stay up top too long as the souetes, strong southeast winds, were roaring across the hill tops at 90kmh or more – this cache took a while but then that was it – the last (at that time) of the meat cove caches, and the last of the most northerly cape breton geocaches.

(There is an entry on clubtread.com describing the meat cove trails in specific detail. I cannot vouch for these details but offer the link for the curious. The road to Meat Cove washed out in a couple spots after Hurricane Igor struck and at the time of writing, normal access to the community has still not been restored.)

i had found 22 of the caches north of cape breton highlands national park – there were 11 left – but this story is a bit long already – ill add the rest of the caches and miscellaneous hikes in my next post.