Pleasant Bay to Ingonish Beach

We woke up to rain this morning which we were hoping would be done by 11. It wasn’t 😬. No choice but to pack up and hit the road as checkout was 11. As we said goodbye to Pleasant Bay, we began our biggest day on the bike yet.

As we started out there was a light rain that slowly dissipated, however, that didn’t make much of a difference. Our first climb was the biggest of the day with 426 m of elevation over 6 km. It was longer than yesterday’s climb but had a lower average grade. I could definitely feel the previous days rides on my legs while on the climbs. As we made our way up North Mountain we disappeared into the clouds, which meant everything got soaked. At the top of the climb there was an emergency shelter with a bench, wood burning stove and an emergency phone. It also had power outlets and lights. Not a terrible place to spend some time if things went really south on a trip.

The decent down the backside of North Mountain was epic!!! Not too many twists or turns which allowed me to get some fun speed on the way down. As we all passed the turn off to Dingwall there was a stunning view of the ocean, just a sneak peak of what was to come.

There were three more climbs before we hit the coast, one that had 232 m over 5 km, but the other two very manageable compared to the previous two monsters. As we rolled through Neil’s Harbour the view of the coast started. We made a few stops along the way and I almost caused crash with Cory at one spot, sorry Cory!!! Another pleasant surprise as progressed along our journey is the sun came out for the last 90 minutes of our journey. Both of us are sunburnt and don’t bring any sunscreen

Before we hit Ingonish there was one more little climb with a nice decent towards the coast. As we rode along the highway we could see our accommodations across the bay, but they were still almost 10 km away.

When we arrived, it was a welcome break off the bike. We’re checked in and unpacking for the night.Read more