Day #7: O'Leary

 

Friday, July 31

Temperature: High 66°F / Low 61°F

Conditions: Overcast; moist start but overall a nicely dry day

Distance Walked: 26.9k

Experience of the Day

The PEI magic is just so amazing. I had received a wonderful message from Jo-anne asking if there was anything we needed at all and that she was willing to help. 

Our initial plan was to take the PEI Rural Transit from O'Leary to Ellerslie and then to walk to O'Leary. But then we experienced the warm humid days here on the island and when we saw that our bus was going to pick us up at 9:34am, we kind of rethought about that idea. I messaged Jo-anne about potentially giving us a ride to Ellerslie.

Trail magic happened just after 7:00 a.m. this morning when Jo-anne pulled into the parking lot of Ferguson Funeral Home. We piled into her car and she graciously drove us over to Ellerslie. She also gave us the most scrumptiously delicious raspberry zucchini muffins! I don't think I've ever had a muffin that good in my life. So much magic!

The walk itself was uneventful: the rain stayed away and we ran into a very small hiker on the trail. But it was a long walk...and I was oh so happy when Anne met me at the trailhead in O'Leary! I jumped on and off we went to the Canadian Potato Museum where Charlene brought me a delicious blueberry bread pudding! Perfect ending to a terrific day.

Breakfast: Yogurt, berries, granola. 

Snacks: ADL choc milk, gigantic sticks of pepperoni and cheese, protein bar, banana, V8, electrolytes.

Dinner: Chili mac, milk, broccoli 

Lodging: Airbnb in O'Leary 

Day #6: Elerslie

 

Thursday, July 30

Temperature: High 69°F / Low 62°F

Conditions: High clouds with a few sprinkles

Distance Walked: 20.7k

Experiences of the Day

So we get some funny looks sometimes. For example, people ask where you are from, how long you are here, and so on and so forth. And then you mention the Island Walk and some people look at you a little sideways. In a nice island-like way of course. But when you tell Jeff the taxi driver what you are doing and he is picking you up at 7am to drive you 2.3k, he just lets out a big belly laugh. As in, seriously, you are walking 700k and you want me to drop you off at McDonalds so that you can catch the PEI Transit Bus? Yes. We have to save our feet for the trail. And we all had a good laugh with him. Of course now that we have left Summerside (land of the taxis), we are on our own. Well for the most part anyhow. 

Stephen the bus driver who we have come to know over the last couple of days took very good care of us and got us up to the trail in Wellington. There, we met up with Therese and today's trail angel CJ! Having Anne join us on the trip means that we had a few logistics to address and CJ stepped in to lend a hand. Well, actually a truck, and he transported Anne and Therese up to the trail in Wellington where the four of us all met up again. Therese ended up riding all the way up to O'Leary while the rest of us walked to Elerslie Elementary, where we caught the bus, for the second time today, up to O'Leary. The clouds stayed high and we stayed dry. It was a great day of walking.

Question: Does anyone know what was on the very flat plot of land adjacent to the trail marked on the map below? There was a nice green bench placed along the trail so that you could sit and look at the flat area. Guessing that maybe there was a sawmill there at one time??

Advice: If you are planning a walk and all of this sounds confusing, here are the logistics: 

1. PEI Rural Transit Bus from Summerside to Wellington

2. Walk Wellington to Ellerslie

3. PEI Rural Transit Bus from Ellerslie to O'Leary

The bus requires a reservation.

We trudged over to the Potato Museum for some dinner and ended up getting pretty wet on the walk over. I never know what to order, so I was eyeing everyone's dinner as it was served. One lady was sure to let me know that a small plate of poutine would be plenty. She was right and after dinner, I went over to talk with her. Turns out Marion is a local and so I asked her if she would be willing to give us a lift to the Co-op so that we might pick up some breakfast items. Not only did she give us a lift, but she waited for us and then drove us home for the night!

I'm not always so on top of the note taking during a trip, but we have found that if you use Blogger, you can print a very nice book of your posts. Adding water colors to the blog is new...after talking water color classes this spring we put together a miniature painting kit for the trip. It has been really fun to talk about what should go into each painting as we walk the trail. Therese is doing a terrific job with her painting!

Breakfast: Yogurt, blueberries, granola, leftovers

Snacks/Lunch: Cashews, V8, banana, apple, peppers, carrots, pita bread with humas and ADL choc milk!

Dinner: Pulled pork poutine and milk at the Potato Museum

Lodging: Airbnb in O'Leary

Day #5: Wellington

Wednesday, July 29

Temperature: High 79°F / Low 62°F

Conditions: Sunny

Distance Walked: 19.6k

Experience of the Day

Another great day on the trail. Because we are self shuttling, we walked this section "backwards" going from Wellington back to our Airbnb in Summerside. We met our PEI Rural Transit driver Sanana at McDonald's and she took us up to Wellington where we were delighted to find an absolutely stunning trail and so many bunny rabbits!

We had a restful afternoon and then headed over to the neighbor's place for an afternoon beverage. Sigrid and Perry were a delightful addition to our day and shared their wonderful garden with us. After easy conversation and many laughs, we said our goodbyes and headed home for a quick dinner.

Our absolute favorite part of the day was Highland Storm: The Elements at the Scott MacAulay Performing Arts Centre. I just felt like the performance and the stories that were told were relevant to what we are seeing and experiencing as we do the Island Walk. Plus, Emma gave us a stamp in our passport!

Breakfast: Egg, cheese, humas and olives on pita

Snack: Nuts, cheese, bars, banana, electroytes

Lunch: Yogurt, granola, blueberries

Dinner: Leftovers!

Lodging: Airbnb in Summerside

Day #4: Summerside

Tuesday, July 28

Temperature: High 75°F / Low 63°F

Conditions: Clouds and fog turning to sun.

Distance Walked: 22.9k

Experience of the Day: Gatorade Guy!

We weren't sure how far the trail was today - our walk was from Summerside to Borden-Carleton - and there were two trail options. Leaving early (5:47am) and leaving from Summerside worked out quite well as we missed a lot of the highway traffic that would be on the road in the afternoon.

Advice: Bring earplugs for highway walking as it can be quite noisy at times.

Grabbed coffee and the washroom at the ESSO and before we knew it we were having our "lunch" break in Lower Bedeque - and let me tell you, we sure loved that the museum was closed because we all made good use of the bench outside! Did you know that LM Montgomery taught for a short period of time in Bedeque in the little schoolhouse in 1897-98 that you can tour in Lower Bedeque today?

So far, my favorite part of the walk was the red road just outside of Lower Bedeque. We noticed that there was some asphalt that was used to patch potholes in the road, we haven't seen that before. Two tractors went by and gave us an obligatory coating of red dust; I guess we are now official Island Walkers!

Agriculturally, Kate and Linda were thrilled with the veggie stand and happily carried 5 lbs of beets with them. We are still not sure why some of the barns have rectangular pop outs on the side, but are guessing that it has to do with potato storage(?).

Our trail angel today was Kapiz Dev Chauhau. We finished our walk from Summerside and walked over to Island Pizza (902-855-3000), which is getting ready to open tomorrow (7/29). We were immediately greeted, offered Gatorade and a washroom! Kapiz, a former cancer biologist, and his crew were busy finishing up renovations, but took the time to talk with us and offer support. What a terrific guy...he even held my Gatorade so that I could take the selfie!

We had planned to take the PEI Rural Transit bus back to Summerside, but we arrived so early that we decided to call a taxi. It was nice to have the extra three hours to relax at our Airbnb.

Finished off the night with a trip to Red Shores to see the harness races. Not being familiar with the sport, we talked to Rocky Schurman (a former driver) and took his suggestion of a box bet on #124. This turned out to be a good bet (I wagered $6) with a lousy payout ($5.95). The ladies sitting behind us in the stands were from Ontario and asked about the Island Walk (I had my shirt on...it's my only clean shirt...). One of them had heard of it, but had never seen or known of anyone doing the walk.

Breakfast: Yogurt, blueberries and granola

Trail Snacks: Veggies, nuts, cheese, banana, V8, ADL chocolate milk(!)

Lunch: Egg, cheese and humas pita roll at home

Dinner: Chili Mac, Kale, veggies and hummas

Lodging: Airbnb in Summerside

Day #3: Borden-Carleton

Monday, July 27

Temperature: High 76°F / Low 55°F

Conditions: Sunny with some clouds later in the day.

Distance Walked: 18.7k

Experiences of the Day

We wanted to get an early start, so we left right around 6:30 a.m. and enjoyed the cool morning air. We enjoyed the peaceful countryside, ocean views, and watching the machines harvest potatoes in the fields. 

As we approached the end of the third section, I spotted three gentlemen who appeared to be working on a car in their driveway. Therese and I decided we were going to ask them for a ride to the visitor center in Borden-Carleton while Linda and Kate opted to walk. Fortunately for us, a very nice gentleman named Grant quickly agreed to take us into town. We had a nice visit with him and were very grateful for the ride. Our trip into town did not disappoint: views of the bridge, some fun with Anne, and COWS!

We bought month-long senior passes for the rural transit system and took the bus from the visitor center to Summerside where we are staying in an Airbnb. Tomorrow we will walk from Summerside to Borden and then take the bus back. Our bus driver Steven was amazing! He gave us a nice little tour and told us all about what we were seeing along the way.

Breakfast: Susan at the Oxley House B&B was absolutely amazing and sent us away with a to-go breakfast. Her bread is off the charts amazing!

Lunch: Snacks

Dinner: Veggie burgers, kale, veggies and humus. 

Lodging: Airbnb in Summerside