Denise Goldberg's blog

Wandering along the edge
An exploration of Prince Edward Island

Tuesday, September 27, 2005

Would I recommend a tour of PEI?

...and will I go back myself?

Absolutely! I thoroughly enjoyed my time wandering Prince Edward Island. It's a beautiful place, and I found the people to be very friendly.

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.

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.

And will I go back myself? The answer to this question is yes! 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...

Monday, September 26, 2005

A New Brunswick non-biking side trip

Hopewell Cape

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 thehopewellrocks.ca. It's definitely worth the time to be there long enough to see both low and high tides.

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.

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 Hopewell Cape & beyond photo gallery.


The well known Flower Pot rocks, shown here at just before low tide and at high tide.

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.

Sunday, September 25, 2005

A typical part of a "Denise" tour

...changes in plans


You're right, I did miss part of this island. I suppose I can use that as an excuse to go back again. I wonder if there will ever be a place that I'm satisfied with visiting only once.

The purple lines on this map show where I wandered on my bike. The green lines are where I had the assistance of my car during the time that Tropical Storm Ophelia was visiting PEI; perhaps I'm a baby, but riding in the rain is not my favorite thing to do.

(Map minus the purple & green lines courtesy of www.canadainfolink.ca)




As you can see from the map of where I traveled by what means of transportation, I managed to change my plans mid-stream again. Why? This time I was driven mainly by the weather. I had really intended to ride around the island, following the perimeter roads.

I skipped the eastern tip of PEI for two reasons - really a combination of the wind conditions and of the difficulty of finding towns with both places to stay and places to eat. The wind and weather conditions were really primary on the day I left Montague. Rain and an extremely strong headwind made me seek out a short route and had me heading to St. Peters. Options? If the weather had been supportive of a longer cycling day, I could have headed to the east and planned to stay in Souris, where there is both a place to stay and easily accessible food. Then I probably would have done an out-and-back ride from Souris to the eastern tip of the island - probably about a 60 mile day, which in the overall scheme of things is very reasonable. Given the wind conditions, I have absolutely no regrets about my decisions for the day's ride!

The weather again made me change my plans for my exploration of the west side of the island. The tail of what was by then Tropical Storm (as opposed to Hurricane) Ophelia was scheduled to strike the Atlantic Canada provinces on Saturday and Sunday. Based on where I was and where I'd left my bright blue 4-wheeled transportation, I made a decision to ride back to the car and use it to allow me to avoid riding a loaded bike in the rain for at least two days. I'm not that fond of wet weather riding, and I really wanted to see North Cape - so skipping that side of the island wasn't even an option.

Despite the fact that my total mileage was not what I'd planned, I had a great trip - and I am very happy with my on-the-fly decisions of where to go (including the means of transportation I used to get there). And - I have no doubts that I will return to Prince Edward Island someday.

Planning not to plan

Where to ride, where to stay, where to eat!

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.

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.

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.

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...).

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.

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.

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.

There are more pictures... really!

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.

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 Wandering along the edge: September 2005. You can get to them from the top level gallery, or you can click to each individually, as noted below:

Tuesday, September 20, 2005

One more time around

...but with approaching fog & wet weather

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.



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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!









Monday, September 19, 2005

Blue skies made me ride around twice

Acadia National Park

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.



My first stop was at the Bar Harbor Bicyle Shop 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...

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 Maine tour 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. 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 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.

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...







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!

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 (in my car ...) and home. .


A bear greeting and welcome to my home for the night

Sunday, September 18, 2005

A walk on the ocean floor

Hopewell Cape, Bay of Fundy

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.

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.

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.



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




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!




Mud? Oh yeah, there's plenty of that here!




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. And after a bit more time had passed, the visible portions of those rocks became much, much shorter!



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.




This rock is pretty big, and will be totally under water at high tide.

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.




It's amazing how fast the water swoops in and rises.




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.

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...







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.


The water continues to rise. And no, I'm not the only person staying on the ocean floor!

Maybe the people standing here can give a little perspective on the size of these rocks.




The rock to the left is the same rock shown in the previous picture.

The two photos were taken 18 minutes apart.




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!






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.

An impressive and very fast change of scenery!




The well known Flower Pot rocks, shown here at just before low tide and at high tide.


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.

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...


A view of Cape Enrage


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.

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!

Saturday, September 17, 2005

A glimpse below the tides

Confederation Bridge to Hopewell Cape

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.

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.



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.







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!



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.

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!


In spite of it being pretty late in the season, there are still some beautiful flowers here.

Wandering along the west coast through the rain

...Tignish to the Confederation Bridge

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.

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.

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 and 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!


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!




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.











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 June trip with my hands over my ears, attempting to protect them from the piercing noise of the foghorn!

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! (Actually, I wonder if I'll ever go someplace and find that one visit is enough. That just never seems to happen.)











Another place I stopped was The Bottle Houses 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.






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.

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.

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? No, I didn't think so. It's probably just easier to collect the tolls in one direction only.

Friday, September 16, 2005

Windmills, water, red rocks, sand

...wandering near Tignish

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.

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.

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.
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.



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.














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.

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.






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.





Irish Moss, from boat to shore and later to be incorporated in food and cosmetic products (and who knows where else!)




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.

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.



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.

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.

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.