From Ma Bell to Mary Ann Falls

Saturday, July 20 – Day 32

We took our time today as it was only about a 10 minute drive from our campsite to downtown Baddeck, Nova Scotia.  We arrived at the Alexander Graham Bell National Historic Site shortly after 10:00 AM. Everyone remembers Bell for his invention of the telephone, but he also developed or improved upon the gramophone and the hydrofoil for boats; he was also involved with the first flight of an aircraft in the British Commonwealth.  It was on frozen Lake Bras D’Or, near his home in Baddeck, NS, in February 1909,  that the Silver Dart was flown.  He was also a teacher of the deaf and invented several hearing aid devices. 

Bell came to the Baddeck area in 1885, to escape the summer heat in Washington, DC and built his summer “home” here the following year. Beinn Bhreagh was the Scottish name that he gave his retreat, meaning “Beautiful Mountain”.  (The family home is still maintained by his heirs and is not open to the public.)  He had already invented the telephone and was wealthy enough to devote his time to other interests.  He was considered a bit of an “eccentric” by the locals because he would often be seen flying tetrahedron kites or trying some new hydrofoil watercraft. The museum has a large number of personal photos and inventions made by Bell and you get a good feeling about the person, that Alexander Graham Bell was.

We spent about 2 1/2 hours in the museum and returned to our trailer for a quick lunch and we were off once again on the Cabot Trail – we were told that we should do the trail from both directions to get a better perspective of the scenery and Cape Breton National Park.  So with that thought in mind we set out once again.  We stopped at many of the scenic lookouts that we saw yesterday in the rain but it was much nicer to actually see something today. 

We had heard about a waterfall (Mary Ann waterfall) on the east side of the park which we understood was only a short distance off of the main Cabot Trail, so we decided to drive there.  We proceeded down a single lane dirt track that had not been graded for some time.  The ridges in the”road” sent the rear-end of the truck skittering across the roadway…the posted maximum speed of 30 Km/hour was optimistic.  It took us close to 1/2 hour to travel the 7 Km.  At the end of the road we had another .2 Km hike to the falls.  This was taking on the trappings of a full fledged expedition.  Janet opted-out and left me to go it alone.  The down hill incline of the path helped get me there fairly quickly. When I went down the final 39 steps I came upon “party central” – there were about 2 dozen kids there drinking and diving off the rocks – in general just having a good time. 

The old man crashing their party didn’t seem to bother them. 

The hike back to the parking lot gave me considerably more exercise.  We finally got home around 7:45.  Janet is getting less and less tolerant of these day long excursions.