Friday, Aug 28

Temperature: High 78°F / Low 65°F

Conditions: Sunny

Distance Walked: 15.4

Experiences of the Day

It was a quiet night on the farm...I fell asleep to the sound of the wind in the trees. But on the other side of the house, a little calf was welcomed into the world and we were fortunate to see the mother licking her baby clean.

We packed up our things, had breakfast, and Jo-Anne returned us to the trailhead and we started the final walk. Along the way, we met GailI Quinn who had read about our experiemces on the Island Walk FB group. We had a nice visit with her, said goodbye, and continued along. About 7k into the walk, we see Billy Buell walking toward us! It was absolutely wonderful to have him walk us in, especially since he had led us to the trail back on July 25. We stopped into the Stratford Discounters for a pit stop. Billy told the clerk about our walk...she had seen the paintings! We had a nice visit and headed back out. Next thing you know our three friends walk up behind us! We walked across the bridge and into Ghiz Park and finished the walk at the same place we started. We met up with Hannah from the Island Walk at Billy's house and talked with her about our experiences. What a terrific walk.

We wandered around a bit and ended up having a delicious lunch at Leonhard's, met up with Jo-anne for ice cream and happened to see the March of Crows! Our walking friends met us at The Mack where we saw C'mon In, which was a really fun and, big bonus: I got to see Cynthia MacLeod again! She is an amazing fiddle player. Somehow we ended up on stage as participants in their trivia game and we had to guess what three PEI phrases meant. It was hilarious! What an end to a great day.

Breakfast: Yogurt, English muffins, toast with scrambled eggs, coffee

Lunch: Banana, peanut butter sandwich, grapes

Dinner @ Leonhard's: Buddha Bowls with local greens, quinoa tabbouleh, cucumber, tomato, pickled onion, smashed avocado, coconut "bacon", oven-roasted veggies & alfalfa with tofu dressing with marinated tofu (Lynn) and with salmon (Therese). So good.

Thursday, Aug 27

Temperature: High 78°F / Low 62°F

Conditions: Sunny

Distance Walked: 28.7k

Experience of the Day

Up early, I walked a kilometer to the Red and White hoping to find a ride to the trailhead. Trail magic. I hopped in the van with Terry, a construction worker who worked for a potato company. He does everything for them from bathroom remodels to farm buildings. They also have a full time plumber and electrician. He apologized for having such a dirty van. I just looked at him and said I'd been wearing the same clothes for 35 days. We both laughed.

Back at Rachel's Cottages, trail angel Judy picked Therese up and reunited her with her bike at the Charlie's place. And she gifted her a garden fresh cucumber!

It's been interesting to see the season start to change: the apples are bigger, leaves are starting to fall, berries have been harvested...

At about 7k in, I saw my friends up ahead as they left the shaded picnic table. My feet were wet and I had to eat so I took a break there as well. It's funny how sometimes your body is just a reaming for food. Walking takes a lot of out of you. Twenty minutes later I resumed my walk thinking I would catch them...but I never did. What I did find was a gigantic culvert at one part of the trail and I had to wonder how much water actually flows through. It was located on a section of trail that has steep drops on both sides and the culvert was way above the river. The other thing that I saw, which I have never seen before, was an underpass for the cows to go through! That made me very happy.

Our friend Jo-anne picked us up at the end of the day and took us to her brother's DAIRY FARM -- what a way to wrap up our trip! We met both brothers (Ian and Paul), nephew (Collin), and Skippy the farm dog. She also took us out to see the VERY BIG cows being milked (the cows were getting some delicious looking oats as a part of the process). An Amish man and Ian did the milking while Paul was out on the combine. Collin was up on top of the silo, which was being filled with barley. The cows looked pretty happy -- there was a herd out in the pasture and after milking, the heiffers went out as well. These cows get to live outside and roam around in the pastures. It looked like a nice life. The dairy farm down the way has robotic milking. Those cows never see the light of day.

Clean at last, we tossed our dirty clothes in the wash, and headed out for dinner with Anne on the bike rack. Dinner was nice and we met several people...one of whom turned out to be Pauline's sister! Therese said goodbye to Anne, thanked her for the memories, and gave her one last hug. Jo-anne will find a good home for her.

One day left to walk...

So far: 714.9k on the walk and another 21.1 or so puttering around.

Most days I walked alone and listened to nature, my footsteps and the sounds of life. It is safe here and the people are amazing. As someone said the other day, it is a magical place.

Six days the walks were between 17.2-19.6k

Nine days were over 25k, two of which were just over 30k.

On the 8th day I was sad because we were already 20% done.

Three days ago, I thought let's be done already.

Today I was excited. It was my last day!

Yes, my feet are tired and my legs look good. 😁