Canada's east coast offers up some of the most rocky, yet beautiful
seaside views, and the Cape Breton Highlands has plenty to offer.
 One such
area is Middle Head a coastal peninsula that was settled by Alexander
Graham Bell's, good friend Henry Corson.
Henry and Julia Corson who resided in Akron, Ohio were at the time looking
for a place to build a summer home. Julia who was suffering from
tuberculosis needed a place to recuperate with cleaner and fresher air
than that of their home in the mid-west.
As Mr Corson was traveling the highlands with Mr. Bell, he saw the
peninsula from Cape Smokey and purchased Middle Head. Here they built a
summer home and named it Keltic Lodge. They spent their summers there for
many years, operating a working farm that provided necessities to them, as
well as to local residents. Julia outlived her husband and continued to
return to Middle Head each summer until she reached an age that made it
difficult to travel.
In 1938 Middle Head was exproperated by the province to be added to lands
that now makeup Cape Breton Highlands National Park.
Now Middle Head is famous for Keltic Lodge, a building built in the 1950's
and named after the Corson's summer home, and Highlands Golf Links. As
with many of Canada's national parks, Middle Head has retained an old
carriage path as a hiking trail. The trail starts at the back of the
cottages at keltic and takes you on a rolling footpath through wooded
areas and out to a breathtaking Atlantic Ocean vista. At the start of the
path there are two large gateposts, which, by the size must have supported
a healthy gate at one time. After a fairly level walk you then start a
near 100 foot decent down to sea level. Here is where at the turn of the
century a small fishing village operated, a park sign tells of the people
who made their living fishing by day and cleaning the catch every evening.
This is a great place to have a break and enjoy the beauty, a field of
tall grasses and the ocean on both sides of you. As you make your way
further along the trail you start to climb again and enter another wooded
area, here squirrels are running with pinecones and you can hear the
distant screech of birds. Purple wild flowers stretch to the sky to get a
glimpse of the sun through the trees. Then you are back out of the woods
and on a high cliff overlooking a small inlet, you can see across to Cape
Smokey from here and even see the ski trails on the mountain.
Entering the wood again you can almost feel claustrophobic as the trees
close in on you and darkness descends, here the light is so low on this
sunny day the one has to remove sunglasses to navigate the roots and rocks
on the path. Then suddenly you are out into another field, which in
moments you realize is on top of a wonderful rock face overlooking the
great expanse of Atlantic Ocean. Here people lay in the sun, look to the
sea to find whales and seals. To the left a short walk will take you to
the view of another small ocean surrounded rocky island, covered with
seagulls some adult and some fledglings. This part of the trail, I was
told is closed at a certain of the year as it is a nesting place for
Arctic and Common Terns, though I saw none on this day.
The Middle Head trail is a fairly easy trail of 4 kilometres (2.5 miles).
Children should be guarded at all times as the trail has some fairly high
and sudden rocky cliffs. If you're interested in walking the trail you can
do it in about 2 hours, but if you like to explore and take in the views,
you could spend a half day here. It's a great place to stop and have a
picnic lunch but be sure to pack out what you pack in, as there is no
refuse collection out here!
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