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Near Ingonish Beach at the park's eastern
entrance, the Cabot Trail winds north, climbing
North Mountain, moving across the interior to
Pleasant Bay and along the Gulf of St. Lawrence
coast to Cheticamp at the southwestern entrance
to the park. In 1923, the construction of the
Cabot Trail, a roadway circling along the coastlines,
was proposed as part of the government®s focus
on tourism in the province. As construction
began, it became a source of employment for
the local inhabitants who showed more willingness
than engineering expertise. In the 1930's
the occupation of building the road provided
relief for the unemployed. The final link over
North Mountain continued through 1932 - a
significant achievement that brought access
and communication to the northern settlements.
Before the Cabot Trail, fishermen, merchants
and sailors looked to the sea for their livelihood
and conversance with the outside world. Isolation
in the small communities north of Pleasure Bay
brought extreme hardship, especially in winter.
Following its completion in 1932, the circuit
brought tourism, an economic lifeline in Cape
Breton after the closing of the coalmines, the
decline of the steel industry and the seasonal
variations in the fisheries. Substantial road
improvement was needed, especially in mountainous
regions where many motorists froze at the wheel
when faced with a 17% gradient on an already
dangerously narrow and crooked track. Transportation
by automobile in winter was hazardous on most
of the trail and considered impossible on much
of it. A program of reconstruction was undertaken
in 1936 and the torturous climbs over French
Mountain and McKenzie Mountain were greatly
improved.
Today, the scenic Cabot Trail,
the best known feature of the park, provides
breathtaking views of the Gulf of St. Lawrence
headlands and the curving Atlantic shores. Magnificent
vistas abound, particularly from French Mountain,
which drops toward the aptly named Pleasant
Bay. Thirty marked trails in the park generally
start from various points on the Trail, leading
through a variety of habitats typical of this
natural region Ò lush hardwood and boreal forests,
bogs, barrens and muskeg.
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