Seeing the Countryside by Car, Bike and Foot

To get to Prince Edward Island (PEI), we crossed the 8-mile long Confederation Bridge from New Brunswick. It was a blustery day, but there was less wind on the bridge than there had been on land. The impressive bridge is the longest in Canada (confederationbridge.com). 

Our campground was muddy and grassy and next to a busy highway. A noisy factory across the adjacent field never shut down. After two days we moved to another quieter campground with a more woodsy setting about 30 miles away. I had planned to go there anyway but decided to move there a day early.

The day after we arrived we drove along the southern central part of the island along the Northumberland Strait through pretty, pastoral countryside. We drove past cultivated fields of vivid yellow soybeans, corn ready to be harvested and bright green grass. Some fields had bales of hay waiting to be collected. Interspersed with farmland were swaths of woods with conifers and deciduous trees in full fall array, green meadows dappled with yellow, purple and white wildflowers and coastal marshes. 

We stopped at a few roadside markers and a light station. We drove on a narrow “heritage road” of red dirt with trees arching over it. We strolled through a pretty little seaside village, all closed up for the season. We walked across a bright green lawn at a small provincial park to peer down red cliffs at a red beach. Even the water is red near the shore. Everywhere on PEI the soil is red because of its high iron content. We learned some history at Port La Joye--Fort Amherst national historic site, which first was a French fort and then a British one. 

Closed for the season

When we got back to the campground, we got ready to ride our bikes on a spur of the Confederation Trail, which ran right beside our campground. The main trail is 175 miles long and runs almost the entire length of the island. We left at 4:15 pm. “I’ll be back at 6:15,” said David and took off. I had a pleasant ride on the mostly flat trail that used to be a railroad. It was much the same scenery we had seen from the car, but at a much slower pace. A picked an apple from a wild apple tree. The trees and their uneaten fruit are everywhere. I don’t think there are any large animals like deer on the island and not enough small animals to eat all the apples. I got back around 5:15, changed clothes, made some tea and worked on my journal. David wasn’t back at 6:20, so I went outside and hailed him on the walkie talkie. Surely he must be close. It was such a nice day and such a nice trail, he probably went a little farther than he had planned. He didn’t answer. He probably has it turned off, I thought. I went back inside and uploaded photos from the day. At 6:30, David still wasn’t back. I went outside and tried the walkie talkie again. Still no answer. Hmmm. That was strange. David is usually pretty prompt. But I wasn’t worried. What could go wrong? The trail was off the road, flat and practically deserted. He’ll be back any second. I went back in the trailer and worked on the blog. Then it was 7:00. David still wasn’t back. Something must be wrong. Could he have gotten lost? I tried the walkie talkie. No answer. I went to the truck (which I should have done earlier), got my phone, which was charging, and saw that there were 5 messages on it. Uh-oh. I immediately called David. 

He answered. “What’s wrong?” I asked. “Where are you?” “I had a flat tire. I can’t find my pump. I’ve been walking for five miles. I still have three miles to go.”  “Call me when you figure out where you are,” I said, “and I’ll come pick you up.” I got out the trail map and the highway map, started the truck and tried to figure out where the bike trail intersected a road. Then David called again and told me the number of a dirt road he was at. I found it on the map and went and picked him up. Usually when he gets a flat tire, it’s not a problem because he always carries a spare. This time, however, his bike pump had fallen out on a shelf in the trailer, so he wasn’t able to change his tire and had to walk in his cleated bike shoes. So now we keep the phones charged and with us.