Something adventurous! (part 1)

"You should really go to Cavendish; Cavendish is absolutely beautiful."  This is what everyone told me when I mentioned that the next stop on my trip was Prince Edward Island.  "Not to mention, it was the inspiration for Anne of Green Gables book series."  Okay, those are my favourite books from my childhood so... SOLD! To Cavendish it is!  There was only one problem: we (me and my travel buddy Josh) were only going to be on the island, staying in Charlottetown, for 3 nights.  Quite simply, a long day trip couldn't be accommodated without shifting some plans around.  Fortunately, I am the queen of shiftable plan-making.

Welcome to Charlottetown, PEI!

When I was researching Prince Edward Island and touristy activities that could be done there, I stumbled upon a technological wonder called the Confederation Trail - a 435km trail system spanning the entire length of Prince Edward Island made out of converted rail grade.  Following the easy trail system, one could walk or bike across the stunning pastoral vistas and shorelines of PEI without having to worry about breaking too much of a sweat.   This sounded ideal to me.  After all, the last time I had tried to ride a bike I ended up on my butt on the side of a highway after trying to brake down a gravelly hill.  Not smooth at all. I may not have ridden a bike seriously in over 15 years, but a trail system at my level - beginner - sounded like a good place to take up the activity challenge.  Spending a day biking the Confederation Trail while on the island was officially on my bucket list!

Confronted with the need to have shifty plans, however, I started to examine our Confederation Trail bike-riding plans to see how far out of our way we would have to go to take those bikes up to Cavendish as part of our day trip. Bad news #1: the town was on the opposite side of the island.  We would have to ride across the whole island, south to north, to get from Charlottetown to Cavendish.  Good news in response: the island is long and skinny. Going from south to north might actually be possible as that was the skinny direction.  Bad news #2: the Confederation Trail actually didn't go past Cavendish.  It was more of an east to west trail than a north to south one.  Good news in response: there were roads that cut right across the middle of the island.  We could follow the Confederation Trail partway up then detour onto one of those roads with no problem!  Right?

To make sure my plan was absolutely feasible, I google mapped it.  The app told me that, using its route, it would take us 2 hours to reach Cavendish.  Okay, I may be a little rusty on bike riding but I felt optimistic that I could handle 2 hours of easy bike riding.  Prince Edward Island, according to my research, never goes 400m above sea level.  That, in my mind, translated to a lack of hills.  Biking across the island should be simple!  Right?

RIGHT?

Having convinced my travel buddy, Josh, that this was a totally sane and logical plan, we set out up the Confederation trail early on beautiful Sunday morning.  The sky was blue. The temperature was warm.  The trail went up at an easy grade. The sense of optimism dictated our anticipation and excitement over going to Cavendish and seeing the breathtaking vistas and beaches of a land out of legend.

We were half an hour up the trail, on the very edge of the city of Charlottetown, when I commented to Josh that something in my bike didn't feel right.  Not even 20 seconds later, POP! Hissssssss.......  The rear tire on my bike blew a rupture and instantly deflated!  OH NO!!!!!  Optimism still ruled my mind though and I instantly set about solving the problem. 



Josh and I had a few moments as we waited to
hear back from the bike rental place, so we
took advantage of the moment to stage this
photo with his potato pal, Spudz.

First, I phone the place that rented us the bikes, hoping we would be able to get a replacement brought out to us as walking the bikes back would take us over an hour.  Unfortunately it was a weekend and the poor girl at the desk was by herself and couldn't very well do anything for us, being on the other side of the city.  She tried to phone the owner, but couldn't get through, so she left a message.  We were effectively stranded, forced to stop and take pictures of a potato stealing Josh's bicycle, our journey stalled before it could even really begin begin.

My optimism for the adventure was not to waver at this setback, however.  I recalled seeing a Canadian Tire not even a 15 minute walk back up the trail.  Maybe if we couldn't get a bike replacement, I could get a tube replacement for the tire and get the bike company to refund me my rental cost.  I'm the queen of great ideas!  We walked the bikes to the Canadian Tire and immediately faced our second setback.  As mentioned before, it was a Sunday morning and we were in Charlottetown, PEI, a Maritime province.  That morning standing in front of a closed Canadian Tire that did not open until noon I learned an important lesson: people in the Maritimes take their Sundays and holidays very seriously.  None of this treating Sundays like just another day in the week.

We were still effectively stranded.  Josh, suggested that we walk the bikes back to the hostel where we had rented them, but I was still determined to make it to Cavendish, one way or another.  The northern shores of Anne of Green Gables beckoned to me.

Part two is up!