Potato blossoms on the Confederation Trail

Last year, when we set out on our second big cycle tour to Europe, one of my goals was to not compare it to the first one (#cycletour2015), which had been an astonishingly lovely vacation – perhaps the best we have ever had. I wanted to let #cycletour2017 have the chance to be its own thing. I think that philosophy really helped us enjoy the second trip; it was very different in some ways, but we still returned home exhilarated.

But in truth, not comparing our last two vacations was no great task: though we visited several different countries on the second tour, the two trips were similar enough that there were few glaring points of comparison. But this goal of not comparing cycle tours will be a little harder this time. Cycling Prince Edward Island is, literally and figuratively, and ocean apart from cycling in Europe.

Last night, we were both fast asleep by 9:45, and we didn’t stir until 7:45 – 10 hours of much needed and refreshing sleep. After a shower and a quick cup of hotel-room coffee, we were on the road by 9 am. After yesterday’s tiring day on Route 12, we decided that since our next night’s accommodation was very near the Confederation Trail, we’d stick to the bike path today. Once we were on the trail, our first destination was the town of O’Leary, where, the previous evening, our eye had been drawn to the Maple House Bakery and Cafe on Google maps.

Quebecers can't resist the Maple House...

Our intrigue was well-founded, and we spent a pleasant 45 minutes there eating a hearty breakfast and picking up some lovely buns and delicious peanut butter-chocolate chip cookies for lunch. Then we headed back onto the CT. The Confederation Trail is a rail trail that crosses the island on the old PEI railway bed. It passes mostly through the interior of the island, so its main drawback is that you won’t get any ocean vistas cycling it. On the other hand, you can be pretty certain you’ll have it pretty much to yourself – at least on the stretch we did today, from Howlan to Wellington. I think we saw a total of four other parties all day. I may be in the minority, but this is the kind of cycling I love: rolling through a mix of forest, marshy scrubland, and farmland. PEI is famous for its potatoes, of course, and the fields of flowering potato plants gave off the same intoxicating aroma that I first noticed in Belgium last year (I know, I know… don’t compare…).

Potato blossom smell-o-rama

Today was just as hot and humid as yesterday and there was still something of a headwind, though not nearly as brisk, but riding the CT, surrounded by trees and fields, was at least 4 or 5 degrees cooler than cycling on pavement, and being a rail trail, the gradient, while undulating, was quite gentle. The trail has much to recommend it in terms of scenery, but the surface was inconsistently maintained for most of our ride today. Some sections were fine, but others suffered from the passage of ATVs and dirt bikes (despite the barriers and signs forbidding motorized vehicles), which chew up the stone dust and leave tread marks, making the surface somewhat soft and bumpy in places. We didn’t see a single one today, but there were places were there was clearly more ATV traffic than bicycle traffic. With those caveats out of the way, not having the stress of cars passing by and being able to ride side-by-side made riding the trail, warts and all, well worth it.

So glad there's a gate to keep the ATVs out!

We had lunch at a picnic table along the trail at Nordham and then called the B&B (Chez Yvette) in Urbainville to warn of our impending arrival. Unfortunately, the room wouldn’t be ready until later in the afternoon, so we decided to push on to Wellington (a French-speaking town despite the name) to buy some food for supper before the Co-op closed at 5. We were basically forced to picnic again in an adjacent park, since there are no restaurants in the area. We finally rolled up to the B&B a little after 5, having cycled 60 km today – and though we were tired, it wasn’t nearly same feeling of exhaustion as yesterday, even having gone 10 more kilometres.