Sunday, September 15, 2024

Sept. 3rd, 2024, Day 7 East Coast - Ingonish Beach

We experienced 2 quick showers in the morning, interrupted by blue sky and sunshine. And then we had a nice day weatherwise. After breakfast we hiked straight from the Ingonish-Beach campground to the start of the Middle-Head trail. Middle-Head is a long stretched peninsula. The first portion of the walk from the campground to the begin of the trail runs along a golf course (with luxury lodge and all the usual facilities). Once we walked through all of this we reached the parking lot that is the actual start of the trail. The trail goes through forestry areas with some cliffs being passed as well in a figure-eight fashion. Some of this has some similarities to the West-Coast Trail: deep blue sky, crystal clear water with waves crashing against some cliffs, trees (deciduous and pines) with lots of lichen. and in the figure-eight a meadow were one can see the sea on both sides and finally a very nice tip with a meadow again and the iconic red Adirondack chair. We looked out for whales on both sides/coves of the peninsula, but without luck. The whole trail  from the campground all the way to the tip of the peninsula and back was about 9km or so.

Please note that the map above is not accurate in terms of the hiking path. I added the map more for reference where the Ingonish-Beach campground is related to the Middle-Head peninsula.

After we returned to the campground, we organised a campsite move. The existing site turned out to be very uneven making sleeping a bit difficult. Also it was judged to far away from the hut with the electricity. Ingonish-Beach campground was probably max 50% occupied. So organizing a move was easy.

Once that was accomplished we headed for the "Main Street Restaurant". The place was very popular. However after all was eaten we concluded that it was a bit overpriced or in other words the food was not as good as we hoped for. My special of the day halibut with fries and vegetables was not bad, but totally overpriced with 40$. Margarets and Gongyu's fish and chips had a too thick batter and the slaw was ordinary. And Daniella was also not entirely happy. However the place  was crowded and had a long waiting queue. There is a German saying: You have to earn your money from the living ...

After coming back from dinner we walked from the campground down to the beach of Ingonish-Beach. The beach is a nice sand beach and about 1.5km long. Gongyu meditated at the beach entrance. Margaret, Daniella and I walked the whole beach from the entrance to the far end and back. At low tide and into a nice late evening this was very nice. After we were back at the campground it was getting dark. The night sky in Ingonish-Beach is very nice. I went out of the tent very late for a washroom visit. I have to say the night-sky looked as good as in the dark cove at the Fundy astronomy event. Looks of stars. Super duper.

The Ingonish-Beach campground has a very good ratio of facilities to campsites. Everything is clean and feels very good.

Our new tent also turned out to be so far, so good. It offers more depth and width compared to our existing tent. Enough space for 4 people to sleep. However its height is more limited compared to our old tent. This makes changing clothes and getting in and out a bit more difficult. The new tent feels a lot more airy and is probably not as heat-preserving efficient compared to our old tent. We have yet to test it during a cold night. Also there appears to be condensed water accumulation on the inside of the outer  tent. Initially we also missed pockets inside the tent. But after a few nights we discovered that the pockets were placed in the top part of the tent and not in the bottom part like in our existing tent. All in all we are adjusting to the new tent.

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