You're right, I did miss part of this island. I suppose I can use that as an excuse to go back again. I wonder if there will ever be a place that I'm satisfied with visiting only once.
The purple lines on this map show where I wandered on my bike. The green lines are where I had the assistance of my car during the time that Tropical Storm Ophelia was visiting PEI; perhaps I'm a baby, but riding in the rain is not my favorite thing to do.
(Map minus the purple & green lines courtesy of www.canadainfolink.ca)
As you can see from the map of where I traveled by what means of transportation, I managed to change my plans mid-stream again. Why? This time I was driven mainly by the weather. I had really intended to ride around the island, following the perimeter roads.
I skipped the eastern tip of PEI for two reasons - really a combination of the wind conditions and of the difficulty of finding towns with both places to stay and places to eat. The wind and weather conditions were really primary on the day I left Montague. Rain and an extremely strong headwind made me seek out a short route and had me heading to St. Peters. Options? If the weather had been supportive of a longer cycling day, I could have headed to the east and planned to stay in Souris, where there is both a place to stay and easily accessible food. Then I probably would have done an out-and-back ride from Souris to the eastern tip of the island - probably about a 60 mile day, which in the overall scheme of things is very reasonable. Given the wind conditions, I have absolutely no regrets about my decisions for the day's ride!
The weather again made me change my plans for my exploration of the west side of the island. The tail of what was by then Tropical Storm (as opposed to Hurricane) Ophelia was scheduled to strike the Atlantic Canada provinces on Saturday and Sunday. Based on where I was and where I'd left my bright blue 4-wheeled transportation, I made a decision to ride back to the car and use it to allow me to avoid riding a loaded bike in the rain for at least two days. I'm not that fond of wet weather riding, and I really wanted to see North Cape - so skipping that side of the island wasn't even an option.
Despite the fact that my total mileage was not what I'd planned, I had a great trip - and I am very happy with my on-the-fly decisions of where to go (including the means of transportation I used to get there). And - I have no doubts that I will return to Prince Edward Island someday.
