Base of Smokey Mountain to the base of North Mountain 80km 3:03:14
We woke early excited for the journey ahead. We were driven back to the base of Cape Smokey where we had ended the previous days journey. While loading the bicycles onto the bike rack we noticed the frames had taken in a lot of water, the force of the water off of the tires pushed the water into the bicycle frames and drained through tiny holes near the rear tire. Mike and I had at least a cup of water in our frames when we drained them. We were in for a very hard ride today. Cape Smokey is a steep climb with switch-backs 5km up, this was to be the hardest climb of the trip. With the previous days rains the hills had sand washed from the shoulders of the road onto the pavement. While shifting gears Mike lost focus on the road and with sand on the pavement he lost his balance and crashed going up Smokey. This was the only upset of the entire ride but it was a wake up call to be more aware of the road surface. He made it out with a little scratch as he was going slow up hill but his main chainring shifter was bent but still usable. 
We had thick fog 
going up Smokey and when we descended 7km back down the weather was overcast for the entire day and the pavement was dry. After Ingonish you enter the Cape Breton Highlands National Park and the pavement gets much better. We were headed for Cape North and the Hideaway Campground & Oyster Market http://www.campingcapebreton.com/. We turned the corner at Neils Harbour and were now headed West towards North Mountain. We had a long climb out of Neils Harbour but we were used to the terrain by now and a long hill wasn't that bad. We had gone about 55km by the time we reached the campground and decided to travel further befor stopping for the night. We made it to the base of North Mountain and were glad to stop for the day. Starting the day with a climb up Cape Smokey took a lot of the "stuffing" out of us and after having ridden 120km the previous day, we stopped after only going 80km today. Since it was overcast and the weather man was calling for rain we tried to look for another cottage but they were all booked up, so we tented. We showered, had a big dinner and went to bed.
We woke early excited for the journey ahead. We were driven back to the base of Cape Smokey where we had ended the previous days journey. While loading the bicycles onto the bike rack we noticed the frames had taken in a lot of water, the force of the water off of the tires pushed the water into the bicycle frames and drained through tiny holes near the rear tire. Mike and I had at least a cup of water in our frames when we drained them. We were in for a very hard ride today. Cape Smokey is a steep climb with switch-backs 5km up, this was to be the hardest climb of the trip. With the previous days rains the hills had sand washed from the shoulders of the road onto the pavement. While shifting gears Mike lost focus on the road and with sand on the pavement he lost his balance and crashed going up Smokey. This was the only upset of the entire ride but it was a wake up call to be more aware of the road surface. He made it out with a little scratch as he was going slow up hill but his main chainring shifter was bent but still usable. 
We had thick fog 
going up Smokey and when we descended 7km back down the weather was overcast for the entire day and the pavement was dry. After Ingonish you enter the Cape Breton Highlands National Park and the pavement gets much better. We were headed for Cape North and the Hideaway Campground & Oyster Market http://www.campingcapebreton.com/. We turned the corner at Neils Harbour and were now headed West towards North Mountain. We had a long climb out of Neils Harbour but we were used to the terrain by now and a long hill wasn't that bad. We had gone about 55km by the time we reached the campground and decided to travel further befor stopping for the night. We made it to the base of North Mountain and were glad to stop for the day. Starting the day with a climb up Cape Smokey took a lot of the "stuffing" out of us and after having ridden 120km the previous day, we stopped after only going 80km today. Since it was overcast and the weather man was calling for rain we tried to look for another cottage but they were all booked up, so we tented. We showered, had a big dinner and went to bed.
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