Cape Breton's Magazine

A Geology Walk up the Clyburn Valley Geologist Dr. Rob Raeside, standing among boulders that fell from Mount Franey, Ingonish Rob Raeside: It's always good to know where you're going when you start on a hike. So what I thought I would do is show you the map (and an aerial photograph) of Clyburn Brook. (See page 33.) It's an in? credibly straight valley. And it's got in? credibly steep sides. You can see the white scratches on the sides of the valley in the photograph--these are the scree slopes below Beinn Franey (Mount Franey, which we will pass along the way). {We had driven in about 3 km. or 1 1/2 tailes to where vehicle travel ends. Do not forget some sort of bug repellant!) Now, we're going to start walking about halfway up the lower part of the river valley. The river valley is fairly uniform down through the bottom 5 miles or so--until it opens out into the estuary in the North Bay In? gonish. We're going to start in the lower part of the valley, and we're going to hike for about 4 or 5 kilometres (inland) up to where the river comes out of a rather deep, narrow slot. And we'll see the bedrock in the river valley right there. And we're going to see two different things today. We're going to look at the bedrock geology--the kinds of rocks that this part of Cape Breton Island is made of. And we're going to look at the effects of the ice as it scoured its way down Clyburn Brook val? ley, and produced the beautiful U-shaped cross-section which you can see on the postcards and photographs of Clyburn Brook. One of the few places that you can actually see the Franey Chimney is from the little path down to the river, just past the gate here. And you can see the chimney on the end of Beinri Franey, sticking out. And the clouds are just sitting at the top of the chimney today, which is that pinnacle that sticks off the west side. It's really like a pinnacle or a pillar of rock that sticks out maybe 20, 50 feet or so, out from the edge of the mountain. And it's a landmark for people who are driving up and coming past the church at Ingonish. And we'11 look at that cliff when we get closer up to it. We'll be standing right below it. But this is really the only place that you NQW AT 229 Kings Road SYDNEY FOURTRAX?300 • FuU-tiroe 4-wheel drive • Ultra-low fust gear for heavy loads • Wide-ratio 5-speed transmission with reverse • 282cc single-cylinder air-cooled 4-stroke raigine CrRX3004X4)