My birthday is close enough to Christmas that it doesn't lend itself to a big trip. It's also when winter's really starting to settle in, so there's alarm over conserving days to get away come abysmal February, March & April.

All that being said, I still like to go somewhere. Leaving work one afternoon, soon enough I was sitting alone in the cool oceanic night, the only one on the top floor sundeck of the MV Highlanders, sipping a smuggled Millah Lite while Newfoundland's Channel Head Lighthouse floated away. In 7 hours I would be in Nova Scotia.

Docking in North Sydney and eventually boarding the little bus that brings foot passengers to the terminal, it was now time to wait for the checked bags that are brought on a separate baggage cart.

So I waited and waited, until I had it explained to me that a broken down semi-truck had the baggage cart blocked in and a new policy stated that they don't tow vehicles anymore. I would have to wait for a 3rd party to tow the truck before my baggage could be freed. Marine Atlantic was clearly getting their revenge on me for not buying a $9 can of beer onboard.

The jokes on them though, as this allowed me to walk the 3km (1.8 mi) to the AVIS car rental location without pulling my bike behind me.

Even if that delay was a slight hassle, it was still spectacular to land in North Sydney and find the ground mostly dry & the temperatures in the upper 40s. This little trimming of winter makes all the difference & I was overjoyed as I flowed around Sydney's Coxheath skatepark.

The Cape Breton area still holds some interest because I haven't systematically went through all of its attractions yet. Knowing that Cape Breton is the most likely place I would cycletour or take a boat to, I'm quite happy I've never spent a week there checking out every last thing. There's still stuff to see.

Therefore after Coxheath Skatepark and Taco Bell in Sydney - what up Steve! - I went over to Glace Bay for the first time in years. The only other time I was there I remember briefly looking around a downtrodden downtown before quickly stumbling upon their skatepark. This time I enjoyed the sight of a few turn of the century, large homes, before continuing into the east side of town and going down a quiet side street where things had changed into split-level bungalows from the 1960s. It's here that I found the Glace Bay Range Front Lighthouse just outside the fence of someone's backyard.

The Dominion Coal Company would make a boomtown out of Glace Bay. In 1893, they attracted workers from Britain, mainland Europe, Newfoundland and rural Nova Scotia to work in their 11 coal mines here, a testament to the quality of accessible coal beneath this area. In fact, Glace Bay was at times home to the largest and most productive coal mines in North America.

Producing 40% of Canada's coal, there was an obvious need for a lighthouse to guide ships off the North Atlantic and into Glace Cove. A pair of range lighthouses were built in 1907, with the above lighthouse being the front & a much larger lighthouse being the back (lighthouse). The way these two lighthouses would work was either you could line up the two lights, or you would see the correct colours coming from both lights, which indicated that you were on a safe path into the harbour.¹

1 - This is typically how range lights work. It's not known which
of these methods were used by the Glace Bay Lights.

These two lighthouses were discontinued in 1980 and pretty much forgotten. It's only through the research of the lightkeeper's granddaughter that some information is available online today.

Pat Buckley, granddaughter of lightkeeper Murdock Wilson, had an old photo of the rear lighthouse and a memory from her deceased mother telling her that her grandfather was a lightkeeper here in Glace Bay. It's only after a visit to Glace Bay and the local museum, that they talked to retired fisherman turned museum worker, Abbie Michalik, who brought them down this side street and showed them the old front lighthouse.

(It remains unclear how this property owner came to having this lighthouse on his/her property.)

Unfortunately, for all of the history & how easy this lighthouse would be to maintain, it is in extremely rough shape today. I was able to peer right into the gaping hole in its side, seeing that it looked like it used to be an old children's pseudo-treehouse or maybe a very basic cabin (there were a few shelves and a bed inside).

I don't know of any plans to move or renovate the Glace Bay Range Front Lighthouse.

The rain picked back up as I returned to the car, working to squash my plans to ride a flat rail I had scouted out in Glace Bay. In addition, the abandoned post office this rail was in front of looked quite sealed. It was clearly time to move on.

I drove around Sydney for a while looking for something interesting and good enough to make biking in the light drizzle worthwhile. In the end I just went back to North Sydney Skatepark, where I was tired but I knew it was supposed to rain the next day. It was also dry in North Sydney and the calm, warm evening put a smile on my face as I went to work on the park's two slippery smooth, metal I-beams.

Along the way I grabbed my customary room at the Royale Hotel, a throwback of an old inn housed in a building built in 1895 with three floors of rooms, including some with shared baths. For $70/night and always perfectly clean? There's no way to go wrong.

I remain loyal to this place because otherwise I'd be stuck budgeting $150/night for the Holiday Inn or $170/night for the Cambridge Suites. I'd rather spend the money on more trips to Sydney than the cookie-cut comfort a chain hotel gets me. It also made me happy that there was another guy at the front desk with his daughter, who echoed the same exact sentiment.

Plus the front desk guy even upgraded my room to one with its own bathroom at no charge.

Tonight would feature another walk upon what were becoming familiar streets, over to the Centre 200 for the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles vs the Moncton Wildcats. I was extra excited tonight because Pierre-Luc Dubois had emerged as one of the top prospects of his age group, starring for what had now become my "local" hockey team.

PLD would end up getting a couple of assists and the third star in a spirited matchup where Cape Breton took a 3-0 lead, then Moncton tied it up, they traded goals, then Cape Breton finished them off with 2 minutes left to win 5-4.

It was a funny thing about now attending my third game at the Centre 200. I found that it was starting to have a place in my heart and it was making me happy like older rinks instantaneously do. I'd always thought the Centre 200 was just alright, but now with some older memories, in addition to seeing Pierre-Luc Dubois tonight, fond memories were stacking like wood pallets. To get this feeling of seeing a hockey game in an arena I like, this was tipping the scales of whether the cost and effort of coming to Cape Breton was worth it.

Plus I saw Frankie MacDonald when I was leaving.

I stirred in the night at the rattling of my old bedroom window, discovering that the forecasted rain and wind had arrived come morning. Since I didn't have to be out of my room until sometime this afternoon - they were easy going with the checkout time like I'm sure you'd also get at the Holiday Inn/Cambridge Suites - I threw on my rain gear and went for my customary walk around Sydney.

The rain didn't stop, to the point where when I returned to the Royal Hotel I felt bad for how wet I was as I trudged inside. It was to the point that my stomach and all of my chest was wet, just from water running down my hair and also pooling at the base of my rain jacket.

Nevertheless, I enjoyed my walk around Sydney. Especially the neighbourhood to the southeast of downtown, which has become my favourite place to walk whenever I'm over here.

Changing into dry clothes, I didn't abuse the hotel's loose check-out time since I wanted to get going on midday adventures. I figured I would treat myself to another lighthouse, one that most people who've lived in Nova Scotia have seen, but one I've kept saving & saving for some random pie in the sky Cape Breton lighthouse cycling trip.

The reason most people have been to Louisbourg is because of the National Historic Site. Once the capital of France's holdings in Atlantic Canada, Parks Canada decided to rebuild a quarter of the old fortress in 1961. This historical reconstruction is regarded as one of the greatest in the world, one that went so far as to train out of work coal miners in 18th-centruy French masonry techniques in order to rebuild the stone buildings.

This recreated Louisbourg is the reason most Nova Scotians (and tourists to Nova Scotia) have visited this distant outpost along the Cape Breton coast; and why every Nova Scotian whose ever got to know me and my love for old buildings, has asked why I hadn't yet been here.

So today I decided to go to Louisbourg. The only problem was that the tropical storm remnants were battering this area even worse than Sydney. In addition, there was road work being conducted on the Louisbourg Fortress road, so I wasn't even sure if the place was open.

At least I enjoyed the little fishing village of Louisbourg. Differing from flashy villages like Lunenburg or Bridgewater, Louisbourg had an appeal because there were some big Nova Scotian-style homes, but it also had the authenticity of an actual functioning fishing village like you'd seen in Newfoundland. Not everything was prettied up and whitewashed for tourists, but rather there was odd bits of funky siding, lived-in houses and strewn about fishing gear.

It wasn't that big of deal that I didn't see the fortress of Louisbourg today anyway - heck, now I could save something else for future trips to this area! - but I definitely wanted to get Louisbourg's lighthouse while I was out here. And while this picture might be from the car, I got out and walked up to the lighthouse for it to count as #42 for Nova Scotia.

(It turns out that the stone base ruins from two previous lighthouses are preserved here. I didn't know that at the time.)

After letting the wind shake my car as I watched the waves crash, I had enough of this rain and decided to head back to Sydney. Lunch was at this old sports bar I like on Townsend Street, and then I sat in a Tim Horton's to kill time before the 4pm puck drop.

This afternoon's game was a bit of a snoozefest with Cape Breton easily handling the Shawinigan Cataracts. In addition, Pierre-Luc Dubois wasn't noticeable away from some slick saucer passes, although he looked like he could turn it on at any time. Lastly, I was happy to get a mediocre picture of him from my seat along the glass in the Shawinigan end.

Following the game, I filled up once again on Taco Bell since I was going back to my barren fast food wasteland. It was also around this time that Marine Atlantic robocall'ed me and let me know that my ferry crossing was cancelled. Knowing how expensive the two main motels are in North Sydney & only having my rental car until 8pm, I hurriedly called a B&B to save $25 and hopefully have a much better experience than some overpriced, modern motel.

As it turns out, check-in was smooth, the lady didn't mind my unplanned arrival & it wasn't one of those overbearing B&Bs. I would definitely recommend the Chambers B&B if you need to stay in North Sydney, it was easily worth spending $25 less vs The Clansman or Hotel North (although I do still want to stay at the Highland Motel one of these years).

And I got to watch the Sunday Night Football game featuring my Chiefs! All day up to this point I had no faith that Marine Atlantic would have this game on, seeing as I wouldn't trust them to properly run a lemonade stand.

Since the ferry was totally cancelled, I was able to casually wake up in the morning because I knew I'd be on the 1145am boat. This gave me time to sit down to a unbelievable breakfast made with local ingredients, before one of the other guests then offered to give me a ride down to the ferry terminal. (They were a visiting couple from the States who heard about Cape Breton when this area made headlines by offering land to Americans fleeing Trump, ha ha.)

The ferry crossing went well and was pleasant, especially because I hadn't taken a day crossing in years. I'd forgotten what it was like to take the ferry without being grumpy and hating my fellow man for clipping their nails at 4am or needing to gawk at the sunrise from my window at 530am. My chipper mood even stayed around as the blue skies of Nova Scotia greyed over and flurries set upon the ship within Newfoundland waters. Joy from this weekend was lingering around.

Overall it was a pretty good birthday. I would certainly do it again & even left some new lighthouses, ruins & skateparks to do so in the future.