After folding up the tent and packing everything, I went to tackle Mount Franey. The Green Gardens experience was my first “vertical” this trip, giving me that “Yes, I can” confidence. Voila. The way up was through a climbing path in the forest, the way down (the loop) was on an standard service road.

The walkers here were of the young able-bodied variety. I lingered behind, and everybody passed me, of course, but I did not mind. I was set on simply doing the hike my pace, and I did, moving at a reasonable tempo, stopping to note things on the way, like this guy:

The view on the way up and from the top was stunning. I saw the Ingonish peninsula with the Keltic Lodge, standing out in its redness. On the other side was the Claiborne River. Most of the rivers here are black, and the streams are red.

Something about summits makes people do things like:

and 

Well, now everybody can see I did not button my shirt properly. Oh, well…

On the way down, another potentially challenging experience. For several kilometers the road was “decorated” with massive droppings garnished with berries…

Still, no close encounters….

The hike did not affect my appetite. On the way north, I stopped, as promised, at Neil’s Harbor and had a delicious bowl of clam and crab chowder, as authentic as it gets…

From Franey I kept driving north to my favorite kind of destination, another “Land’s End” – Meat Cove.