Uisge Ban Falls-August 14

Before I write about what we did today,I want to cover one more detail from the Cabot Trail. One the Cabot Trail we had the opportunity to hike through a bog(fortunately there was a boardwalk provided to walk on). This bog has several insect eating plants,and we were able to see two of them. One is the bladderwort,the other is the pitcher plant. I was pleased how the pitcher plant photo turned out and hope you can see the little pitchers at the bottom of the plant. Those pitchers are what catch the insects for the plant to feed on. Today we took a hike along the North Branch Baddeck River to the Usige Ban Falls. Usige Ban is Gaelic for clear waters. And it is a clear mountain stream. The path to the falls is a bit rocky and steep. We saw one area along the way which had a lot of tall white birch and spruce trees with their roots wrapped around big boulders.I have here a picture of one of those trees. Surprisingly,the trees were very healthy in appearance otherwise. I guess all that matters are that the roots find their way down to the soil. Hmmm..seems like like there is some philosophical message I could make out of that thought. Suffice it enough to only say that it was a beautiful forest walk. The water falls tumble down fifty feet to a rocky canyon below. After that hike,our afternoon was spent at the Alexander Graham Bell museum. He came to visit Baddeck after his success with the invention of the telephone. He and his wife loved this area so well they stayed thirty-seven years,until their deaths. They had a big gray castle-type building which can be seen from the museum. Their descendants still live there today. I did not know that Bell is considered the father of aviation for the British empire- he designed and flew a plane two years after the Wright Brothers,called the Silver Dart. Actually,there were quite a few different projects he was involved in during his lifetime,including man-carrying kites and animal husbandry. Just before he died he was working on the hydrofoil. With an associate of his,he produced the fastest boat in the world. Unfortunately at the time(1919)there was not a big need for it.