Just to give you an idea of the grades along the Cabot Trail.
If you start on the north side at Cheticamp, you're at sea level and the first significant climb is French Mountain. A twisty climb on the side of a cliff, the scenery is breathtaking and that's where most of the nice scenic pictures of the Trail are taken:
Next you ride the mountain tops for a few miles, until you get to Mackenzie Mountain. This will be a steep descent that will bring you back to sea level at Pleasant Bay, with tight switchbacks, and a few lookout spots where you can park, look at the scenery, and let you
brakes cool a bit!
A few miles past Pleasant Bay you'll start going uphill again. This is Cape North, which you have to climb then go down the other side. I think this climb is the longest and steepest. Towing my 2500lbs popup with my minivan, this is the only climb where I had to downshift to 1st gear for the last 1/2 mile or so, as it was running out of breath in 2nd gear. Its a l-o-n-g climb. A soon as you finally reach the top, you start going down the other side. The initial descent is very steep, you feel it's like 45deg down! But then the grade tapers off as you get lower. But still, quite a long and steep hill. Also couple lookouts to stop and look at the beautiful scenery.
The last mountain is Cape Smokey. Coming from the north, the grade uphill is rather shallow, no big deal. However the downhill part is very steep and twisty:
Here's a couple photos:
So those are the 3 major hills of the Cabot Trail.
(Needless to say I didn't take any of these photos myself, I just found them on the web.)
Carl