The bikes, ready for for day:

The stone steps leading to the beach:

On the road towards Cheticamp:

After gassing up in the small boating town Cheticamp, where we had dinner at last night, we take on the last section of the Cabot Trail. This part has us going through some country backroads before joining back up with the road that brought us here. We did make a wrong turn here but were able to join back up with the Cabot Trail a few miles up the road. If I didn’t know where I was, I would think we were riding through backcountry of Scotland. Incredibly lush scenery and weathered buildings a few generations old.

The docks of Cheticamp at sunrise:

The west side of the Cabot Trail had a few wind turbine generators at some of the small communities:

More coastline:

Once back on 105, we follow the route we came from. Pass the gas station, and a few people are hanging around. No one I recognize is there, including our pup we met earlier. We soon find ourselves back onto the main part of Nova Scotia. I decide not to get gas and wait it out.

Watching my trip odometer, I start feeling a bit nervous. After passing the last gas station, I get the fuel light come on, almost as if to mock me in my daring attempt to go the distance on the tank. Like an idiot I never filled up my spare fuel tank. The irony of needing gas, all while having an empty fuel canister, is almost painful.

After about 30 miles we appear to get closer to civilization but no gas stations yet. We hit some construction, appears to be a repaving job of Hwy 105, and they have the road shut down for a bit. We get off the bikes and during the downtime I check out the GPS to see if any gas stations are close by. Fortunately, there appears to be one just 4 miles ahead. THANK GOD!!!

We soon continue on once the lanes open up and make our way to the gas station. After having sat in traffic for a little while, we take a few moments to grab some water and snacks. A local chats up with us about the local area and how fortunate we are in our timing. Apparently it was consistently in the 40’s in the mornings not but two weeks earlier. He talks about how he used to work in a powersports shop, and that the riding season was so short they rarely got any bikes in and typically worked on snowmobiles and ATV’s all year long.

We soon leave Nova Scotia and enter back into New Brunswick via Trans Canada Hwy Route 2. The roads soon start taking on more of an interstate feel to them, and become limited access. The skies are still clear and after some time we make another stop. This just so happens to be the same spot we stopped at yesterday when we were just about to enter Nova Scotia. Quite a coincidence!

While filling up, a guy on a 929 comes in to gas up as well. He gives us a heads up that there was a police officer using radar just ahead towards Nova Scotia. We just came from there and I saw the officer, although he has a car pulled over at the time. Fortunately we aren’t heading that way but I thank him for the heads up. Judd and I pull into a parking spot to discuss the day’s plans. We’re hoping we can make Quebec by nightfall, and hopefully with enough light to camp someplace. We had stayed at more hotels than we had planned so far so we were hoping to make up for it with cheap camping.

A guy pulls up on a VStrom. He waves hi, and seeing us with our maps, asks us where we are heading. He gives us some ideas on what to expect and a more realistic time schedule. He thinks Quebec is possible but not before the sun goes down. He gives us an idea of what to expect along the route, along with a warning not to speed. Not due to police, but due to the moose presence in many spots there.

Once we get out to that area, it was incredible. It’s about as “wilderness” as a limited access highway could have been. The side of the interstate was lined with a wire fence along the whole distance, surely to keep the animals off of the road. I kept an eye out on the side of the road but never did see anything. There was some pretty good scenery along this road.

Hanging out on the side of the road, somewhere in New Brunswick:

Hey, when you gotta go, you gotta go! Pretty surroundings, though!

At another gas stop, I scope out another sportbike. The yellow sign in the background reads "Snowmobile Parking Only":

Harsh winters here, huh?!

I've killed my fair share of bugs so far:

We did end up getting rained on a bit during the last couple hours of riding for the day. Nothing major, and I don’t think we even really changed into our rain gear for it. Mostly just a 20 second rain cloud and then dry again… back and forth a few times. But finally the sun stayed out long enough for us to grab some gas and food. Just another 20 miles and we will be at the border. We ride up a few more exits in an attempt to scope out a good camping spot.

Once we find a good exit, we pull off into the camping area. At the guard shack they ask us a few details and we fill out some paperwork. One detail we are noticing here is they are speaking French between themselves. A definite sign we are close to Quebec. They ask us if we are using one tent or two. We reply that we are in separate tents. Big mistake. We get hit with a double charge. This was going to be an expensive camping stop! At $22 per tent, we get charged almost $45 for one spot for the night. They have warm showers, so at this point, we don’t care.

We find a spot and start setting up camp:

By this point in the trip, I had gotten used to this. Having two cell phones with two different carriers didn't help at all. I am sure Tiffany was not so pleased about the reception: