Touring Canada: P.E.I.’s Confederation Trail
My wife, Noreen, and I completed the cycling of the P.E.I. Confederation Trail with Free Wheeling Adventures, along with five other new friends and two guides for six days, July 16-21.
The tour provided all accommodations, most meals, trip support and guides.
We arrived in Charlottetown a day in advance to prepare our minds and bodies for the four-hour time difference from Kelowna. As well, the extra day provided an opportunity to rent some bikes and do some orientation around the city.
The Confederation Trail, owned and maintained by P.E.I.’s provincial government, follows the abandoned CNR for 273 kilometres from Tignish near the west coast to Elmira near the east coast. The trail traverses the province through fabulous pastoral landscapes of potato, grain, canola and hay fields. There are also many seascape views of the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
Much of the trail also passes though densely wooded forests of deciduous trees, maple, poplar and alder with white spruce and larch interspersed, often the overhanging branches provided a canopy over the trail.
On Sunday, July 16, we were picked up at our hotel in Charlottetown and shuttled by van to the North Cape for the start of the bicycle tour.
The two-hour ride provided ample time to meet our new friends and share stories of previous cycling trips. The group of seven consisted of casual bikers and some seasoned veterans, the oldest person, a cycling veteran of many cycling world tours, was enjoying her 80th year.
At noon, after a safety and bicycle orientation talk, we began our 14 km bicycle ride to Tignish, the start of the Confederation Trail.
The first day ride was approximately 40 km. The length of each days ride was a function of Free Wheeling Adventures’ prowess in finding fine inns and excellent dining for the tour groups. A person was encouraged to ride a distance that they were comfortable with and if they wanted to ride in the van that was permissible. There was no need to ride as a group, but each person’s ability allowed for individual paces. Many of the accommodations were historical buildings converted to bed-and-breakfasts, inns and dining accommodations, in our opinion proving to be very special tourist experiences.
The Confederation Trail provides relatively easy cycling on flat and smooth, well maintained compact crushed stone surfaces, for either road, hybrid or mountain bikes. The maximum gradients we encountered were less than one per cent.
Even climbing the slight grades, Noreen and I were able to easily cycle at 15 km/h. The trail was free of motor vehicles. However, we noticed many locations where delinquent ATV riders had entered. The trail offered many interpretive and historical signages and at each road crossing there was a 911 sign to indicate where you were located; each road crossing was named to assist with route orientation.
We noted that most of the old railway stations had assumed new uses of museums, gift shops, galleries, tourist info centres, cafes, homes and other uses.
Our bicycles were 27 speed Trek hybrids, sizes chosen to match our body frames. Each person was also provided a helmet, cycle-computer, two water bottles and route guide notes. Most days we were provided a picnic lunch at a convenient rest, protection against mosquitoes was important.
On Friday, July 21, following six days of cycling, we passed through Elmira — the end of the 273-km Confederation Trail on our way to the East Point Light House to receive our Cape-to-Cape bicycle ride certificate, Free Wheeling tee shirts and mementos and another picnic lunch before our shuttle van ride back to Charlottetown.
On the tour, P.E.I. was experiencing hot and dry weather. We enjoyed six days of sunny skies with temperatures of 27 C and a humidex 31 C. Noreen and I cycled about 360 km total, including side trips, the Confederation Trail and a day of cycling through PEI Provincial Park.
It’s an experience we recommend to others seeking a new adventure.