I'm planning a solo ride in Novia Scotia and looking for advice. All I know so far about this area is what I've seen from the two links below (the second one is the route from his video). I'm not doing this entire route, I have not yet figured out exactly how far I'm going. The plan is for about 5-7 days.

What I like from this video is the fall foliage and the remoteness, but I also like the occasional cafe, diner, restaurant, etc.


Cycling Canada - Nova Scotia · Ride with GPS

I've noticed there are not a lot of publicly available routes in that area on Ride with GPS, but I don't have a lot of experience with this site.

Anyway, thanks for taking a look.

Do you have a starting point? What time of year you going to do it? Are you from here?

In reality your route is going to be from campground to campground. Outside of the Halifax area, it’s not like the roads are super busy, so most any route would work. The Cape Breton loop is the most popular and scenic as well as the hilliest.

The starting point is up in the air at this time. I plan on taking the train from Montreal, which stops in 3 places in Nova Scotia I believe. Right now I'm planning on doing this in the fall, although thanks to a bit of seasonal depression, my ambition tends to wane a bit that time of year. I'm currently from Vermont, but I've never been so embarrassed to be part of the US.

I can't offer much of a suggestion for a 5 to 7 day trip. I was there for 33 days, not counting start and end dates for travel to and from. That was in 2019. But if you have some specific questions, I might be able to help. But, things may have changed in six years.

I flew in and out of Halifax. Stayed at the HI hostel at the start and end in Halifax. There was a bike shop in Halifax, they were quite helpful with me, Cyclesmith.

My route was on the map below. The numbered spots are where I stayed overnight. Mostly camping, but I also stayed at a hostel on Cape Breton Island and one in Charlottetown, PEI.



Some of the provincial parks in NS had hike in campsites, much more secluded than the regular campsites. Photo below is one of the sites I stayed at, this was a hike in site overlooking Bay of Fundy. You can see a small tent on the far left in the photo at a distance, that was an adjacent hike in site.



Tide was out for the photo above. Tide was in for the photo below.



I was in Ontario last summer in June, and I can tell you that the provincial campgrounds generally had open sites on week days, but can be full on weekends in June. But on or after Canada Day, campsites might all be full on weekends. Weekdays after Canada Day, I can't comment on.

I like to do my trips in June when campsites are less full and fewer RVs on the roads. But June often means wetter too.

If you drive there, you have more flexibility than I had, I flew in and out of Halifax, thus that was my start and end point.

Cabot Trail is borderline food desert, not many grocery stores.

I highly recommend the Propeller Double IPA.

as mentioned above the Cabot Trail in Cape Breton is very scenic, especially in the fall.

I had read it was scenic, I must have been there the wrong couple of days.



Next day, below.



In planning my trip, I put the grocery stores into my GPS. This was the first one I saw for several days, it was maybe 1 km off the route. I mentioned in my first post that it was a food desert.



Finally, a nice day:

Yes lol...thats one thing we have an abundance of here...fog lol

This pleasant one way trip was about a week of cycling ...



I first rode 70 miles from my home in NH to Portland ME and took the overnight ferry to Yarmouth NS. My destination was the Stan Rogers Folk Music Festival in Canso. I made the side trip to Stellarton only to pick up a one way rental car for the return to Yarmouth and for transportation to night shows at the venue (my campsite was a few miles away). Stellarton was about 400 miles from Yarmouth by my route.

I drove the final stretch from Stellarton to Canso, I would have much preferred to have cycled all the way to Canso up the Atlantic coast.

I found affordable campgrounds every night except one when I took a motel. The trip was at least 20 years ago so I don't recall the exact stops and roads taken but it was close to the above map. Having an event as a destination was wonderful!

In summer 2019 we (tandem) toured/camped the circumference of NS except for Cape Breton. The secondary roads had enough traffic to be annoying and no shoulders. Many places were beautiful. The black flies are a factor at camp (understatement). Was this tour wonderful enough that we would repeat?.... Nope.



Not sure if you have done any of Route Verte in Quebec, especially along the St. Lawrence and Gaspe, but if not, that is much more bike friendly, and the food, wine, camping are great.

I agree with comments above that some roads were busy, shoulderless & in bad shape (20 years ago). Cycling infrastructure was poor & yes, those pesky black flies!

The northern shoreline from Amherst to Antigonish was particularly nice. Very little traffic and the breeze at camp near the water kept the black flies busy.

yup...the blackflies/mosquitoes and horseflies can be awful. Often along the atlantic coast we get a good breeze to help somewhat, but with a wet spring, they can be terrible.

This is the Blue route. The plan is to have a network of Bike friendly roads. Its been a slow roll out, but there have been improvements.
https://blueroute.ca/status-map/

Also here is a map of Cycle friendly business and shops
https://bikefriendlyns.ca/

I thought that the mosquitos were exceptionally bad in a few campgrounds and on some of the gravel trails, but that was in June. The OP is looking at fall.

They were outside my tent screen door, waiting for me to open my tent door so that they could come in for breakfast.

My trip was many years ago but when camping on the south coast, it was the only time I’ve had to pack up my tent and the rest of my stuff at a full run. The mosquitos were real bad. Imagine taking down a tent and rolling it up at a full run ☹️

On another trip near Trois-Rivières, “up” the north bank of the St Laurence, I was impressed with how all the back porches AND the swimming pools were enclosed in screens. Some tough mosquitos and black flies.

Otherwise eastern Canada is one of my favorite places to visit, wander and explore. BTW OP, seriously consider visiting Truro to see the tidal bore on the Salmon River. We got up at 1:00am to go see it. Well worth it.

I also have clear memories of really bad mosquitoes in some campgrounds in N.S, but that was during the summer, family car vacation probably 20 years ago. Headnets and long sleeved tops and long pants are the only way to go when its like that--just as I had to do in Scotland in august 2 years ago.
Fall will be better obviously, although I would seriously look at weather patterns and such, as cold, windy, rainy weather could be a crappy experience. Winds are always going to be more prevalent out there, so do your research and have reliable full rain gear that you know works well.

also, I assume campgrounds close in the fall, so you'd really want to look into those details also, although B+Bs and whatnot are always going to be going (but colourful leaves Fall tourists could mean less availability also with these, so try to get an idea of how hard it would be finding last minute accomodation.

Thanks everyone, this is a great place to get help.

I grew up in Minnesota where my ancestors were for several generations. Thus, I have some natural immunity to mosquitos. In Minnesota, if a baby tastes good to a mosquito, the mosquito flies away with the baby to eat later. But babies that tasted bad to mosquitos were left behind to produce future generations of Minnesotans. <If you believe that, I have a bridge to sell you.>

I usually use Picaridin for repellant, it works pretty well but I may have to reapply it several times during the day when they are really bad. Last summer on a backpacking trip in Northern Minnesota I think I put it on about 5 or 6 times each day. I use the lotion, not the spray. And I only put enough on that I do not feel greasy after application.

I have tried spraying some of my bike clothing, such as knit jerseys that are easy for the bugs to bite through with Permethrin, but since I started doing that I have not yet been in a really buggy place to test how well it works. But I think that Permethrin is not available in Canada based on past comments I have seen in this forum. I used the Permethrin that REI sells by Sawyer.

Yeah no Permethrin here. I usually buy a bottle or two from Bass Pro when we visit the US. Ticks are bad here, so that helps.

Check out these folks' blog Peregrinating the USA and the World

https://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/...src=page_first

You have to go to about page 100 or so but they spent quite a bit of time riding around Nova Scotia.

Sam

I found the route from Halifax to Yarmouth somewhat of a snoozer as it skips the coast a lot. Cape Breton was gorgeous ... I would plan on decreasing my daily mileage there and spend more time in that loop. I also skipped going to Newfoundland. That was 30 years ago and I have still not made it to Newfoundland even though I live close by in Maine. So perhaps you could consider adding Newfoundland and perhaps even visiting France - the two small islands next to Newfoundland called St. Pierre and Michelon ?

If in the fall, double check campgrounds as some may close early. Seafood is fantastic. Since you are in the neighborhood, PEI is nice cycling and then the Iles Madelines are a 5 hour ferry ride away from Souris. A really different place. If you go, the loupe marin (seal) is excellent.
coming from the US you will enjoy the two exchange rates: CD$ are about $0.70 US, and the distances are in kilometers, 1.6 to the mile so it s not 10 miles to camp, but only 6!
P.S. Where in VT, I'm in Bradford.

Yup. When I go on a trip to somewhere near the ocean, fish and chips is my go-to restaurant choice.





Both of the above are on Cape Breton Island, below is on PEI.

Did a Fish n chip ride on Saturday!