tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-86720513860146140062024-02-08T10:52:55.478-05:00Wandering along the edgeAn exploration of Prince Edward Island, with additional stops on the way home at Hopewell Cape, New Brunswick, and Acadia National Park, Maine
bicycle tour photography peiDenise Goldberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08049223586218975704noreply@blogger.comBlogger26125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8672051386014614006.post-18635751711936473512009-01-26T20:09:00.003-05:002009-01-26T20:11:51.881-05:00Introduction<b><i>Hey Denise, it's August: And you still haven't settled on the location of your second biking vacation of the year!</i><br />
Journal entry written on August 1, 2005</b><br />
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Yes, you're right, I really <b>am</b> talking to myself, although I could just as easily be talking to one of my touring bikes. She has been bugging me about making plans ever since I got home from my trip in <a href="http://denisegoldberg2005downeast.blogspot.com">Downeast Maine</a> at the end of June. <b><i>What do you mean, normal people don't talk to themselves or have bikes that join in the conversation? Are you implying that I'm not normal?</i></b><br />
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Rather than follow my normal vacation planning habit of planning more than one trip (for the year) at the same time, I deliberately waited until the successful completion of my first bicycling vacation this year. I wanted to make sure I was really back to myself again... I'm still cycling at a slower speed than I was pre-crash, but I really do feel like I am back. My trip to Maine at the end of June definitely was a successful tour, and whle my intentions were to plan a second tour for this year as soon as I returned home, somehow that didn't happen. I have been tossing some ideas around in my head though. <br />
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Given that it's already August, my plans are to take an early fall trip. Not too late though, because the destinations I'm thinking of are all in the north - I'm hoping not to have to deal with really cold temperatures. Of course I don't have any control at all over the weather wizard, so I could be dealing with colder than desired temperatures even with a relatively early in September start.<br />
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The real questions at this point are <i>'where?'</i>, and <i>'what sounds interesting?'</i>. As usual for me it's not a case of not being able to find someplace interesting to visit, it's a case of having to choose, and in my mind that's a good type of problem to have. The places that are bouncing around my mind right now are Nova Scotia, Ireland, and Prince Edward Island.Denise Goldberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08049223586218975704noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8672051386014614006.post-70026914966389525912009-01-26T20:09:00.001-05:002009-01-26T20:09:25.397-05:00Table of Contents<blockquote><blockquote><i><table border="1" cellpadding="20"><tr><td>For now, please use Blogger's list of posts in the sidebar to follow my trip in reverse sequence. I plan to flip this blog on its head so that the posts flow from oldest to newest (like the table of contents in a book), adding a real Table of Contents and a Page by Page sidebar entry, and adding (better) next and previous links at the bottom of each post. <br />
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I probably won't be able to make these changes for the next several weeks. <br />
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...Denise, January 26, 2009</td></tr></table></i></blockquote></blockquote>Denise Goldberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08049223586218975704noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8672051386014614006.post-15362972232668930592005-09-27T23:36:00.004-04:002009-01-26T23:37:21.722-05:00Would I recommend a tour of PEI?<b><i>...and will I go back myself?</i></b><br />
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Absolutely! I thoroughly enjoyed my time wandering Prince Edward Island. It's a beautiful place, and I found the people to be very friendly. <br />
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The terrain in this province isn't flat; I'd describe it as rolling. If you're looking to tour in a place with serious hills or mountains, then PEI probably isn't for you. But if you want to visit a beautiful and friendly place and you like access to the water, then I believe this is a great touring destination. <br />
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My travels were along the edge of the tourist season. The weather for the most part was very acceptable. The temperatures were a bit cooler than at home, but that was what I expected. Most places - restaurants, motels, B&Bs - were still open, and many places were offering off-season rates. Traffic was very light, although I suspect I would consider even in-season traffic to be light.<br />
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<b><i>And will I go back myself?</i></b> The answer to this question is <b>yes</b>! The thing I'm really starting to wonder though is if I'll someday do a tour someplace where I don't want to return...Denise Goldberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08049223586218975704noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8672051386014614006.post-77974446134968877962005-09-26T23:31:00.009-04:002009-01-26T23:35:40.501-05:00A New Brunswick non-biking side trip<b><i>Hopewell Cape</i></b><br /><br />If you're considering a trip that includes (or passes by) the coastal areas of New Brunswick, I highly recommend stopping at Hopewell Cape to see the amazing tide changes in the Bay of Fundy. Information about the area - including tide charts, which are pretty important in planning your visit - can be found at <a href="http://www.thehopewellrocks.ca/">thehopewellrocks.ca</a>. It's definitely worth the time to be there long enough to see both low and high tides.<br /><br />I spent the hours to wait out the tide change in the morning. That's a lot of hours on a biking trip that is already packed with more stops than time permits, but I think it's definitely worth the time off of the bike. When I was there, low tide was at 6:32 PM on the day that I arrived, and at 6:58 AM the next morning. In order to see both extremes, I really needed to stay in the park (or leave and return, which didn't make much sense to me) the entire morning of my visit. It would be nice if the tide changes allowed you to see one tide in the evening and the other early in the morning, but of course a 6-hour tide cycle doesn't support this type of viewing. <br /><br />Just to whet your appetite, I've included a photo below that shows the Flower Pot Rocks in the park at both low and high tide. More photos can be seen in my <a href="http://www.denisegoldberg.com/gallery/826954">Hopewell Cape & beyond</a> photo gallery.<br /><br /><center><img src="http://denise.smugmug.com/photos/462576146_7Sz8W-600x600.jpg"><br />The well known Flower Pot rocks, shown here at just before low tide and at high tide. <br /><br />These photos were actually taken on two different days as it probably evident from the difference in colors between them. The left photo was taken when I arrived at Hopewell Rocks late Saturday afternoon as the tide was nearing low tide. The right photo was taken just before I left the park on Sunday, at very close to high tide. <br /></center>Denise Goldberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08049223586218975704noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8672051386014614006.post-11375573677389070972005-09-25T23:28:00.000-04:002009-01-26T23:31:25.279-05:00A typical part of a "Denise" tour<b><i>...changes in plans</i></b><br /><br /><center><img src="http://denise.smugmug.com/photos/462575477_CiN2c-500x500.jpg"><br />You're right, I did miss part of this island. I suppose I can use that as an excuse to go back again. <i>I wonder if there will ever be a place that I'm satisfied with visiting only once.</i><br /><br />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.<br /><br /><i>(Map minus the purple & green lines courtesy of <a href="http://www.canadainfolink.ca">www.canadainfolink.ca</a>)</i></center><br /><br /><hr/><br />As you can see from the map of where I traveled by what means of transportation, I managed to change my plans mid-stream <b><i>again</i></b>. Why? This time I was driven mainly by the weather. I had really intended to ride around the island, following the perimeter roads. <br /><br />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!<br /><br />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. <br /><br />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.Denise Goldberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08049223586218975704noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8672051386014614006.post-5626536440902479202005-09-25T23:26:00.002-04:002009-01-26T23:27:44.835-05:00Planning not to plan<b><i>Where to ride, where to stay, where to eat!</i></b><br />
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My day-by-day plans for this trip were not very detailed, as in not planned. But - I did plant a stake in the ground with my "plans" to circumnavigate the island in a counter-clockwise direction, started and ending in Summerside. As you know now, my non-plans were changed during the tour, primarily due to weather conditions and my lack of excitement about riding in the rain. <br />
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I did a fair amount of reading before the trip, mainly on the PEI tourism web site. I also requested paper copies of the PEI map and the PEI Visitor's Guide. Unfortunately, the mailing schedule for requests like mine and the time I had before I left on my trip didn't coincide, and the requested brochures actually arrived in the mail while I was in PEI. Not very helpful, but not a problem either. There are visitor centers scattered throughout the island, including one at Borden-Carleton (the bridge entry point), and at Wood Islands (the entry point for the ferry from Nova Scotia). It can be a quick stop to pick up a map, a visitor's guide, and any interesting brochures - plus all of the visitor centers have at least one computer available for guest use. <br />
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The Visitor's Guide is a magazine-style document, and the 2005 version is over 200 pages. I didn't really want to carry one, but I did want the information on places to stay and restaurants. I picked up a guide when I entered PEI, then removed and threw out the first 65 pages. A little lighter, and it made me happy to have the information with me as opposed to hoping that visitor centers would still be open when my bike and I arrived in a town. I found it helpful to have this information with me, and if (or should I say when) I return to PEI, I will probably repeat this behavior. <br />
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One of my tasks each day was identifying an end-point for my day's journey that included both a place to stay and a place to eat. While that seems like it would be a simple task in a place like PEI that attracts a lot of tourists, I found that finding both in one place could sometimes be a challenge. The map identifies cities, towns, and villages. There are only two cities in PEI, Charlottetown and Summerside. As expected, they have all services, and the only challenge there was deciding on a place to stay and a place to eat. No complaints there! The places that were categorized as towns often met my requirements with places to stay and eat, but the places that were categorized as villages usually had no commercial establishments at all. In fact, one day I noticed that the villages all seemed to have houses, farms, and at least one cemetery. The towns were still pretty small and didn't always have much in the way of choices. Looking back at my homes for the night, the only place I stayed that was classified as a village was Cavendish. There were a number of motels there plus a couple of choices of places to eat - but I think that was because of the presence of the Green Gables National Historic Site (you know, Anne of Green Gables...). <br />
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One thing that I found a little odd was that there were signs for cottages in the middle of no where. That is, there were no services in the form of restaurants or food stores anywhere near them. That might be acceptable if you were traveling by car, but it certainly wasn't my choice when my bike was my only form of transportation. Of course if you were carrying several meals with you staying in a place like this might work. <br />
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I just looked back through the visitor guide, and there also appear to be a lot of B&Bs that are in the middle of no where, or B&Bs that are a few miles outside of a town. This might work for you, and I could have made it work by biking to dinner, but I have a strong preference to be able to walk to find food. I also talked with some women who were riding the Confederation Trail who ended up one night in a town with a place to stay, a convenience store, and no restaurants. Luckily for them the convenience store had a microwave and a few choices of frozen dinners. <br />
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On the maps front, the highway map distributed by the province is a good map, and I used it for most of my travel days. I also used a map from the Canadian publisher MapArt. The MapArt map included more detailed maps of the cities (Charlottetown and Summerside) and also included maps of a couple of the larger towns that weren't on the official map. In addition, the MapArt map included highlights of "places of interest" that weren't noted on the provincial map. The map from the province was free (of course!), and the MapArt map was $4.95. For me, that was a little bit of money well spent.Denise Goldberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08049223586218975704noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8672051386014614006.post-21864816137553117062005-09-25T23:23:00.007-04:002013-08-03T08:43:29.821-04:00There are more pictures... really!<i>I could say that my camera was out of control on this trip, but I'm afraid it wasn't the camera, it was me! I took over 800 pictures in just under two weeks, totally filling three 512 MB Compact Flash cards. About half of those pictures have been uploaded to my photo galleries.</i><br />
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Interested in more pictures of my wandering in PEI, New Brunswick, and Maine? I've split the pictures into 6 distinct sections within gallery titled <b><i><a href="http://www.denisegoldberg.com/Travel/Wandering-along-the-edge">Wandering along the edge: September 2005</a></i></b>. You can get to them from the top level gallery, or you can click to each individually, as noted below: <ul><li><a href="http://www.denisegoldberg.com/gallery/827674">Confederation Bridge to Summerside, Prince Edward Island</a> <li><a href="http://www.denisegoldberg.com/gallery/827277">A counterclockwise loop, Prince Edward Island</a> <li><a href="http://www.denisegoldberg.com/gallery/827272"> Prince Edward Island National Park</a> <li><a href="http://www.denisegoldberg.com/gallery/827368">North Cape & the west coast, Prince Edward Island</a> <li><a href="http://www.denisegoldberg.com/gallery/826954">Hopewell Cape and beyond, New Brunswick</a> <li><a href="http://www.denisegoldberg.com/gallery/826964">Acadia National Park, Maine</a> </ul>
<center><img src="http://denise.smugmug.com/photos/37262656_sZzRq-500x500.jpg"></center>Denise Goldberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08049223586218975704noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8672051386014614006.post-66263811501062349752005-09-20T19:35:00.009-04:002009-01-29T19:39:20.276-05:00One more time around<b><i>...but with approaching fog & wet weather</i></b><br />
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As predicted, the sky was full of gray clouds when I woke up this morning. There were patches of lighter sky too, but gray was the color of the day.<br />
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The morning started with a wonderful breakfast. The side table contained a selection of cereals and breads, but I didn't visit that table; I was more than happy with the full breakfast delvered by server as soon as I sat down. What was it? A dish of fresh strawberries and kiwi, followed by eggs, an interesting cheesy rice dish, and a third dish that I didn't taste that looked something like corned beef hash. Good food, and good conversation too since I shared a table with a couple from Iowa. Unlike my riding down the street and just liking the looks of this inn last night, my breakfast companions researched their home for several nights in Bar Harbor. They told me that one of the things that attracted them was the front porch. I have to admit that's what caught my eye too. <br />
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I had all intentions of being on the road by quarter to 9, but I didn't make it. Instead I ended up having a nice talk with a woman from Oregon City who was waiting to go in to breakfast. Once we were done sharing information, I grabbed my panniers and headed out. First stop (of course) was to pick up a fresh blueberry muffin for snacking on the road. Second stop was for what seems to be my normal blue Gatorade (on this trip at least). And then, it was time to ride into Acadia once again. <br />
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And yes, today's ride really was another trip around Park Loop Road. Can you tell I like it? A good portion of the road is one way. Cars are allowed to park on the right, but for the most part both lanes were free for driving or riding. With the switch in weather today, cooler and gray instead of yesterday's crystal blue sky, there seemed to be fewer people on the road. And the change in conditions made everything look fresh to me, a change from yesterday. I stopped near Thunder Hole to walk on the rocks and soak in the ocean views, and as I looked back toward Sand Beach I could see fog and low clouds rolling in. <br />
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The scenery? Beautiful. A pounding ocean, rocks, green trees but with an occasional outcropping of red. The road? Rolling hills, smooth, pleasant. The people along the road? Friendly, all enjoying the wonders of Acadia, sharing experiences. <br />
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As the road pulled away from the water and I headed towards Jordan Pond, I could feel a change in the air, a light drizzle. At that point I was wearing my screaming yellow wind vest, and the water in the air wasn't enough to make me switch to my rain jacket. And yes, it was hiding in my single pannier, just in case. The real rain was kind to me today; it didn't start until I was back and loading my bike into the car for our motorized ride back to Massachusetts. <br />
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A quick change of clothes - since I didn't want to wear sweaty biking clothes on what I figured would be a 5-hour drive - and it was time to head towards home. <br />
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Of course I had to make a quick stop just after I left Mt. Desert Island. I passed a farm selling blueberries, and I just had to treat myself to some wonderful Maine berries. These are teeny tiny (wild) blueberries that have a wonderful flavor. It used to be that I could get them in the Boston area for a weeek or so each year, but I haven't seen them in a while. What a wonderful treat!<br />
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I woke up this morning to find a wonderful blue sky. As I headed toward the coast and Mt. Desert Island I could see some low-lying fog ahead. It disappeared pretty quickly though, leaving crystal clear blue skies and what felt like a warm temperature.<br />
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My first stop was at the <a href="http://www.barharborbike.com/">Bar Harbor Bicyle Shop</a> to pick up two new water bottles. When I looked at my bottles this morning I noticed spots of what is probably mold or mildew - and that's in spite of washing them out every day. When I'm home the bottles get washed in the dishwasher at least once a week, and that probably keeps stuff from growing in them - but there was no way I was going to use those old bottles again! New water bottles purchased, washed out, and filled with Gatorade. Ready to ride...<br />
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I left my car in Bar Harbor and headed into Acadia on my bike. My only plans were to ride the Park Loop Road, stopping to soak in the ocean crashing on the rocks, to take pictures, to just enjoy the park again. I rode this road on the first day of my <a href="http://denise2005downeast.crazyguyonabike.com">Maine tour</a> back in June. On that trip I didn't expect a road with non-stop rolls in it. Luckily this time I didn't expect a flat road. When I was here before I met a guy who lives in the area and rides the Park Loop Road 4 or 5 days a week. That could easily become a habit for me if I lived near here. Today's ride was beautiful, as expected. I stopped at Sand Beach and at Thunder Hole, and at other unnamed spots too. And when I finished the loop, I rode it again. <i>Yes, you really did hear me right. When I came to the end of the road, I just couldn't resist riding it a second time.</i><br />
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I had some good conversations along the way too. The first was with two women from western Massachusetts who were finishing a hike and heading to their car as I was standing next to a pond taking pictures (what else!). They were both cyclists and initially commented on my little-wheeled bike. A nice biking and hiking conversation followed. Later in the morning I stopped at Jordan Pond. As I was getting ready to leave there, I noticed two Dahon bikes and their owners. Then the couple from Washington who I met in PEI rolled up on their Bike Fridays. Five folding bikes! And it appeared that most of the other inhabitants of the very long bike rack were rentals. <br />
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Twice around by bike, and then it was time to drive to the top of Cadillac Mountain. While it is certainly is a reasonable mountain to ride, climbing is not my favorite thing. And that road has a second challenge; it's a narrow 2-lane winding road with no shoulders that carries quite a bit of traffic, including tour buses. It's certainly possible to ride it, but it wasn't something I needed to do today. As I started wandering, I saw my Bike Friday friends from Washington once again (Tim, and I'm sorry, I didn't catch her name...). They confirmed that the ride was somewhat traffic-challenged, especially when two tour buses met. After I finished soaking in the view, I drove part of the loop road - this time to see the ocean and rocks in different light conditions. And this time, Thunder Hole was thundering! I guess the tide has to be at just the right level to produce that amazing crashing thundery sound. A thoroughly enjoyable day...<br />
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I headed back to Bar Harbor to find a place to stay. Most of the motels, inns, and B&Bs had vacancy signs in front of them. I chose the Holbrook House B&B Inn. Why? It looked interesting from the outside, and I liked the room. After many nights of staying in small towns with only 1 or 2 places to stay, it seemed very novel to be able to choose a home for the night!<br />
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It was a another good riding day today, and I hope to repeat the Park Loop Road again tomorrow morning - but only once around. Then it will be time to head to the west <i>(in my car ...)</i> and home. .<br />
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A bear greeting and welcome to my home for the night</center>Denise Goldberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08049223586218975704noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8672051386014614006.post-13330275315601263122005-09-18T18:52:00.028-04:002009-01-29T19:07:20.411-05:00A walk on the ocean floor<b><i>Hopewell Cape, Bay of Fundy</i></b><br />
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What a fantastic place! No biking possible, but if you are wandering through New Brunswick on your bike and you happen to be anywhere near Hopewell Cape, I recommend spending some hours there. <br />
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The Flower Pot rocks are at the base of a cliff, and there are a set of stairs leading to the ocean floor. How many flights? Hmm... in spite of the number of times I walked up and down those stairs, I really don't remember. My guess is that there were at least 4 flights of stairs. <br />
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I didn't see the cape at absolute low tide, but the time I was there was close enough to leave me with quite an impression. Yesterday, I walked on the ocean floor as the tide was still receding. I was there until 5 PM, when the park closes, and low tide was at 6:32 PM. Low tide this morning was at 6:58 AM, and the water level was at 1 foot. High tide at 12:50 PM was to be at 44.3 feet. I was determined to see the Flowerpot Rocks at close to both extremes, so I headed in to the park a little earlier than the scheduled opening time. I was happy that my car brought an umbrella on this trip; I made good use of it at the beginning of my walk this morning. <br />
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Lots of warning signs at the top of the cliffs - definitely not a good idea to stray too close the the edges of the fragile sandstone<br />
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How nice of the park to provide foot-washing tools - clean water and a scrub brush - for those of us who just had to walk in the mud!<br />
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Mud? Oh yeah, there's plenty of that here!<br />
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<hr/><br/>My feet took me quickly to the Flowerpot area. When I arrived there was still a lot of ocean floor available for walking. I wandered in both directions, taking pictures as usual, and just absorbing the beauty. The sign at the steps leading down said to be back at the stairs by 9:50. I was in that general vicinity at the stated time, but we didn't really need to leave then. There were two park staff members on the ocean floor with those of us who chose to stay as long as possible. They stayed to make sure that everyone could safely get back away from the water, but they didn't hang the "Closed" sign across the bottom of the stairs until around 11. I stayed on the ocean floor until the later time, watching the water level rising and rising some more. It was absolutely amazing to see how fast the water rose. I stood and watched as a path I had just walked down got narrower and narrower and then just disappeared under the water. The big flowerpots that were totally out of the water and connected by the ocean floor quickly changed to be individual but still large rocks surrounded by water. <i>And after a bit more time had passed, the visible portions of those rocks became much, much shorter!</i><br />
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Even though it's gray, gloomy, and somewhat rainy, the beauty of this place just shouts at you. It's another place where a single visit just won't be enough.<br />
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This rock is pretty big, and will be totally under water at high tide. <br />
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Those yellow rectangles against the rock? They are danger signs strung on chains in an attempt to keep people from wandering into spaces that could possibly have some rock fall. <br />
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It's amazing how fast the water swoops in and rises.<br />
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<hr/><br/>When they finally pulled the "Closed" sign out, I went back to the visitor center for a quick snack, and then I headed back to the Flowerpot rocks to continue to watch the water rising. I stood near the bottom of the stairs for a while, watching the lowest stairs disappear into the water. <br />
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It's funny, but two sets of people I talked with back at the visitor center commented on my walking into the water. I think I was the only person wandering around in shorts, and my Chaco sandals provided a steady platform for walking on uneven surfaces and left me quite happy to walk into the Bay of Fundy. My first foray into the water was to wash the red Fundy mud off of my feet. The water wasn't as cold as I expected, and once my feet were wet anyway I didn't hesitate to step back into the water - either directly into the bay, or later on the stairs as they disappeared into the water. That "Closed" sign at the bottom of the stairs actually disappeared into the water too...<br />
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I'm so glad that I spent the time to see the rocks at both tidal extremes. I've seen pictures before, but seeing those tall rocks become much shorter, and seeing somewhat shorter (but still over my head) rocks disapear was just amazing. One of the rocks is a huge arch that at low tide was very much over my head. In fact, three of me standing with feet on shoulders would still have been shorter than the bottom of that arch. At high tide today - which was very close to the highest tide in this area - just a small opening could be seen. A kayaker did make it under the arch at high tide, but just barely. I could very easily have stayed to watch the tide go out again, but it was time to move on. <br />
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The water continues to rise. And no, I'm not the only person staying on the ocean floor! <br />
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Maybe the people standing here can give a little perspective on the size of these rocks.<br />
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The rock to the left is the same rock shown in the previous picture. <br />
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The two photos were taken 18 minutes apart.<br />
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And again - these are the same two Flower Pot rocks in the previous picture. A bit of a time lag here, this picture was taken about an hour and 15 minutes later. That's an incredible amount of water! <br />
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The tide is definitely coming in... The timings of these pictures? Assigning numbers of 1 through 4 running left to right, picture 1 was taken at 8:21 AM, picture 2 at 8:23, 3 at 8:25, and 4 at 8:33. <br />
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An impressive and very fast change of scenery!<br />
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The well known Flower Pot rocks, shown here at just before low tide and at high tide. </center><br />
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These photos were actually taken on two different days as it probably evident from the difference in colors between them. The left photo was taken when I arrived at Hopewell Rocks late Saturday afternoon as the tide was nearing low tide. The right photo was taken just before I left the park on Sunday, at very close to high tide. <br />
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The fastest way to Maine from Hopewell Cape would have been to head back to Moncton and pick up the highway. Of course today my biking habit of not moving in a straight line seemed to overflow into my driving habits too. Instead of taking the most direct route, I continued down the coast on route 114, changing to route 915 to stay a little closer to the water. Actually the real reason for switching routes was to see the lighthouse on Cape Enrage. After all, how could I miss visiting a place with a name like Enrage? My route also took me through Fundy National Park, which looks like a beautiful place. And of course it also looks like a place where I'd like to spend some time. Another reason to come back here again...<br />
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A view of Cape Enrage</center><br />
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And the hills? The back roads that I took were very hilly. The road off of route 915 had some very steep hills with a rather bumpy road surface. And the hills through the national park were pretty serious too, including one that was marked as a 10 percent grade. Noticing the hills in a car is interesting because I've been told by drivers that roads are not hilly when in fact they are. So noticing hills from behind my steering wheel either means I was watching the roads with a cyclist's eye or that it was really really hilly. I tend to think that it was really hilly, and I wonder if the whole province has terrain like this or if I just wandered through the hilliest area.<br />
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I hit St. Stephen at 5:30 Atlantic time, 4:30 Eastern time. The people who live there must get pretty annoyed with the traffic waiting to cross into the United States since it stops right on the main road. The backup started 500 meters from the border (yes, there really was a sign noting the distance to the border), and it took 45 minutes of waiting and inching forward to get back into the States. Then I headed south on route 1, passing through dry areas and rain, dry and rain. I decided I had enough driving for the day when I got to Ellsworth, so I found a place to stay and then headed to the grocery store to pick up some food for dinner. I'll head to Bar Harbor and Acadia in the morning. It's not too much further from here, but I really had enough driving for one day!Denise Goldberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08049223586218975704noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8672051386014614006.post-35817168786787305032005-09-17T21:41:00.000-04:002009-01-29T18:48:24.160-05:00A glimpse below the tides<b><i>Confederation Bridge to Hopewell Cape</i></b><br />
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I used New Brunswick as a simple stepping stone on my drive to PEI. While the province deserves an exploration of its own, that's not going to happen on this trip. But - I am fascinated by the tides in the Bay of Fundy, and I decided to stop at Hopewell Cape on the way home. When I made that decision I was hoping for good weather. That's not today, but rain isn't a good reason to drive straight through on the way home too. <br />
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I entered the province a bit after 2 this afternoon. Initially I thought I would save my visit to Hopewell Cape until tomorrow, but then I decided that doing an initial visit today would be a good idea. It was a rainy afternoon, and it's supposed to be raining in the morning too. This rain was relatively light when I arrived at the cape, and I'd hate to be faced with a bad visiting day in the form of a total downpour tomorrow morning. I entered Hopewell Cape at 4, and was warned that I needed to be out by 5. That's not very long, but it was long enough for a quick visit to Flowerpot Rocks at close to low tide. These rock structures are amazing - hopefully some of my pictures will give you a sense of the beauty. <br />
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It was a wet and gloomy day, but my first view of the Flower Pot Rocks at close to low tide definitely brought a smile to my face. <br />
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The area to the south of the rock structures is not as impressive from a structural standpoint, but the strong line between where there was still water and the muddy area where the water had already receded was impressive. Unfortunately it was very difficult to see the difference between water and mud in my camera. I took the pictures anyway - I just kept shooting away and I'll sort all of the pictures out when I get home. Even though I know that my little camera is really perfect for riding trips, one of these trips is going to send me over the edge toward a digital camera with a big lens. Uh oh!<br />
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The real issue for me is that I'd love to see this place at both low and high tide. Tomorrow morning low tide is at 6:58 AM, and high tide is at 12:50 PM. I probably won't stay until absolute high tide. I'm hoping that "on the way to high tide" will let me see the differences in water levels. The water level at low tide tomorrow morning is 1 foot, and at high tide is 44.3 feet. That's an amazing difference, and I'd really like to be able to see it for myself. Here's hoping that what's left of tropical storm Ophelia doesn't get in the way.<br />
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Whenever I continue to the west tomorrow, my goal for the day is Bar Harbor, Maine. Another visit to Acadia National Park sounds like a good idea to me. And yes, I'm hoping for a dry day in Maine. My bicycle is ready for another ride!<br />
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In spite of it being pretty late in the season, there are still some beautiful flowers here.</center>Denise Goldberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08049223586218975704noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8672051386014614006.post-22196139414468103782005-09-17T21:14:00.019-04:002009-01-28T21:27:33.985-05:00Wandering along the west coast through the rain<b><i>...Tignish to the Confederation Bridge</i></b><br />
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I have to admit that I'm glad I changed plans for my exploration of the western side of PEI, the section known as the North Cape Coastal Drive. It was a wet morning, and a wet afternoon, with a little bit of dry stuck in the middle. It would have been a very wet ride. <br />
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I drove the roads that I would have ridden if I hadn't let the weather forecast change my plans, around the edge of the northwestern corner of the province. It would probably have taken 3 long days or 4 more reasonable length days by bike, and now that I've seen the roads I know that I would have been very happy with the northern section and not as happy with the southern section. I don't think it was the rain that colored my interest in the two sections of my drive today. It was more that I found the roads in the northern section to be closer to the edge, and within sight of the water for more of the time. I just liked then northern scenery more than that in the south.<br />
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I started my wander this morning by heading back to North Cape to see if I could walk out along the reef that marks where Northumberland Strait and the Gulf of St. Lawrence come together. The tide was lower than it was during my visit yesterday, but it was still too high for me to walk. And no, walking in the water <b>and</b> in the rain was not on my list of things to do today. It was interesting to see the view through different colors today. Yesterday there was sun, haze, and some blue sky, and today was very, very gray. Oh, and wet too!<br />
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A quick repeat visit to North Cape in the morning, and although the separation between the waters looks different than it did yesterday, tide conditions still don't support walking out on the reef. I guess that's a built-in excuse for a return trip to PEI!</center><br />
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<hr/><br/>I took an occasional right turn down roads marked "No exit / Impasse" just to see what I could see at the end of the road. There were a couple of lighthouses, some working waterfront areas, and some interesting views of the red cliffs along the water. Many of these little side roads were unpaved, so for a while my car was wearing an interesting coat of red sand. That didn't last too long though since the rain quickly washed it away. <br />
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Unlike traveling by bike, I went through the territory too fast to form lasting impressions of most of it. There are many views on my camera in spite of the rain, and there are a few places that jump out in my mind. One of those is West Point Lighthouse. It's quite possible that I would have ended up spending the night at this lighthouse if the weather hadn't interrupted my cycling. It's a working lighthouse, but it's also an inn. When I thought about staying there, one thing that I wondered about was fog. As in, how do you sleep in a lighthouse with a fog-horn going off all night long? Well, that wouldn't be a problem here. I asked, because I haven't heard a foghorn at any of the lighthouses I've seen here. And at this point in time, they are lights only, no noise. The woman working at West Point Lighthouse says that she grew up just down the road, and that there was a horn at one point in time. But that horn was down the road at the harbor; it was never at the light. I just remember standing at the light at the eastern-most point in Maine during my <a href="http://denise2005downeast.crazyguyonabike.com">June trip</a> with my hands over my ears, attempting to protect them from the piercing noise of the foghorn!<br />
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Back to the light though... The West Point Lighthouse houses a light, an inn, and a lighthouse museum. The museum is in the lighthouse itself. It includes exhibits on all 5 (tiny) floors of the light - and the light itself is on the 5th floor. The warning not to look directly at the light source is printed on the last stair. And that last flight of stairs? Wow, talk about steep! The last flight was really little more than a ladder. In the days when there was a lightkeeper who had to take care of the light, there were no railings on the stairs. Luckily for me, there are railings on all of the stairs now. That last flight kind of freaked me out, but I couldn't resist and I went right to the top. I don't have problems climbing, but I really don't like it when I look down and realize there seems to be nothing (solid) under my feet. I never would have made it down those stairs facing forward, but coming down backwards as though it was really a ladder worked. And the view from the top was well worth the trip back down. It was absolutely gorgeous. And keep in mind, it was a very gray day. It would be very interesting to see that same view in sunlight. Hmm... Maybe I can use that as an excuse for a return trip! <i>(Actually, I wonder if I'll ever go someplace and find that one visit is enough. That just never seems to happen.)</i><br />
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Another place I stopped was <a href="http://www.bottlehouses.com">The Bottle Houses</a> in Cap-Egmont. These three (admittedly small) houses were built in the early 1980's out of more than 30,000 bottles - and they might be enough incentive to ride that southern section of the North Cape Drive that I said I would skip if I ride here again. The keeper of the place is the builder's daughter, and she told me it was a labor of love for her dad. It was just something he had to do for himself. The houses were rebuilt using the original bottles and the original design during the 1990's Apparently the winters here on PEI were not kind to the original structures. <br />
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As I rolled into Summerside, close to the end of my tour of Prince Edward Island, I started to drive by a snack / ice cream / lunch stand. It seemed to be a popular place based on the people waiting for their food on this very rainy day, so it became my lunch spot as well. Ah, a lobster roll for lunch. Yum! And for only $6.95. I've been enjoying so much wonderful seafood here, and at some great prices too. <br />
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Just a short time later, I was back at the Confederation Bridge. This beautiful bridge was my exit point from PEI. Although I understand why the barriers on the side of the bridge are as high as they are, I again found myself wishing I could see over the edge. As I drove back across the bridge I was very happy that today's gray weather was rain only and no wind. <br />
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The bridge toll of $39.50 is charged only when you leave PEI, and the charge for the ferry is also only on the outbound leg. Do you think the provincial government is trying to get people to stay? <i>No, I didn't think so. It's probably just easier to collect the tolls in one direction only.</i>Denise Goldberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08049223586218975704noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8672051386014614006.post-60787781205759949872005-09-16T21:05:00.023-04:002009-01-28T21:13:22.218-05:00Windmills, water, red rocks, sand<b><i>...wandering near Tignish</i></b><br />
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The ground was still very wet this morning from last nght's hard rain. My bike was spared riding on wet roads though since this was a day by alternative transportation. Wandering by bike waited until the afternoon. <br />
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My bright shiny blue car kindly offered transportation to me and my purple bike. I thought about driving up the coast road, but I opted for the shorter distance straight up Route 2. Even so, the drive took the better part of two hours. My destination was North Cape, the northwest tip of PEI. There is a wind farm there, and it's the point at which the Northumberland Strait and Gulf of St. Lawrence merge. It's a beautiful place to wander or to just sit and absorb the sights: the windmills, the reef leading out from the tip of the island between the two bodies of water, the red sandstone cliffs that were very much undercut, dunes, grasses, birds, a seal fishing offshore. Then there were the sounds, the birds, and faint sounds from the rotating windmills. <br />
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The tide wasn't at a low enough level to support walking out along the reef. The birds probably preferred it at that level since that meant that the offshore but still out of the water clumps of rocks belonged to the birds. They could perch there with no two-legged creatures disturbing them. I spent some time walking along the water, both on the rocks at the water's edge and along the top of the sandstone cliffs. The cliffs weren't very high, but they were high enough that it would be unpleasant falling into the water or onto the sand from the top. They were pretty severely undercut, so walking along the actual edge definitely would not have been a good idea. <blockquote><i>I had a pretty funny conversation with a woman who was sharing the view with me at North Cape. When I asked her where she lived, she said that her home is in the only part of Canada that is south of the United States. I looked at her and said "that must be Windsor", and her jaw dropped. It surprised her that a stranger from the northeastern part of the United States knew that; I have to admit that the only reason that little piece of information was floating in my head was from the time (many, many years ago) that I lived in the Detroit area. Funny.</i></blockquote><br />
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As I walked past a dark and empty frame on the wall at the visitor center at the North Cape Wind Farm, it suddenly came to life and started talking to me. Luckily I had my camera close at hand. <br />
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My next stop was Tignish. Even though the day was barely half over, I thought finding a place to stay before I headed out on my bike would be a good idea. The Tignish Heritage Inn is in the center of town, and it looked very interesting. For a while it looked like I would have the place to myself for the night since at the time I walked in I was the only guest - and they had no reservations for the night. There is a staff member here until midnight, but I'd be on my own from then until 7am. Sounds a little odd, but it would have been interesting to be in this beautiful old building on my own. That isn't going to happen though because two couples checked in while I was at dinner. This is a beautiful building. It was a convent from 1868 until 1991, and then the building was restored and reopened as an inn in 1995. There are 17 rooms, all with private baths. There's a living room with comfortable chairs, and a continental breakfast is included. That works for me, and another big plus is that all of staff are very friendly, a source of good information and good converstations. <br />
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Ah, finally time to ride. My bike and I did an out and back ride along the coast. I was going to do a loop and return on an inland route but I decided I'd rather stay as close to the water as was possible. My choices were to head south along the west coast or head south along the east coast. Yes, I know, the real east coast of this island is a long way away, but the east coast of the North Cape is right here. I'm not sure that it really mattered which side I headed down, but I chose the west. The road was beautiful and it was pretty empty too. I had it to myself for much of my ride. <br />
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I stopped at Skinner's Pond, where there was a road marked as both a beach access and entry to a harbor. Of course I needed to turn down that road. I started by heading down to the beach. There was a boardwalk leading from the road to a very red sand beach. I met an older man out on the beach, and walked back on the boardwalk with him. He told me that he swept the boardwalk - and it's fairly long - earlier today. Apparently he often does that, says it gives him something to do. That sounds good to me - he's outside, and it's good exercise. And a big plus for me today was that I could walk to the beach without traipsing through sand in my cycling shoes - since of course I forgot to through my sandals in my pannier before I headed out today. Next I headed down to the harbor area. I watched a boater shoveling something out of his boat into a container that was then lifted and dumped in a larger container on the dock. I asked the worker on the dock if that was moss that they were offloading. It was Irish Moss, and it is used for both skin care products and in the food industry. He said something about carragen. That's something else I need to lookup when I get home.<br />
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Irish Moss, from boat to shore and later to be incorporated in food and cosmetic products (and who knows where else!) <br />
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<hr/><br/>It was a funny animal day today. Quite a few houses had horses standing in front and happily eating grass. Then there were the dogs. None of them came out in the road after me, but there was barking, and there was chasing. They just chased to the edge of their own yards though. I don't know if these dogs were restrained by one of those "electric shock" perimeters or if they just had enough sense not to run into the road. I was quite happy that they weren't really trying to get me. <br />
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And wouldn't you know that the day I'm wandering on my bike without all my gear is a day of relatively light winds? The start and end of my ride had absolutely no wind. I assume that's because of where I started, inland a bit, heading to the west. I think I was protected by the protruding tip of North Cape. Once I hit the shore heading south, the wind was at my back. Nice, but that meant that I would have a headwind when I turned back toward Tignish. I should be pretty used to that by now! The thing I find very interesting is that when the wind is at my back it is very quiet, so quiet that I think there isn't any wind. But as soon as I turned, I could hear (and feel) the wind blowing. <br />
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Dinner tonight was at Cousin's Diner, about a mile down the road from my home for the night. Even though I have my car, I continued my normal touring habit and walked to dinner. I had the clam strips special - fried clams, coleslaw, potato, and fresh veggies - for a great price, $7.95! That definitely hit the spot tonight. I have to say this has been the easiest trip for me to find satisfactory food for dinner. My preferred diet, vegetarian-based plus fish, can definitely be a challenge in some areas - but not here. My biggest complaint about the food on this trip is that it has been very difficult to find fruit. Of course it's readily available in larger towns that have some type of grocery store, but it's been hard to even find bananas in the smaller places. Not to worry, I managed.<br />
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As I expected, today was a beautiful weather day. The forecast is still calling for heavy rain for the next two days. The thing I find really interesting is that the forecasts mention Nova Scotia & Newfoundland as targets for tropical storm Ophelia, but they never seem to say anything about New Brunswick & PEI. I don't know if that is because these two provinces are sheltered by the other two or if it's a habit to only mention the provinces that are more directly in the path of the storm. I guess I'll just have to wait and see what the morning brings. <br />
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I'm assuming that it will be wet, so tomorrow my bike will join me in riding in the car. I'm hoping for a good wandering day in spite of the rain. I plan to head down the west coast, and eventually I will get back to the Confederation Bridge and head to New Brunswick. That is, assuming that the winds are at a reasonable level and that the bridge is open. I understand that the bridge authority doesn't hesitate to close it if there are dangerous weather conditions. It sounds like the usual first step is to lower the speed limit and to restrict access for high (tall) vehicles.Denise Goldberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08049223586218975704noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8672051386014614006.post-12225714972080936132005-09-15T19:13:00.020-04:002009-01-28T19:24:02.417-05:00Absorbing the beauty<b><i>...a wander outside the bounds from Cavendish to Summerside</i></b><br />
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My day started as usual with a peek out of my window to check the wind conditions. As expected, the wind was still making itself known, but as I'd find out when I hit the road, today's southwest wind was a bit gentler than yesterday's.Or maybe I'm getting more accustomed to having the wind in my face all day long!<br />
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A breakfast buffet was included with my room today, and in addition to the normal cereal, toast, muffins, and fruit, there was also a waffle iron and batter for fresh waffles. And you know what, waffles not only taste good, they seem to be a good energy source for me. <br />
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Before I headed out along the coast to explore the section of national park right outside of Cavendish, I stopped at the visitor center to check my email. As I was getting ready to leave I started talking with a couple from Ontario who were also about to take off. We were talking about where we were from, and where we were traveling. They had been in Nova Scotia before getting to PEI, and they met the Feldmann's on Cape Breton Island! I knew that Cynthia & Fritz & their boys are still on the Cabot Trail, and since quite a few folks here seem to be traveling on both PEI & Nova Scotia, I kept thinking that I'd talk to someone who had met them. There are a fair number of cyclists touring through these provinces, but it's hard to miss a family of four on bikes. It's really a small world, isn't it?<br />
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This morning was a time for soaking in some beautiful sights. Yes, I was riding my bike, but I was riding slowly and stopping a lot. It was a day for enjoying my surroundings as opposed to a day for traveling a long distance. I headed out to ride the road hugging the coast in the Cavendish section of Prince Edward Island National Park. Of course there was a prize involved too - since my outbound leg was heading to the east, I had a tailwind for a while. I decided to make it an out & back ride rather than coming back a little inland on route 6. Seeing the red sandstone cliffs in both directions was a real treat. With the sun coming from the east, there was a real difference in the appearance of the cliffs in each direction. Looking east, the red was really shaded, and as I was riding back to the west with the wind in my face I had the joy of seeing the red in the cliffs jump out at me. The road was pretty empty, but I did run into and talk with some other people as I stopped and walked on the rocks or headed down to the sandy beaches. It was well worth spending the morning exploring this short (6-mile) section of coastline. <br />
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<i><b>Red cliffs, sand, flocks of Canada Geese in V-formations heading south, incredible beauty...</b></i><br />
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When I headed toward Summerside, I thought of what one of the staffers at the information center said to me as I asked how to get to the second beach section of the Cavendish section of the park.She told me where to turn, but then said "but it's hilly!". Yes, the roads on this island can easily be classified as rolling hills - but they certainly don't warrant the concern I heard in their voices. I wonder what the highest elevation point is on this island. It can't be very high, even though the roads insist on going up and down. The worriers were right though; the hills continued until I hit Kensington, and then the road felt like it was a little closer to flat. There were even a few downhills with warning signs for trucks. Nice fast downhills on a bike...<br />
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I met a cross-country cyclist on the road today. He started cycling in Anchorage, took the ferry from some point in Alaska to Vancouver, and continued riding across Canada. Today is the last day of his trip since it's time to for him to go back to work. He had a funny story about his entry to PEI though - he tried to skirt the rules regarding bikes on the Confederation Bridge yesterday. He made it a little over 5 kilometers before the van that transports cyclists across the bridge caught up with him. I understand that the powers that run the bridge fine cyclists or walkers who break the rule of no non-motorized traffic on the bridge, but it sounds like this cyclist merely lost his attempt to cross on his own. Yesterday was the day of that killer southwest wind, so he was getting a huge push across the bridge. Too bad he didn't make it across. I think he didn't realize how tight the surveillance is on that bridge. There are active cameras all of the way across, and it appears that they are well monitored. While there are days when the 9 miles of that bridge must be pretty unpleasant, if bicycles were allowed I probably would have left my car in New Brunswick and ridden across. Maybe someday they'll have a bikes only day. (I can dream, right?)<br />
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My destination for the day was downtown area of Summerside, a reunion with my bright blue car, and a place to stay for the night before I head for North Cape in the morning. <br />
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Before heading in to town, I had an important visit to make. When I left Summerside last Friday, I passed a sign for a shop called Periwinkle Bears. I guess the name stuck in my head, and when I saw a card from there in one of the visitor information centers, I decided I needed to stop by on my way through Summerside again. What really peaked my interest is that the bear artists not only create bears, they also weave the fabric that is used to construct their fantastic stuffed bears. I find bears and their creators very interesting - probably at least partially because my very creative mom has made her own family of bears, and some of them even share my home. I followed the sign for Periwinkle Bears, and walked my bike down Nancy Cole & John Perry's red dirt driveway. When I went in, Nancy looked at me and told me she had just been out and had seen me pedaling down the road. She quickly offered me a glass of cold water, which I very happily accepted. I was able to see some of their bears as well as their creating space. We had a very nice visit with conversations twisting between touring by bike and creating bears. What fun! <br />
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It started sprinkling when I came out of Periwinkle Bears and headed back toward route 1A, but luckily the real rain held off until my bike and I were safely under cover. And yes, true to normal Denise fashion, I am changing my plans for the next several days. My intent was to ride from Cavendish to Alberton today, then spend tomorrow visiting North Cape and wandering some more in that general area. I was going to head down the west coast the next day, and then head back to Summerside on Sunday. I have been keeping an eye on the projected path of Hurricane Ophelia though, and since the forecast now calls for rain both Saturday and Sunday, I've decided to use my car to get to North Cape. It's supposed to be dry tomorrow, so my plans are to drive, to visit the wind farm, and to do some riding around the northwest tip of the province. Then I'll use the next day to explore the west coast. I hope to ride that day too, but my bike agrees with me that she'd rather not wander in the rain. While I know it's quite possible that the forecast is totally wrong and that it will be a dry weekend, I'd like to be free to explore without requiring a wet return cycle to Summerside. <i>(Yes, you're right, I <b>am</b> a bit of a baby about riding in the rain. That's my privilege though, isn't it?)</i><br />
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On to North Cape tomorrow...Denise Goldberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08049223586218975704noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8672051386014614006.post-65970868927820488432005-09-14T18:38:00.017-04:002009-01-28T18:44:52.321-05:00A new direction, rolling west<b><i>...with a southwest wind, from St. Peters to Cavendish</i></b><br />
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The forecast for today was for a sunny (or partly sunny) day with temperatures rising into the 20s in the afternoon. The day dawned with gray skies and cool temperatures, but the ground was dry, a good start! My bike was ready to move, but she waited patiently while I headed next door for breakfast. <br />
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While the little motel that was my home for the last two nights provides a free continental breakfast in the summer, they lower their fees slightly and skip the breakfast this late in the season. The other motel in town - right next door - has a restaurant, so that was my breakfast spot both days. As I was sitting there this morning, three women walked in who were wearing what looked like cycling shoes. Of course I asked them if they were cycling, and the answer was yes. One of the women was from the Denver area, and the other two were from Texas. They are friends from many years ago who try to get together for a week or two each year to do a bike tour. This year's tour is riding end to end along the Confederation Trail. Although it's very difficult for me to guess people's ages, my guess is that these women were at least 15 years older than me - that's a good confirmation that touring can still be a part of my life many years out into the future. <br />
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Good breakfast conversation, a good way to start the day...<br />
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I headed out in somewhat cool temperatures, and although the skies stayed pretty gray for the morning, my knee warmers and wind vest were traveling companions only for about the first hour. There were clouds that looked somewhat threatening early, but they eventually moved on and the sun broke through for the afternoon. The wind was another story though. It was pretty strong all day - not as strong as two days ago when I had so much trouble riding and had to put off my visit to Greenwich for another day - but it was a strong and constant force. My route today was basically to the west with some twists and turns to follow the coast. The wind? It was coming out of the southwest, all day long. There were more than a few times that I really had to concentrate to stay on the road. When the wind was coming at me and slowing my progress, that was a little frustrating. But toward the end of the day there were several sections of road where the wind was coming straight from the left side. That was frightening - I almost was blown right off of the road more than once. Funny thing, I was so focused on staying on the road at one point that it took a driver waving at me to get me to notice that the water to the right of me had just opened up from a closed bay to open water. Beautiful. <br />
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It's now nighttime, and the wind is still blowing right now. I can only hope for a lighter wind tomorrow. <i>It seems that when something is as strong as the wind was today that I should be able to catch it with my camera, even though that's probably not possible. I did try to capture an image of the wind by taking pictures of the leaves showing their undersides. I wonder if that will show anything...</i><br />
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It was a beautiful ride over rolling hills, through trees and fields, with cows that came waltzing over to the fence next to the road to watch that strange individual on two wheels rolling by. The llamas and goats did a good job of staring too. There were blue herons standing and fishing as I crossed close to the water - too far away to capture with my camera, but close enough to capture as a memory. <br />
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Hey look, it's another one of those biker things.<br />
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<hr/><br/>One of the interesting things about today is that I passed through many more villages than I did on previous days, and they each seemed to have their own cemetery. Houses, farms, cemeteries - and no visible stores or restaurants. There were also many more B&Bs or Inn / Cottages combinations. They were often in what seemed to be the middle of no where, with no other visible services in the area. That is, there were places to sleep, but no food choices anywhere in the vicinity. Very odd, and definitely not a good place to stay unless you were carrying more than snack food. <br />
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I had a repeat of a conversation about touring alone this afternoon when I stopped at a gas station convenience store for a bathroom and snack break. I asked how far it was to Cavendish - since the road signs almost never include the distance remaining to a town, and since late in the day I usually want to know - I often ask. This time another customer in the store overheard my question, and when she came outside (where I was standing and enjoying my ice cream sandwich) she started talking with me, asking if I was traveling alone and telling me she wouldn't be comfortable doing the same. I then asked her if she would have started a conversation with me if I was with a group of people. She looked a little surprised, and told me no. And for me, meeting and talking with people along the way is a part of my travels that I really enjoy. I think that maybe I am a bit more open to talking with strangers myself since I started traveling this way, that that may be a part of it too.<br />
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Oh, and something else I've noticed on this trip that really makes me laugh is the number of times I get an answer to my question in miles rather than kilometers. The younger people answer my "how far" questions in minutes or hours, as in "how long does it take to drive". The people who appear to be close to my age answer in miles, although kilometers are the measure used in Canada. I asked one woman about it, and she told me that the switch to the metric system happened right after she graduated from high school and that she never made the mental switch. She was 48, just five years younger than me. I don't really care if the answer to my questions is in kilometers or miles as long as I know which one it is. But I really prefer not getting the answer in minutes!<br />
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As I crossed into Cavendish, the view ahead opened up and included open water. It's a small town that is known for the house that inspired the author of Anne of Green Gables. It also contains the third part of the Prince Edward Island National Park. One of my goals for tomorrow is to ride along the coast in the park, taking me by Orby Head and Cape Turner. The route is supposed to give a good view of the red cliffs along the water. That means either an out-and-back ride in the park or repeating a section of route 6 that I rode today. The recommendation of the guy that I spoke to in the visitor center was to come back on route 6 - he thought that I might not want to do the hills along the coast twice. This park is in three distinct pieces, and apparently it's the second smallest national park in the country. I've already visited Greenwich, the eastern-most section, and tomorrow's ride will cover the western section. <br />
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My home for the night is the Shining Waters Inn & Cottages. I have a room in the inn, and this old building doesn't seem to have an even floor anywhere. The floor in my room slants in one direction, and the floor in the bathroom slants in another direction. Those middle of the night bathroom trips should be interesting... I checked in at the same time as two sisters from British Columbia - Karen & Lynn. We met when Karen asked me to join them for wine and conversation as I walked out of the little onsite laundromat - I figured drying my hand-washed cycling clothes would be a good idea. I passed on the wine, but conversation was good. I headed to dinner earlier than they did, but they walked into the same restaurant as I was finishing my salad - so we ended up sharing a table for dinner. That was a nice change of pace for me. Good conversation, good food. <br />
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What will tomorrow bring? More riding of course, but I can't tell you right now where my day will end. I'll be starting backwards, heading east for a bit before turning to the west again. I'm keeping an eye on the weather forecast and hoping that hurricane blows out to sea before it hits Atlantic Canada. Right now the forecast is for showers on Friday and Saturday. I'm really hoping for showers at the worst - not out and out rain.<br />
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In a day of interesting roadside sights, this mailbox and its "holder" really was a winner. I have to admit that from afar it really looked like a person was standing at the mailbox.<br />
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A very small boat - but I was left with the impression that it wasn't a toy.<br />
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</center>Denise Goldberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08049223586218975704noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8672051386014614006.post-22192595098755450862005-09-13T18:15:00.025-04:002009-01-28T18:27:16.174-05:00Dunes, waves, quiet roads<b><i>Loops from St. Peters</i></b><br />
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The flags were still snapping in the wind when I went to sleep last night, but all was quiet outside this morning. The sun was out and there was blue sky and white clouds. There was still a little wind but I suspect that is probably normal here. A chilly start, but it was good riding weather. <br />
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My first riding destination of the day wasn't very far. Actually, my intent was to visit the Greenwich section of Prince Edward Island National Park of Canada when I arrived here yesterday, but even the short six miles from my motel to the park entrance would have been very difficult if not impossible in yesterday's wind. (Considering that I could barely walk, riding didn't sound like a good idea at the time...) Today it was an easy ride, ending in a walk to the Greenwich Dunes Trail. The highlight of the trail is a view of the parabolic dunes found in this area. Apparently this type of dune is rather rare; it was definitely an interesting sight. The trail also has a floating boardwalk crossing a pond and leading to a path across the dunes to the ocean. (Or is that still the Gulf of St. Lawrence?) I walked along the surprisingly white sand beach for a while. I'm pretty amazed that this beach was white as opposed to the red I've seen elsewhere on the island. I asked about the color of the sand and was told that when the red sandstone erodes or decomposes, the particles of sand are actually in three colors - white, black, and red. And for some reason this north shore beach ends up with more white sand particles. That sounds a little odd to me, but for now I guess I'll have to believe it. I'm very glad I didn't miss this park - it was absolutely beautiful. I'm hoping I have some decent photos, but I have a strong feeling that today was a day for a camera with a big lens. There are good images in my mind, now I'll just have to see if any of my pictures measure up. <br />
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Yes Rover, this sign on the trail to the sand dunes and the beach in the Greenwich section of Prince Edward Island National Park does say no dogs are allowed. But haven't you been telling me that you're not a dog?<br />
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By riding across the island yesterday in my south to north voyage from Montague to St. Peters, I skipped the northeast corner of the province. So the second part of my ride was to head further to the east at the top of the island. As expected, most of the road was a bit inland, although there were occasional glimpses of the water along the way. The road was a simple 2-lane road, no shoulders to speak of. Shoulders weren't really needed though since there was very little traffic even though I was on a part of the loop around the east of the island known as Kings Byway Coastal Drive. I wonder if this road carries more traffic during the summer, which appears to be the peak tourist season. <br />
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I have to tell you that this sign really surprised me. I was not too far out of St. Peters heading for the north coast, essentially in the middle of farms with a few houses around too. A little further down the road I came upon the reason for the sign - a B&B with a little plane parked next to it, and some mowed grass that looked like it must have been the runway. A private plane that gets its own impressive sign on the road!</center><br />
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<hr/><br/>A short loop off of the main road took me to Naufrage Harbor. I parked my bike next to the road and started heading toward the water to get a picture of yet another small lighthouse. When I returned to my trusty bike, a van bearing a couple from Washington had stopped by my bike to say hello. They drove across the states, hoping to see some of the color changes both here in Atlantic Canada and in New England too. Why did they stop? To say hello to a fellow Bike Friday owner, of course! They had their bikes with them, folded and hidden away in a case hanging on their vehicle. Their bikes - New World Tourists I think they said - come out to play whenever their owners want to ride. Not a bad way to see the world, with a bike along for the ride! Hopefully they will be in the northeast long enough to see some of the fall colors.<br />
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I spent a bit more time at Naufrage Harbor before I headed out on the road again. There is a single-lane wooden surface bridge over an outlet to the sea. I crossed over, and watched a boat - I assume it was a fishing boat - heading out. As usual I tried to catch some pictures of sea gulls, and the sea weed, sand, and water made some beautiful images. As I headed back to my bike, I had a short conversation with someone who appeared to be involved with the harbor and boats. He asked if I noticed the moss floating in the water. It was Irish Moss, and apparently it can get caught up in the boat's engines. It sounds like they are hoping it disappears with the next high tide. <br />
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It was a day of out and back rides in two different directions, and I was riding pretty close to unloaded. I had a single pannier on the bike to carry a few things like extra layers and my lock, a nice change of pace. Tomorrow I'll be moving again though, heading to the west. It's supposed to be a warm day, cool in the morning but warming to summer-like temperatures in the afternoon. That will be a nice change of pace, although a few more crisp, cool, dry days would be greatly appreciated. Unfortunately, the forecast doesn't correspond with my dreams. Weather wizard, are you listening?<br />
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<center><img src="http://denise.smugmug.com/photos/37286243_FooEi-500x500.jpg"></center>Denise Goldberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08049223586218975704noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8672051386014614006.post-44846695624905203532005-09-12T06:34:00.016-04:002009-01-28T06:39:20.890-05:00Bicycle wheels turning backwards<b><i>...a battle with the wind from Montague to St. Peters</i></b><br />
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<i>No, my wheels weren't really turning backwards, but there were times when I was sure I wasn't moving in a forward direction!</i><br />
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My first introduction to the day was the sound of wind and rain in the middle of the night. My second was when my alarm buzzed to wake me for breakfast. Not heavy rain but drizzle greeted me, and it was very wet outside. Ah, it's too early to worry, it's time for breakfast. And what a fabulous meal it was - freshly made waffles with lots of fruit, bananas, blueberries and peaches. Yum, a good start for my energy stores for the day. <br />
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I have to admit I was worried enough about the weather to ask Arlene if they had an available room for tonight. They did, but I didn't make a decision at that moment. I really wanted to move on, but I also really didn't want to ride in the rain. So I took a little relaxing time after breakfast, taking another look at my maps and dreaming of a good riding day. The drizzle stopped, my bike said she wanted to ride, my tiny traveling companion Rover said he wanted to ride, and I agreed. <i>(And no, I'm not going to blame my bike and Rover for what happened to our riding day...)</i> Everything was already in the panniers and ready to go - all I had to do was retrieve my bike from its locked storage area. My plans for the day were to ride to St. Peters, find a place to stay, drop my gear in my room, then head out to the Greenwich section of Prince Edward Island National Park. Time to roll...<br />
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Before I headed out of town I stopped at the bakery to pick up snacks for later. That bakery stop lasted a longer than expected amount of time because of the conversation I had with the guy setting up pizzas for the oven and generally taking care of things. He asked me where I'm from and where I'm heading. When I told him I was from Massachusetts, he told me that he spent 15 years living and working in Worcester many years ago. He's from PEI, but escaped to work elsewhere (Massachusetts and then Yukon Territory, what an interesting constrast) for a number of years. He went on to tell me a story of an older man (named O'Reilly) from Pennsylvania that came into the bakery a few years back. This man thought that one of his ancestors may have come from PEI, so he was using his trip here as research. My bakery pal's name is Reilly, and he was trying to figure out if they possibly could be related. After many questions, and many "no" answers, they figured out that their grandmothers were sisters. Amazing. And conversations like this one are part of the magic of touring for me. Somehow when I'm traveling on my bike, I end up meeting and talking to people whose paths I would never cross in my normal day-to-day life. Maybe I need to change my habits...<br />
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Finally, I was on the road. Not five minutes after I started, the rain started too. A fleeting thought crossed my mind, maybe I should go back to the B&B. But hey, I was already wet and as soon as I hit wet roads PEI's red dirt started flying up and sticking to my bike, so it already needed to be cleaned. I might as well keep going! I started out this morning wearing both my knee warmers and my rain jacket, so I was all set for a wet and chilly ride. <br />
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Since I opted to head straight to St. Peters, I was traveling on a cross-island two-lane road as opposed to following the edge. Going through the middle of the island meant a repeat of yesterday's gently rolling hills. The countryside was beautiful but I have very few pictures because I decided it was time to protect my camera. I parked it in a (thankfully waterproof) pannier for a good chunk of my ride. There were farms, occasional houses, woods, marshy areas, trees. There was wind-driven rain, heavy, then light again. And then - the sky changed to a lighter color gray, the rain stopped, and the road surface actually began to dry. That was good, but there was bad too in the form of the wind. The ever-present wind got even stronger. I was heading pretty much to the north, and the wind was coming from the northeast at first. It was slowing me down, and at the same time it was doing its best at trying to blow me right off of the road. Hanging on to the handlebars definitely wasn't optional today.<br />
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Looking back towards Montague. And yes, I had just reached a flat spot after a climb, and the road ahead of me continued to tilt up. But remember - while the island is rolling, the hills are not very high. According to <u>The Atlas of Canada</u> (<a href="http://atlas.gc.ca">http://atlas.gc.ca</a>), the highest point on the island is 142 meters.<br />
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<hr/><br/>As I was slowly heading uphill, an image appeared. It was another touring cyclist - easy to recognize by the Bob trailer he was pulling. Scott was having a better riding day than I was since that very strong wind was at his back. Nice! We stood on the side of the road and talked for quite a while. He's on a fast journey across Canada, starting on the west coast on August 1st. He was heading to Wood Islands, planning to catch the ferry to Nova Scotia today. He's close to the end of his journey, and it sounds like he's had a fabulous trip. It's always fun to stop along the road to share touring experiences, isn't it? <i>(And is it just me? I keep wanting to say Woods Island instead of the correct name of Wood Islands!)</i><br />
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Before we got too chilled from standing in the wind, we headed out in opposite directions. At that point I was very close to St. Peters, just a short uphill and one more downhill to the river and to the visitor center. I have to admit I had to walk up that short hill. The wind was so strong that I was about to get blown off the road at the slow starting uphill speed that I could manage. I got back on my bike and headed down, and I actually had to ride in the center of the lane. There was no way for me to ride close to the right edge of the road and stay upright because the wind kept pushing me to the side. At that point I was relieved to get to St. Peters!<br />
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Can you see the wind? And yes, it was blowing - and gusting - directly into my face. When I looked at my speed heading downhill into St. Peters, I was only moving at 8 miles per hour and I was pedaling as hard as I could.</center><br />
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<hr/><br/>I headed in to the visitor center. There I found a helpful staff member, information on places to stay, and other travelers with similar questions. And there was a line to use the computer too; everyone was checking their email. Nice of the information centers to include computer access as a free service! <br />
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I ended up at the Greenwich Gate Lodge, a small motel in the center of what I guess you would call a town. There are two motels right next to each other, a fish & chips restaurant, and a convenience store. The other motel has a restaurant that serves breakfast & dinner, but that restaurant is closed on Mondays. Small town! <br />
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My idea of dropping off my gear and heading out again on the bike didn't appeal to me too much after I got here. The wind was getting stronger, and the woman at the visitor center said that it was predicted to gust to 80 kph this afternoon. I was already having trouble riding - in fact the wind was so strong that I had to walk the short distance from the visitor center to the motel. I could barely even push my bike! I remember one day on my 1999 tour in the <a href="http://denisegoldberg1999nw.blogspot.com">Pacific Northwest</a> when I was happy to be pushed south down the Oregon coast by a very strong wind. I was sure that day that if I had been heading north that I would have ended up sitting on the side of the road unable to move. Now I know that my feeling that day was right - today the wind was definitely not in my favor. <br />
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As it turned out, it was a very short riding day today. It certainly wasn't planned that way, but it was still OK. The first order of business after I got here was to clean and re-lube my bike so it's ready to go whenever I am. Then I could have a relaxing afternoon, doing a little bit of walking, but mainly it was quiet time.<br />
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Tomorrow? First, I'm hoping beyond hope that the wind dies down overnight. I may stay here a second night to give me the day to explore a bit more of the northeast corner of the island - the area known as "Bays & Dunes". I'd still like to ride out to the national park at Greenwich, and doing an additional loop in this area sounds appealing too. Only the morning will tell...<br />
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</center>Denise Goldberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08049223586218975704noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8672051386014614006.post-61839789329745779632005-09-11T06:09:00.021-04:002009-01-28T06:15:53.696-05:00Hang on to that bike!<b><i>...fighting the wind from Charlottetown to Montague </i></b><br />
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The weather forecast was absolutely right when it said there would be a stong wind out of the north today. But I'll get back to that a little later...<br />
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Taking the day to rest yesterday - although I'm not sure walking for four hours really classifies as rest - was definitely the right thing to do. I was awake this morning before the alarm starting buzzing at me, and I was ready to hit the road. Breakfast first, of course. Then someone from the cooking staff retrieved my bike from its home for the last couple of days, a locked room in the basement of the inn. My bike said that she didn't mind the rest either, but she was ready to hit the road too. <br />
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I made a quick stop on the way out of Charlottetown at a Tim Hortons to pick up a muffin for a snack along the road. (After all, I've been hearing about the place from all of the crazy guys from Canada, so I needed to check it out myself!) I've found myself on pretty empty roads most of the time, at least from a standpoint of stores that might have good snacks. I have a stash of Luna Bars with me, but I've found that it's a good idea to have some additional snack foods - usually some kind of baked goods and fruit - with me too. Water? That too - my water bottles have been sporting blue Gatorade and my Camelbak has plenty of water. <br />
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Then, it was time to hit the road. I started the day by following Trans Canada 1 in a general eastward direction. I say general because there was a while when the road marked as east became straight south as it followed the shape of the island. There were a couple of times early in the day when my bike and I almost were blown totally off the road. The strength of the wind was pretty unbelieveable, and it didn't let up all day long. In fact, I can almost blame the wind for a change in the roads I took today. When I left Charlottetown this morning, my intent was to ride as far as Wood Islands Lighthouse. Then I was going to head north on a two-lane road, cutting to the inside of the island instead of following the coast. Montague was my planned stopping point for the day, and in spite of my change in route, it was still my stopping point for the day. I just got there by following a different set of roads. (And you probably already know that I seem to have a habit on these trips of not following my plans!)<br />
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I changed my riding roads today because I didn't think I'd be too happy riding 15 to 20 miles into a strong north wind over rolling hills. This section of island is known as "hills & harbors", and I can confirm that there are hills. They are nicely rolling, nothing that requires super low gearing, but they are hills. I stopped at a gas station / grocery store when I started to think about changing directions. I thought it would be a good idea to try to figure out how many more miles I would be covering, and I knew that if I was going to change my route it was time to make the change. I had a nice conversation with the guy staffing the cash register, and he sort of confirmed the distances remaining in each direction. I say "sort of" because no one seems to know how many miles or kilometers there are between two points. They can only tell me how long it takes to drive. That almost worked today after I asked how fast he was driving. When I got the answer 100 kilometers per hour, I could at least take a guess based on how long he told me it took him to get to Wood Islands and how long it would take to get to Montague. <br />
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So tell me, do you know how far it is to different towns in your area? Or would you give a cyclist the kinds of answers I have been getting. "Oh, that usually takes about 20 minutes." I can't even complain about the unit of measure because I'm very comfortable converting from kilometers to miles and back again. So I don't really care which one I am given - I just care that I know if I'm dealing with miles or kilometers. <br />
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Based on my conversation about distances, I did decide to head back a short distance and then follow some of the back roads over the hills and through the wind. I rode through farmland with an occasional house along the way. For a good chunk of time I had the road to myself. Most of it was very nicely paved, and it was definitely a pleasant place to ride. Trans Canada 1 was also a pleasant road for riding, but the contrast of the smaller roads was a nice change of pace. <br />
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I pulled into the town of Montague a little faster than I expected from a mileage standpoint. It was early, and I was planning to head toward the eastern edge of the island, but I stopped to find a place to stay first. I'm at Edgecombe's B&B, which is just a short walk out of the center of town and access to restaurants. Arlene greeted me, showed me my room and bath, and introduced me to Tibby, the family dog. She has the run of the house, and she is very friendly if a little bit of a character. I left most of my gear at the B&B, taking just a few things with me in a single almost empty pannier. <br />
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I can't really say why, but I wasn't done riding for the day. I headed down the road to see the lighthouse at St. Andrews Point. It's funny, I rode right by it on the way out, and when I hit the end of the road I wondered where it was. There weren't any people wandering around, so there was no one to ask. I turned and started riding back to the west, and what do you know! There it was! Of course I was looking for the lighthouse on the water side of the road. Bad expectation on my part - the lighthouse was on the side of the road away from the water. When I finally found it I could see how I missed it on the way out. Between a curve in the road and trees, it is pretty hidden from someone traveling east on the road. It looks like it would be visible from the water though, and of course that's the important direction. <br />
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I followed Arlene's suggestion and had dinner at Windows on the Water, a cafe that overlooks the river that flows through town. Scallops with fresh vegetables and a baked potato hit the spot, but I still stopped at a store on the way back to the B&B to pick up some chocolate as an after-dinner treat. And yes, I plan to share the chocolate with Rover!<br />
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This B&B is definitely a winner. There's a room for me, and my bike is locked in the shed in the backyard. She is sharing her home for the night with several bikes that are here for B&B guests to use. My room is small but has everything I need. The bathroom is private and down the hall. No problem there, and no, I don't need to get dressed for my middle of the night bathroom runs since the room is furnished with a nice, clean terry-cloth robe. I was given a spot in the refrigerator for the Gatorade I picked up for the morning, and there's a nice sitting room that the B&B guests are welcome to use. I had to ask Arlene where she & Dennis sleep because the first floor of the house has only 2 bedrooms, and both are used for the B&B. She said that they have two more bedrooms & a bathroom in the basement that they use during the summer, and then they move back upstairs at the end of the B&B season. Apparently the season for B&B guests here is pretty much limited to about 4 months of the year.<br />
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Rover was quite pleased to meet one of the bears who shared our room for the night.</center><br />
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<hr/><br/>I chose 7:30 for breakfast tomorrow morning. Arlene said that she will get everything set and then will head out for school. She is a first grade teacher, and Dennis works for Tourism Canada on the ferry between here and Nova Scotia. He spends his days riding the ferry and talking to folks about PEI. That sounds like an interesting way to spend his days - and long (10-hour) days at that. We spent a little time talking about the current set of ferries, and a little talking about the proposed ferry from Boston to Nova Scotia. The no longer running ferry from Portland to Nova Scotia was an 11 or 12 hour ride, and the one from Boston will be even longer. I still think that when I head to Nova Scotia that I will take the ferry from Bar Harbor. <br />
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Dennis is a road biker too, and although he did mention the rail trails to me, it was in the context of CN Rail running a ferry to PEI before the Confederation Bridge was completed. Along with cars, they also carried rail cars on the ferry. He confirmed my suspicion that the Confederation Trail was once a rail bed. And Dennis was one of the few people who mentioned the trails but understood my preference to riding on a paved surface - and riding on the same roads that all of the other vehicles use. Apparently that's his preference too!<br />
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I talked to Arlene a bit about my plans for tomorrow. She confirmed what I thought - that East Point is a long jaunt from here. It's probably close to 60 miles, and there isn't much out there from a place to stay and eat standpoint. She suggested staying in St. Peters, which is actually the town I was thinking about for a place to stay tomorrow, and she suggested heading out to Greenwich, where there are beaches and a national park.Denise Goldberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08049223586218975704noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8672051386014614006.post-57265276930914517532005-09-10T05:54:00.015-04:002009-01-28T05:59:56.091-05:00Bicycle wheels standing still<b><i>...wandering in Charlottetown</i></b><br />
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What? A rest day already? When my alarm went off this morning I headed for window to check the weather. I saw blue sky, and in spite of still feeling tired I dressed for riding. I headed downstairs for breakfast and somehow during my quick descent of two flights of stairs, a black cloud stopped over the building and there was an absolute downpour. It must have been a sign... The rain had stopped by the time I finished my breakfast, but I decided to listen to my body and take a rest day. I really don't think my desire for rest was related in any way to my ride yesterday. Instead, I believe it was caused by not taking a day to re-group after driving here. It's funny, when I fly to a tour I usually plan on not moving on my first day at my destination. I use that day to reassemble my bike - not necessary this time - and to get acclimated to my new surroundings, filling the day with light activity and resting. Hopefully I'll remember that when I head out on my next tour. <br />
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As I got up to leave the breakfast room, Judith walked by the doorway and did a double take. She's the woman who told me about this place yesterday morning, and we were both delighted to be able to say hello again this morning. <br />
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After our short conversation, I headed back to my room for a little more sleep. Two more hours of shut-eye, and I was ready to explore. Before I headed out I had to stop by the front door to take a picture of the "umbrella tree". This inn is prepared for rainy weather since they have umbrellas for the guests to borrow hanging from what was probably intended to be a hat tree. Pulling my camera out in the lobby was a conversation starter, and I started chatting with someone sitting on the sofa next to the unbrellas. I told him about riding my bike around the island, and we talked a bit about my plans for tomorrow. I'm heading along TransCanada 1 at least as far as the Wood Islands light. From there I may continue along the coast, or I may take one of the small roads heading in the direction of Montague. He confirmed that there are good water views from route 1, and that the roads heading toward Montague are nice quiet two-lane roads with not a lot of traffic. It's nice to have that confirmation, but I have to admit that I really didn't think that TransCanada 1 was a busy road either. It must be the contrast with the roads and traffic during my normal commute to work!<br />
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An umbrella tree should be a required fixture in every inn!<br />
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This bird was happily prancing over the cars parked beside the inn.<br />
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<hr/><br/>I picked up a map of Charlottetown on my way out of the door, and I decided to head toward the water. I spent a little time at Founder's Hall learning about the confederation of Canada. Somehow the history classes I remember from all those years ago in high school didn't include much information about our northern neighbors. I did some wandering along the water in the area of Founder's Hall, and then I set out on one of the self-guided walking tours of the area. Oh, and I had to stop by the inn for an extra layer of clothing. Typical for me I was wandering in a pair of shorts and a sleeveless shirt while most of the people around me were wearing fleece and long pants. That's not too odd for me, but as the wind picked up it started getting a little chilly out there. Adding my screaming yellow wind vest warmed me up again. <br />
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The walking tour map was an interesting aid to wandering, but it also caused me to be very confused for a while. While the shoreline of Charlottetown isn't a straight line at all, it pretty much faces south. The walking tour document starts with a map of the center of town, with markings showing the three walking tours. The odd thing is that colors of the lines (showing the tours) on the map were backwards. The tour on the left side of the map was marked with a blue line, and legend for the blue line is "Historic Charlottetown East / Charlottetown Historique Est". Let's see, from everything I know about directions, the left side of a map where the top of the map points to the north (as this one does) is the west side of the map, not the east. For a while I really thought that I was very confused - and I have to say that direction is not usually a weak point for me. It turned out to be a problem with the brochure though. The text sections were correct, it was just the colored lines on the map that were backwards. I wonder if that bothers anyone else or if it just bothers me. Even though I knew better, for a while I thought that my sense of direction was missing in action!<br />
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During my time walking today I saw two more of the lighthouses of Prince Edward Island. I'm still surprised at that they are small wooden structures, must shorter than I expect a lighthouse to be. I guess height doesn't matter as much given that the lights I saw today were actually within Charlottetown Harbor as opposed to a light that needs to be seen across open water. <br />
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The weather today? It started with a downpour, but for the most part the rest of the day was dry. There was blue sky, and there were a lot of clouds - both the fluffy white variety and the gray gloomy clouds bringing more rain. The rain was sporadic as the day went on, and it usually disappeared before it moved much beyond sprinkles. The wind was amazingly strong all day long, but I couldn't tell whether it would have been pushing me or blocking me if I had headed out on my bike this morning. <br />
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It was a good day. I'm glad I made the decision to spend an extra day here - even though it would have been a fine weather day for cycling. Tomorrow? The forecast is for sun, which my bike and I will certainly welcome.<br />
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While this may be viewed by many as unwanted graffiti, it definitely made me smile.<br />
</center>Denise Goldberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08049223586218975704noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8672051386014614006.post-15463146036186085682005-09-09T05:34:00.025-04:002009-01-28T05:45:20.868-05:00Rain, clouds, wind - but a dry riding day!<b><i>Summerside to Charlottetown</i></b><br />
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When I opened my eyes this morning the first thing I needed to do was my early morning out-the-window weather check. The sky was gray, but the ground was dry. TIme to get up, my bike is calling me!<br />
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By the time I emerged from the shower it was absolutely pouring outside. I dressed for cycling anyway, hoping, hoping... By the time I was done with breakfast, the rain had stopped falling, but the pavement was still very wet. I spent some time talking to other guests and just generally relaxing. I finally got on the road at 10, which is late even for me. It was worth the wait though because the roads were dry when my bike and I rolled out of the door. <br />
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Because of my late start and because I didn't trust the weather not to turn again, I opted to follow a relatively straight line from Summerside to Charlottetown instead of looping down to the coast. I say relatively because there is nothing straight about the road, and I did do a very short loop to the coast at Victoria. I started on route 1A, but I spent a good part of the day riding on TransCanada Highway 1. It's not the first time I've ridden on that road - I did a section of it riding to the east out of Banff, Alberta on my first solo tour back in 1998. And although it sounds like a limited access highway, here it is a 2-lane road with the occasional third climbing lane.<br />
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I suspect that it was the very strong wind that blew the rain away this morning. It made for an interesting riding day too. I started with a headwind but with my direction changes the wind switched to a sidewind for most of the day. It was strong enough that there were a few times where I felt like I could easily get blown over. Luckily that didn't happen, but it was certainly a funny feeling. <br />
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I expected rolling hills today and I certainly got them. Judith, one of the women I was chatting with before we both left the hotel stopped as she drove by me with her friend. He wanted to make sure that I knew about the Confederation Trail, a path across the island that is advertised as a good bike trail. He told me that it is flat while the road is not. The trail is not paved though, so I thanked him for his thought but told him I would be sticking to the roads. This morning's reasonable rollers changed to some long but shallow hills. And it was one of those "Let's fool Denise" days. There were several times when I couldn't figure out why I was pedaling so slowly heading downhill. Of course when I stopped and looked behind me I found that I was still heading uphill.<br />
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The main reason I veered off the main road and into Victoria was to see the lighthouse. I was surprised at how small the structure was when I saw it. There was a small visitor center across the street from the light so I was able to verify that what I was seeing is a working lighthouse. It's a rangelight housing two different lights. It also had a banner hanging from just below the opening for the light that is apparently used to help line up a ship. Mariners use this light in conjunction with 2 others along the coast as a navigation aid. The combination of the lights allows them to plot their course. Very interesting. <br />
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The light, the stripe on the lighthouse, and the flag are all used as navigation aids. This light is a rangelight, housing two different lights. <br />
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(And yes, I did get that information from an official visitor center person. I was a bit surprised to see a flag hanging on the outside of the lighthouse, so I asked its purpose.)<br />
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Just before I hit the turnoff for Victoria, I rode through a town named Crapaud. Now tell me, what do you think the town's founders were thinking when they chose that name?<br />
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I find it amazing that people don't know how far it is from one point to another. I stopped a a small store for a snack, and I asked how far it was from there to Charlottetown. The answer I got was "20 minutes". I looked at the young woman who gave me that answer and asked "20 minutes in what kind of vehicle?". Of course she meant a car. That didn't work for me, but luckily there was another woman working in the store at the time. Her answer was "12 miles". I looked her way and she smiled and said that she's lived here forever and learned distances before Canada switched to the metric system. I'm perfectly happy with getting that answer in miles although the kilometers to miles conversion is one that has always been second nature to me. She also verified that the road I was on would take me right into the center of Charlottetown.<br />
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I passed quite a few motels on the way into town, but I really wanted to stay downtown. I stopped at the tourist information office to get some information on B&Bs in or near the center of town. I actually went to one to check it out, but it was a little off the beaten track, and I was definitely being picky today. Judith had told about the Dundee Arms Inn in our after breakfast conversations, and as I left the tourist office I rode right by the place. I went in to see if they had a room available. Not only was the answer yes, the woman at the desk gave me a room at a discounted price. Excellent. This is definitely not a budget accommodation, but it was a fair price and comparable to what I paid for the B&B and inn that I liked so much during my June trip to Maine. And hey - I'm on vacation! The other important thing is that the inn has a locked room in the basement where I could store my bike. <br />
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Dinner tonight was at the inn. There are a lot of restaurants around so my initial thought was to walk around town until I found something that appealed to me. I didn't have to walk past the front door of my inn though. I had dinner at an unfashionably early hour, listening to my body which insisted on being fed. I had an awesome seafood linguini - pieces of salmon, lobster, shrimp, scallops, and halibut in a nice light sauce over linguini. Nice. <br />
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After dinner I walked to the harbor and spent some time trying to capture a picture of a beautiful rainbow disappearing into the water. Then it was time to satisfy my craving for ice cream, thanks to the store named Cows. It appears to be a chain, selling ice cream and cow stuff - as in T-shirts and stuffed cows All I needed tonight was ice cream!<br />
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And now, it's time to dream of tomorrow. And it's time for another conversation with the weather wizard about the thunderstorms that are threatening for tomorrow morning. Enough! No more threats. Sun would be a nice plus, but dry is what I'm dreaming of right now.<br />
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I actually had to be told that this was a bike rack - as I was busy locking my bike to a light pole. And here I thought it was just an interesting sculpture outside of the Charlottetown City Hall.<br />
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A rainbow too! <i>And it isn't even raining where I'm standing.</i><br />
</center>Denise Goldberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08049223586218975704noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8672051386014614006.post-91656757777297038572005-09-08T05:21:00.024-04:002009-01-28T05:31:03.174-05:00Miles flying by<b><i>Bangor, ME to Summerside, PEI</i></b><br />
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Today was another "travel by alternate transportation" day. Tomorrow, the bike!<br />
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Although the total mileage between home and PEI was exactly what I expected - just short of 600 miles - there were times today when it felt a lot longer. I definitely stopped at the right point last night. While route 9 east from Bangor was a very nicely paved road, it felt like a lot of really empty space. It was a 2 lane road with paved shoulders and the addition of a passing lane on the uphills. It could be a nice riding road - if you don't mind the short but steep rollers. As I started down one hill there was a sign saying that it was a 10% grade. I have to say that I'm glad I wasn't riding a loaded bike up that grade! <br />
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I started my drive this morning under clear blue skies, but before too long I saw a wall of fog ahead of me. It didn't last very long, but along with the white wall the temperatures dropped about 10 degrees. I saw temperatures today ranging from 65 at the start to 55 in the fog to 80 at inland locations and back to the low 70s along the coast. After driving through two serious pockets of fog, I ended my day in bright sunshine.<br />
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Just before Calais (pronounced cal-us, not cal-aa as you might expect from the spelling), route 9 East joined route 1 South. I found it very interesting that the signs changed from 9E / 1S to 9 Canada / 1 Coastal just before the border. I still have ended up at the border following a sign marked 9 East; I wonder why they changed the designation.<br />
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<center><img src="http://denise.smugmug.com/photos/463276831_vokVF-500x500.jpg"><br />
Ah, a warning sign to remind me to change my watch as I moved from Maine into New Brunswick. </center><br />
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<hr/><br/>I stopped in St. Stephen, New Brunswick - which claims it is the chocolate capital of Canada - just after crossing the border. An ATM was calling to me to get some Canadian currency, and I wanted to stop at the visitor information center. I've been thinking about stopping along the Bay of Fundy on the way home, and I wanted to find the best time and place for a stop - on my way home, not today. I spent some time chatting with one of the staff members at the visitor center, and one of the things she gave me was the tide chart for Hopewell Cape. I figure on going through there on the 19th or 20th, and low tide is at a reasonable morning hour. I should be able to get there at low tide to walk on the ocean floor. Then I think I'll need to relax there for a while to catch the changing scenery at high tide. On my two target days, low tide is near 3 tenths of a foot, and high tide is at 44.9 feet. That's an incredible difference. Even though I already knew I wanted to stop there, now I really want to see it!<br />
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I had to take a photo stop on the edge of New Brunswick. There's a visitor center just before the Confederation Bridge that has an observation tower to assist those of us who are fascinated by the bridge. It's a beautiful and very impressive structure. It gives a simple impression, but it's clear that there was a lot of engineering thought that went into the design. Nine miles long, curved, two driving lanes, high concrete barriers on the sides, cameras along the length. Unfortunately stopping on the bridge is against the rules - as is riding a bicycle across it. Too bad... <br />
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<img src="http://denise.smugmug.com/photos/463276864_KpPJj-500x500.jpg"><br />
Efficient rest rooms in the rest area at the edge of New Brunswick using self-composting toilets (no water...) and rainwater in the sinks.<br />
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<img src="http://www.denisegoldberg.com/photos/36991699_YWKsT-500x500.jpg"><br />
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<img src="http://www.denisegoldberg.com/photos/36991718_NWZym-500x500.jpg"><br />
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<img src="http://www.denisegoldberg.com/photos/36991733_YSLQN-500x500.jpg"><br />
My first glimpse of the red rocks of the region, on the New Brunswick side of Northumberland Strait.<br />
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<hr/><br/>The weather forecast for tomorrow has had me a bit worried. At the beginning of the week the Friday forecast for PEI just said rain. Not chance of rain, just plain rain. When I checked at the visitor center in St. Stephen, the forecast said 90% chance of rain. And when I arrived at my hotel in Summerside, it had changed to chance of rain. Here's hoping... If I wake up in the morning to rain, it's quite possible I will wait to start biking until Saturday. It seems a bit nutty to start with a rest day, but it could happen. I will just have to call it a rest from all of that driving! <br />
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I finally arrived in Summerside after what seemed like a very long day. I settled in to my room after I found the hotel - which is very nicely right across from the water. I'm staying at a place that goes by several different names depending on whether you are looking at the sign outside, at their web site, or at my reservation confirmation. It's the Loyalist Country Inn, or the Lakeview Summerside. Of course the name doesn't matter - I just needed to verify that I was in the right place! And they have very kindly agreed to let me leave my car in their parking lot while my bike and I ride around the island. Dinner tonight was in the inn's dining room, a nice salad and a lobster roll - followed by a walk along the water and a stop for ice cream. <br />
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<center><img src="http://www.denisegoldberg.com/photos/36991788_qqckT-500x500.jpg"></center><br />
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Interesting signs seen on the road today: <ul type=square><li>Eagle nesting area - no trespassing. Signs outside of Calais, Maine.<br />
<li>Warning: duck and turtle crossing. Outside of Calais <li>Railroad crossing - with tracks crossing the road. Along a limited access highway with a speed limit of 110 kilometers for hour, in New Brunswick <li>Snowmobile crossing. Along the same limited access highway in New Brunswick </ul>Denise Goldberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08049223586218975704noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8672051386014614006.post-28819254538618619902005-09-07T23:15:00.006-04:002009-01-26T23:17:37.203-05:00A 3-state highway day<b><i>Boston (well, really Burlington, MA) to Bangor, ME</i></b><br />
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It was a driving afternoon, no biking today. Let's see, if I had biked the distance I covered today in my bright blue car, it probably would have taken five days to get to Bangor. I thought this was the halfway point between home and PEI, but after seeing the miles click away, I believe I'm a bit short of halfway. As I pulled in here, the sun was still shining; it took me slightly less time to drive here today than it did for my June tour of <a href="http://denisegoldberg2005downeast.blogspot.com">Downeast Maine</a>. I was definitely ready to stop driving though. <br />
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I noticed some of the same things along the road as I did back in June, and again I wished I was traveling on my bike so I could stop and look around. That just didn't seem like a smart thing to do with traffic flying at more than interstate speeds. <br />
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One curious thing was just before the Kennebunk exit. There is a fenced in area just to the right of the northbound (or should I say eastbound) lane of I-95. Inside the small areas are a bunch of gravestones. Is it a resting place for people who died in traffic accidents? Was it a burying spot that existed before the highway was here? Was it something that was discovered in recent years? <i>If anyone has a clue, please sign my guestbook! I'd love to know.</i><br />
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Then there were the signs. Signs between the north and southbound lanes of the interstate saying things like "avoid sudden stops". No kidding! Before Augusta, there were signs saying "watch for moose on roadway". After Augusta, the signs warning about the moose changed to a one-line "Attention" followed by a picture of a moose, and then a number of miles. I wonder why the signs aren't consistent. And I have to say I prefer the signs with the picture of the moose!<br />
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The first day of autumn is still two weeks away, and most of the trees still reflect their summer green. But at one point I looked off to the side of the road to see a stand of flame-red trees. I'm really not ready for the change of seasons, but that was a beautiful surprise. <br />
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My home for the night? I'm staying at the Hampton Inn near the Bangor Mall. I had to laugh when they handed me the card key to my room. There is a small black & white picture on the key of a someone riding a bicycle! And you know me and my camera - I had to take a picture of that key. You'll have to wait until I get home to see it though... <br />
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This turned out to be a good location for tonight. There are restaurants in walking distance, a Starbucks on the corner, and the motel provided fresh-baked cookies as an evening snack, and breakfast in the morning. That works for me - then I'll be off on a two-lane road heading for New Brunswick and then Prince Edward Island.<br />
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<center><img src="http://denise.smugmug.com/photos/462572369_TgsKa-500x500.jpg"></center>Denise Goldberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08049223586218975704noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8672051386014614006.post-28255028817600474252005-09-04T23:12:00.003-04:002009-01-26T23:13:58.065-05:00It's almost time to wander...<b><i>...and I'll be starting from Summerside!</i></b><br />
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I briefly considered driving across the bridge, leaving my car at the visitor center, and heading out on my bike immediately upon my arrival on the island. That thought didn't last too long since I'd really prefer to have some time to unwind from my long drive. My plans are to get on the road fairly early Thursday morning, so in spite of losing an hour due to switching from Eastern to Atlantic time I should still arrive at a reasonable time, hopefully relatively early in the afternoon. Early enough to do some walking and relaxing, that is. <br />
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Why Summerside? Why any place? Summerside is a seaside city to the northwest of Borden-Carleton, the point at which I'll be entering the province by way of the Confederation Bridge. And although it's the second largest city on the island, you have to take 'large' here in relative terms. With a population of 14,654, and with a walking guide published by the city, it sounds to me like Summerside will be a reasonable place for a bit of wandering by foot. A bit of a walk in the afternoon, a relaxing night, and I'll be heading off on my bike on Friday morning. <br />
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And what direction? My current thought is to head around PEI in a counter-clockwise direction. If the road happens to be next to the water, I won't need to cross the road to satisfy my picture-taking habit. And while my spring tour in <a href="http://denisegoldberg2005downeast.blogspot.com">Downeast Maine</a> served to remind me that roads that look (on a map) like they might be next to the water often aren't, when I want to turn down a road that heads toward the water, it will be a right-hand turn - no traffic to cross. But really, I don't think it matters which direction I take. Even if there is a prevailing wind direction, since I'm hoping to go around the whole island I figure there's no way around fighting a headwind some of the time. Of course if someone out there knows a way to always have a tailwind, please let me know. That would be sweet!Denise Goldberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08049223586218975704noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8672051386014614006.post-55705065277864015442005-09-03T23:08:00.000-04:002009-01-26T23:09:27.868-05:00A couple of pre-trip details<b><i>...miles & credit cards</i></b><br />
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Fun! Just a little over two weeks ago I looked at my cycling mileage for the year - and yes, I'm one of those wacky people who insists on tracking mileage - and realized how close I was to hitting 3000 miles for the year so far. <br />
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Close, but not close. It was August 15th, and my mileage stood at 2451. I knew that getting to 3000 miles before my trip was somewhat of a long shot. My weekly mileage over the summer has been ranging between 150 and 180 miles, with an occasional bad weather week of much lower miles. I had 3 riding weeks to go, but I also knew that I wanted a little bit of a rest before I head out on my trip. I figured that while I would certainly ride this holiday weekend (today, tomorrow, and Monday) that I would do much shorter rides than my normal weekend rides. I put in two 200+ mile weeks, and guess what - I made it! Today's ride ended with my mileage for the year so far at <b>3003</b> miles. What fun! I plan on doing relatively short rides (probably in a 30-mile range as opposed to my weekend 40-50 mile range) tomorrow and Monday, then a couple of off-the-bike days before I start my tour. <br />
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Oh, and I decided to try something different with my credit card for this trip. I primarily use a Citibank credit card that gives me American Airlines miles, and on my last two trips - my non-biking trip in Hawaii last October, and my biking trip in Maine this past June - the card was flagged as possibly stolen. In both cases I got partially through my trip and had to call Citibank to reactivate the card. Apparently traveling by bike using a credit card follows a suspicious pattern of behavior. Maybe it's the use in a different hotel every day, maybe it has something to do with not traveling too far in a day, maybe it's... well, I really don't know what the trigger is! This time I called Citibank and told the customer service representative that I would be traveling with the card. Let's see if telling them ahead of time where and when I plan to be traveling helps.<blockquote><i><b>Did it work?</b> I have no idea if my phone call to Citibank before I headed out helped, but with constant use in different towns every day, I never had the card rejected. I think I'll try to remember to call again before my next trip!</i></blockquote>Denise Goldberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08049223586218975704noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8672051386014614006.post-55699704059096082872005-08-07T23:03:00.009-04:002009-01-26T23:07:25.742-05:00Cradled by the ocean<b><i>Where? This island province lives north and east...</i></b><br />
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Not planning my trip day by day ahead of time doesn't mean that I'm not reading about my destination. I've been spending a bit of time perusing the <a href="http://www.gov.pe.ca/visitorsguide/index.php3"> <i>Prince Edward Island Tourism</i></a> web site. After all, I wouldn't want to miss something interesting in my short time there. <br />
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Prince Edward Island is surrounded by the Northumberland Strait, the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and hey - the Atlantic Ocean is out there too. As you look at the island along the long side, it pretty much runs west to east. There is a slight tilt to the south east, but that doesn't change the overall west-east orientation. <br />
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It's the smallest province in Canada, both in terms of geography and population. But from a population density standpoint, PEI has the highest density of all of the provinces. When you scatter the larger population across the larger provinces, the density appears to get lost in the overall vastness. <br />
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I'm hoping for decent weather. Cool is OK but I have to admit that I do prefer dry over wet. I found this description of typical September weather on the PEI <a href="http://www.gov.pe.ca/weather/annual.php3">weather</a> summary page: <i>"Autumn is clear and bright. September afternoons can be quite warm, evenings cool. Temperatures range from 8 to 22 degrees C (46 to 71 degrees F)".</i> That sounds pretty good to me. <br />
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<b><i>What else do I expect to find there?</i></b> <blockquote>White sand beaches along the Atlantic Coast, red sandstone cliffs along the southern edge, red soil, potato crops, lighthouses, wind farms, 500 miles of coastline, roads for riding, friendly people, good places for wandering...</blockquote><br />
<b><i>What do you mean, no bicycles allowed?</i></b><br />
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If the rules of the bridge were different, I'd probably leave my car in New Brunswick and bike across the 13-kilometer long <a href="http://www.confederationbridge.com">Confederation Bridge</a>. Unfortunately, bikes and pedestrians are not allowed on the bridge. The bridge authority provides a free shuttle to make up for the restriction, but given that I'm driving all the way from Massachusetts I think I'll drive the remaining 9 miles across the bridge. That way I'll be able to choose my starting point for the trip - which may or may not be the end of the bridge in Borden-Carleton. My one regret, even now before I leave home, is that I won't be able to stop on the bridge to take pictures. I'm hoping to be able to find some spots in either New Brunswick or PEI to capture some pictures of the bridge from afar.<blockquote><i>There are some pretty amazing photos of the bridge in the Confederation Bridge <a href="http://www.confederationbridge.com/en/photo_gallery.php"> Photo Gallery</a>. As much as I'd love to see some fabulous pictures in my own camera, I suspect that these images were created with some pretty serious cameras. If you're as fascinated by structures like this bridge as I am, these photos are worth a look!</i></blockquote>Denise Goldberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08049223586218975704noreply@blogger.com