Day 7: Ellerslie to 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

Experiences 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.

Best raspberry zucchini muffins ever!

I should have taken all that were offered!

Rest area

Blueberry bread pudding at the Potato Museum.

Day 7: Ellerslie to O'Leary, 26.9k

Meals & Accommodation

• 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: Wellington to Ellerslie

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.

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!

Watercolors

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 taking 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!

Our trail angel CJ!

Jim the taxi driver in Summerside.

Steven our Rural Transit Driver

Relic from the old train line.

Fireweed

Keep going!

The artist in action.

Day 6: Wellington to Ellerslie, 20.7k

Meals & Accommodation

• Breakfast: Yogurt, blueberries, granola, leftovers
• Snacks/Lunch: Cashews, V8, banana, apple, peppers, carrots, pita bread with hummus and ADL choc milk!
• Dinner: Pulled pork poutine and milk at the Potato Museum

Lodging: Airbnb in O'Leary

Day 5: Wellington to Summerside

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.

My 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! We also met volunteers Fred and Linda who reappear later in our trip.

PEI Rural Transit requires reservations.

Sanana our driver.

Starting the walk in Wellington.

Another bridge, more pretty views.

Confederation Trail

Fireweed

A nice evening with Sigrid and Perry.

Emma stamped our passport!

Highland Storm: The Elements at the Scott MacAulay Performing Arts Centre.

Day 5: Wellington to Summerside, 19.6k

Meals & Accommodation

• Breakfast: Egg, cheese, hummus and olives on pita
• Snack: Nuts, cheese, bars, banana, electroytes
• Lunch: Yogurt, granola, blueberries
• Dinner: Leftovers!

Lodging: Airbnb in Summerside

Day 4: Summerside to Borden-Carleton

Tuesday, July 28

Temperature: High 75°F / Low 63°F

Conditions: Clouds and fog turning to sun.

Distance Walked: 22.9k

Experiences of the Day

Today we walked the trail "backwards" so that we could self shuttle with the rural bus. 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 taking the shorter route 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. 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? You can tour the schoolhouse in Lower Bedeque.

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 red dirt 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!

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 for its grand opening. 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.

While we were walking, Therese was off to SportChek in Summerside where she bought a bike, Anne, to ride the Island Walk. She also picked up a tire pump, two spare inner tubes, bike shorts and shirt, tools, and a helmet. All items that we would later leave behind for someone who would benefit from them.

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.

Summerside

PE-1A outside of Summerside

Callie from SportChek!

Anne on her first outing!

LM Montgomery taught in Bedeque in 1897-98.

Lunch stop at the museum.

Road repair?

Confederation Bridge

Crazy drivers!

Why does the barn have rectangular pop outs on the side? Potato storage?

Kapiz Dev Chauhau, owner of Island Pizza and our trail angel!

Harness racing at Red Shores.

Rocky Schurman gives winning advice on the races.

The truck had a gate that was used to start the race.

Day 4: Summerside to Borden-Carleton, 22.9k

Meals & Accommodation

• Breakfast: Yogurt, blueberries and granola
• Trail Snacks: Veggies, nuts, cheese, banana, V8, ADL chocolate milk(!)
• Lunch: Egg, cheese and hummus pita roll at home
• Dinner: Chili Mac, Kale, veggies and hummus

Lodging: Airbnb in Summerside

Day 3: Victoria to 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, more trail magic occurred and 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.

Victoria Road potato fields

Potato harvesting along Victoria Road in Lower Tryon.

Potato fields

Trail magic: Grant gave us a ride!

Therese gets a costume consult.

When on PEI...

Day 3: Victoria to Borden-Carleton, 18.7k

Meals & Accommodation

• 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 hummus. 

Lodging: Airbnb in Summerside