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Well what can we say about Alberton #11 to Portage #12.

We started out strong today, and made an earlier start as we knew it was going to be a hot one and we wanted to try and get as much done as we could before the heat caught up to us. We’ll it was a good plan, but poorly executed 🤣 The heat came quickly and lasted all day. It is crazy to see the extreme difference in temperature from just 5 days ago when it was snowing. It got up to 30 degrees today, and we had lots of road walking with very minimal shade all day. Our whole team ran out of water even Petra who always carries the most had 4 bottles of various sizes and even she ran out. So if you are doing this section and it is going to be hot take lots of water as there is virtually no where to pick some up except………

Cascumpec General Store, Antiques and Collectables. We stopped in for a reprieve from the heat, one of our group wanted to pick something up but did not want to carry it in her pack. We were very kindly offered some cold bottled water, which I accepted and greatly appreciated. I believe right now he is open from Wed – Sat but there are no restrooms at his location.

The highlight of our day was meeting Aimie.

She is a veterinarian who does large animal surgeries. She is registered for the Island Walk, and has been ticking off various sections randomly for the last 4 years. She was very nice and we walked together and chatted for quite a while and then leap frogged each other a few times the rest of the day, and we may meet her again when we do section 28-29. She also gave us a great tip, you can almost always find a bench at a cemetery. 😆

Ticked another item off my list, and that is Petra managed to actually photograph a Blue Jay! But we also added one more thing to my list as Aimie also told us we need to keep an eye out for a silver fox.

One comment I have for those people who will be doing the Island Walk if you have downloaded the directions from the website, line item #76 turn left onto Percival Road.

** Pro Tip ** It is a road for about 10 steps, it is the path on the right hand side of this person’s property and in its current state is very difficult to tell it is there, it is more like a very overgrown grassy path to the Confederation Trail, so if you look down there and think you are just walking on to someone’s property, you are not. But hopefully someone can go through and weed whack or mow it soon or it will dissappear, and currently would be extremely tricky if you are biking.

Again back on to the Confederation Trail for the last 3 kilometers, a welcome site was the bench as soon as we stepped on to the trail, but still almost no shade for the last 3 kilometers.

We were happy to see way point 12 and get into our hosts vehicle with the AC on!

can’t wait to see what tomorrow holds.

Wow it was a long one today but 27 kms added to our total.

We started a bit earlier than usual today as we knew this was one of the longer walk days, and also the day had a detour in it and we were not sure how much extra walking the detour might add to today’s total.

In the morning it was sunny and warm, and the temperature just continued to climb as the day went on.

As there is construction happening on the bridge we had to make a detour taking a left on Tignish Shore Road and down to Harbour Road. Right on the corner there is an ice cream shop which opens in a couple weeks. It looks great, the detour was amazing as it included a beach walk and crossing some water.

we spent some time enjoying the beach and the cool water on our feet.

A little while later while during one of our road walk sessions of the day we met Jane.

we chatted a bit about the Island Walk, she was very knowledgeable and we carried on our way.

Meadow found a Meadow. 😆

We also stopped at the Beach at Jacques Cartier provincial park and left our mark.

The provincial park and campground is open next weekend but they were kind enough to let us use the restrooms 🚻 before we carried on our way.

Using a phrase from Petra, we slogged on to finally get to Alberton and way point 11.

Where the ladies were ready for a bevy at the Albert and Crown and we called it a day on to more adventures tomorrow.

But I will add we have completed 1/3 of the trek and we are all a little sore but overall feeling good.

Day 10 is in the books and it was epic!

22.4 kms today and if you do a close up of the map it looks pretty funny as we did some extra exploring of the North Cape and the lighthouse.

We started off a little cold and windy but the sun was out so we were feeling good.

We started the day with about 7km of road walking, and then turned onto Waterview and the Black Marsh Trail. This started the adventures of the day. Just a little ways down the road there was a wind energy farm and Petra and Meadow did a little exploring.

It is not everyone who can say they were inside of a wind turbine arm.

The wind turbines are huge and if you can see them that is Meadow and Petra standing off on the left had side.

Shortly along the Black Marsh Trail turned into a boardwalk and we found a nice spot to have lunch.

A lot of absolutely spectacular scenery, and waaaay too many photos to post. The day became warmer and the wind died down quite a bit so this has been by far the best day of the trip.

Remember the three things I wanted to see while in PEI well we definitely ticked one of those off the list today.

We saw a momma fox with 4 kits, right at the North Cape. The kits were adorable and put on a show for everyone around doing some very cute playing around while momma looked on, always on guard. Luckily for us Petra has a very good camera phone and managed to get this perfect shot.

A tip for Island walkers, while visiting the North Cape gift shop you can ask for a ribbon and certificate which are provided for free (thanks to Alvin for letting us know)

When you get to the East Point they also sign your certificate and give you a second ribbon. So it is a nice extra souvenir to take home. They will also stamp your Island walk passport so take it in with you.

We all dipped our toes in the water where the Atlantic Ocean meets the North Umberland straight and then carried on the rest of the walk being once again road walking but we experienced more beautiful scenery.

I also made some new friends who agreed to take a selfie with me.

Came across a lobster fisherman’s wharf where Meadow wanted to just grab a tub of fresh lobster and run away, but we told her we were not going to help her carry it so she abandoned the idea.

The day grew much warmer in the afternoon and all the layers we were wearing in the morning pretty much all came off.

This is the kind of day, and also scenery we were hoping for and the day certainly did not disappoint. With sunny skies expected for the next few days also a welcome experience.

Well tomorrow will be a long one with a detour due to bridge construction it looks like we should be in the neighborhood of 30kms so it is definitely an early night tonight.

It is hard to believe we are already at day 9, 22.5 more kms done from Miminagesh to Christopher Cross.

The day started out rainy and cold, seems to be our usual start as of late 😒 but it turned out to be all about meeting people and making new friends 😄!!

Not so great weather but again the team was in good spirits at the start. It is too bad it was rainy and foggy as we could tell there were some very nice views to be had, We still managed to take a few scenic pictures.

We had a few highlites of the day the first was meeting Todd!

We were very cold, and it was raining walking the road about halfway between Miminagesh and Christopher Cross when we did notice a crazy man outside gardening in his shorts. We were walking head down and concentrating on the path ahead and just as we were passing by he stopped us and said “hi are you ladies doing the island walk” we said yes and then he kindly asked us if we wanted to stop and warm up a bit and offered us some tea. We very gladly took him up on his kind offer. Todd and his wife Heather are running a Bed and Breakfast that is an Island Walk partner, it is called Thistlebloom B&B it will be opening shortly and for anyone looking to book a nice spot with a very nice host we highly recommend Thistlebloom. We had tea, cookies and a much needed rest stop and we were not even staying there 🤣 he gave us a very interesting bit of his family history and practically guaranteed that if you stay there you would see a fox, although we still did not see one. 😒

After our lovely respite from the weather we carried on to Christopher Cross. We passed by the Stompin Tom Conners centre complete with restaurant again not open for the season yet but I believe it opens June 1st, we took advantage of their stairs to have a quick snack and again get a bit of a reprieve from the weather and wind.

For those of you following the blog who may be planning you trip for the future today’s walk was all day along route 14, apparently this road can be quite busy but we were very lucky that we were traveling the road on the Sunday as the road was very quiet.

I have had a few people who have also asked me about timing and how long it takes each day, I can tell you that we are probably a pretty good example because we are not the slowest walkers, but we are also not super quick. We really try and take a lot of pictures, we probably break 10- 15 minutes about every 5kms (I have a terrible metatarsal issue so my foot needs a break a lot) and we try and stop for lunch or a snack if there is anything open and so far we aim to be at the way point start between 8:30 and 9:00 each morning and we have pretty much been at the way point end no later than 3pm each day. So on average we are about 6 hours a day. Of course some days are a bit longer due to the kms traveled for the day but I think using 6 hours as your base would work well.

Now for the rest of the day, we ended at marker 9 but that is not where our day ended.

We managed to connect with Ruby and Laurie two walkers who are a couple days ahead of us and they are staying at the B&B also run by our hosts Kyle and Connie.

Top photo Team BPM with Ruby and Laurie, bottom photo all of us with our hosts Kyle and Connie.

We swapped some trails stories, pet peeves, and highs of the trip so far. As well as exchanging some tips and tricks. It was a lovely get together and the reason the blog posting is late tonight.

A couple of milestones today, we have covered over 200 kms, and we are at the last single digit way point!! Goodbye 9, hello 10 tomorrow.

I hope you are all enjoying the blog so far, and perhaps getting some useful information, please feel free to leave some comments. I will check back in tomorrow. Good night all.

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Day 8 is done and 23 more kms is in the books.

We started the day with a little rain but we were in high spirits. It only rained for a little while and the rest of the day was cloudy and a bit overcast. About half of the day was Confederation trail, and the rest was some road walking.

The scenery on the way into Miminagesh was just spectacular. But the bugs were a biting today 🦟

Meadow found the mosquito netting very helpful, and you can be sure that I will be wearing mine tomorrow.

We found 1 washroom on the route today and beside it was an interesting piece of history about the railroad and how the Confederation Trail was started.

We still have not seen the elusive fox but darn if our host Kyle saw another one just before he picked us up. That is score Kyle -2 Team BPM -0 😭

After our host Kyle picked us up from our way point we visited a beautiful little soap maker By the Sea Soap Shoppe it is natural soap handmade in PEI located in Bloomfield. If you have time you really should visit, our host has this soap in our cottage so we really wanted to pick some up.

Some notes for those of you who are following the blog, some of the mileage information we have between the way points, seems to be a little off. The information we had for today was that this section was 18kms but it was actually just over 23 so we went an extra 5km that we were not expecting so we were a little sad 😔 but again the best team ever and even though I was dragging my ass today the ladies really picked me up.

Soaking my feet in Epson salts while writing the blog has been very relaxing, and I have not dropped the phone in the bathtub, extra bonus points.

Looking forward to tomorrow and our next adventure!

Well another day down, and holy crap what a day. Once again I forgot to turn on my mapping app right away so we did a little closer to 23kms.

we made our own way point 6 sign 🤣 so we retook that photo.

Our day started out OK, cloudy and cool and we were very happy to get 10km in before it started to rain/sleet/snow..

We were so thankful that we were on the Confederation Trail, it was the only thing that saved the day because the skies opened up and it just rained down on us for about 15kms. All the gortex and rubber in the world could not have saved us. We were soaked through to the skin, our packs were soaked through and pretty much everything we had on us was wet, cold wet hands, soaked feet well it was not pretty. We were thankful to see our pickup at the way point and laughed because he had all of the seats covered in blankets, we did warn him that we may be a bit drippy 🤣

Other things from today, we saw our first washroom in 7 days! Woop woop at about 10 kms into the walk. It was very clean and well maintained.

We met two gentlemen, I really wanted to get their photo 😒 but their job is to (I hope I get this right) catch and relocate beavers where they are building dams in places which might be detrimental to the environment.

No food on this section of the trail so we had to pack some snacks, a little soggy but edible, on our drive back to the cottage we jumped out at Tim Hortons and picked up big Bowls of Tim Hortons chili. It was the best chili we have ever eaten. 😋

We got back an peeled off our clothes, Petra got some wicked wind burn.

We were never so happy to see the way point 7 sign. But these ladies are so great we were all still in good spirits and still had many things to laugh about and tomorrow is another day.

PS – why is Petra always taking the selfies because she has the longest arms 😅

Thanks all for checking in to the blog, see you all tomorrow.

23.89 kms done today on day 6

It was a beautiful 🌞 day today with some very blue sky.

Albeit still a little too cold for my liking.

All Confederation trail walking, we all guessed this morning before we started how many people we would pass on the trail and Petra won. We passed exactly two people so it was a very quite walk.

I have vowed on this trip that there are 3 things I want to see and photograph before I leave PEI;

1 – Photograph a Blue Bird

2- Photograph a fox

3- See the official PEI wild flower (the Lady Slipper) growing in the wild and get a picture.

Well we saw many a bluebird today but they are fast and shy so I did not get a photo 😒 but I will keep trying. And unfortunately our host dropped us off at our start point this morning and told us not 5 minutes after he dropped us off low and behold he saw a fox running along the side of the road 🤬 thanks Kyle. 🤣 We still have lots of time. As for the elusive Lady Slipper also working on that.

The closest we came to wildlife spotting, a couple of rabbits on the trail. (You cannot see me, I am not moving therefore I am invisible)

Now for the keeping it real – It seems like no matter how many kilometers we have to walk the last couple are always very difficult and really drag on. Thank goodness I have got the crew to keep it light as we really do lift each other up.

Blister update Meadows seem to be on the mend, but it looks like I am getting a doosey on my right foot. Also a pet peeve, when we complete a leg of the walk we really want to see the way point marker, there was no sign yesterday for the 5th waypoint, and no sign today for way point 6. 😕 We really would like to see those milestones and record them with a photo, almost like a reward for finishing the day.

We made our own 5 today but might have to add a felt marker and paper to our everyday kit just so we can make our own. 😅

Hope you all are enjoying the blog and check in tomorrow for another update.

Thanks All!!

Day 5 is done and dusted. Meadow and I both play darts so we are looking at this walk as a game of 702, each day knocking a little off the score. With another 22kms done we are at 112 kms so we have 592 left on the board. It is hard to believe we have already covered 112 kilometers

The day definitely started out cold, but eventually it did warm up. The entire walk today was on the Confederation trail so it was thoroughly enjoyable. Very quiet on the trail otherwise, we saw one person walking their dog, and one cyclist but did not encounter anyone else on the trail itself all day.

We stopped into Cooks Convenience store today. Our first stop in 5 days where somewhere we planned to stop was actually open!! Woop woop. They no longer operate a full Cafe but the convenience store has a number of food options, our group had the hot dogs, chicken tenders, and cinnamon rolls it was all delicious and super reasonably priced. We arrived just before the school lunch crowd so it was fresh and hot.

Saw many lovely wildflowers on the Walk, tried to snap a picture of the beautiful blue jays but they were much to quick for me.

But pretty much this is what the trail was like all day. At the end of the day we checked into our accommodations Aisling Cottage where we will be staying for quite a few days. Our hosts Kyle and Connie are very accommodating and the cottage is so perfect with three bedrooms and a wonderful view of Mill River.

Stopped to pick up some groceries so we can do some cooking and eating in for the next few nights and looking forward to what the next few days hold. Looks like 23 kms tomorrow so just some relaxing and Tacos 🌮 tonight.

Thanks all for following the blog, and please feel free to posts questions or comments if there is something you would like to know.

Wow this was a long one. We found the kms listed for yesterday 20kms was more than the actual trail walk of 18.61, today was the opposite the walk for today was listed as 21kms but was actually 27.78 following the revised route which does not follow the highway.

Yikes today was a tough one, it started very rainy, and the first 5kms along the highway were not great it was raining, and windy and combined with the highway walking it was not fun. Several large trucks passed by and we had to turn our backs to them as they passed as the wind and spray was to much to take straight on.

We were excited about the fact that we could stop at Baba’s kitchen for lunch, we should have done our homework as when we got there it was closed. (Closed Mondays and Tuesdays) we are having very bad karma so far this trip with restaurant choices. But we laughed about it and carried on.

(Us crying outside Babas kitchen when we found out it was closed)

We did 🎵”stop into a church I passed along the way “🎵 to get out of the rain and wind for a few minutes and add a layer of clothing as it was very cold. (Thank you for having your doors open!!)

As I mentioned we took the new route which adds about 5 kms to the day instead of taking the highway all the way, which is shorter. If the day had not been windy and rainy we probably would have enjoyed it more but we were fighting the wind which made us pretty miserable and I think although we hate the highway walking, we would have chosen that option had we known how bad the wind would be.

I really want to praise my two team mates as they were very miserable but carried on like troopers and we all manged to maintain our sense of humor. (Although I found a couple times I was walking ahead, I was sure When I turned around they were secretly plotting my demise). I am very lucky to be sharing this adventure with Meadow and Petra, and I could not imagine better friends to go on this journey with……….. although it is only day 4.

In the end we made it. Way point 4! 💪

But super happy the next few days are all along the Confederation trail!

Now time to annoy my roommates with my heavy snoring after this very long day.

Island Walk Day 3

Well Island Walk day 3 is done.

silly me I forgot to turn my map app on when we started so I missed the first 1.9 kms. So our total kms today was about 18.7

Today was a crazy day of ups and downs a lot of laughing and some singing.

We checked out of our B&B today and headed straight on to the trail, it was very difficult to dress today as we were very unsure of the weather so we really layered today which was very fortunate as it started out cold, got very hot and muggy, then windy, then calm, then cold and a bit of rain.

Something I have not shared yet is a little bit about hurricane Fiona. Hurricane Fiona hit PEI in September 2022 and there are many signs of the devastation it caused on PEI, talking with a number of residents they pretty much all feel like it will be impossible to clean up the Island entirely as there was just so much damage.

Today being a statutory holiday there was not much open but passing through Cape Traverse there is a wonderful Antique shop it was closed but we stopped there to take wee rest on their bench before moving on.

The same owners own another shop just down the street called Ice Boat Rarities and Antiques.

The shop is not yet open for the season but there were two lovely ladies getting the shop ready for the season and they very kindly let us in to use the washroom and let us browse the store. Very interesting shop we spent quite a while looking at the various treasures and recommend everyone stop there if they have the chance.

They also boast that they have the world’s largest egg beater.

The trials and tribulations of the day, we’ll the entire day was walking beside a secondary highway. We cannot wait until we get some confederation trail walking, or the red clay roads are also very nice. Also at one point the black flies were in full force, they were swarming Meadow and she looked like she was doing some crazy dance as she was swatting them away. We were carrying some mosquito patches which were ineffective, definitely we needed some heavy duty bug spray to repel these suckered. Luckily the wind came up which was colder but it seemed to take care of the bug problem for the rest of the day.

When we got to way point 3 we were very hungry so we thought we would stop for a bite at a little pizza and donair place, Petra asked what was good on the menu and the cashier said “I don’t know I do not eat the food here” I am a vegetarian. Ok we laughed it off and Petra ordered a Quesadilla, she double checked that it came with Salsa and sour cream and the cashier said they were out of sour cream. Next up my order, we’ll I love a good donair so I ordered the donair, sorry no donair meat we ran out yesterday 😅 well I ordered a burger and fries. Next up Meadow she ordered chicken tenders well sorry no chicken tenders, ok how about chicken wings, sure we can do that. Meadow goes to pay, sorry I do not have any change, I will be right back- then he leaves the restaurant literally walks right out the door (there are no other employees there) and comes back about 5 minutes later sorry I could not get any. By this time Petra and I are literally peeing our pants because we are laughing so hard. He was also the cook in the end we all got food and it was not terrible, but it was the funniest interaction I have ever had at a restaurant.

Our B&B hostess for the evening picked us up at the restaurant and kindly offered to drive us to see the Confederation Bridge up close, we had been seeing glimpses of it all day.

Then brought us to the B&B.

We are now chilling and can’t wait to see what tomorrow brings.

PS – found out Meadow and I have almost identical play lists (frightening) It was definitely nice to have some music during the walk today.

PPS – we also found out Petra is always right 🤣