Day 102: Summerside, PEI -> Grahams Road, PEI

Date: Friday, August 25, 2023
Start: Summerside, PEI (Staying with family)
End: Grahams Road, PEI (Staying with family)
Distance: 26km

This wasn't a big day, but lots happened!  We woke up and again had an incredible breakfast.  There was lots of talk about the day ahead because...

This is the day Skipper departs.

Skipper was planning to go back to Maine at some point but wasn't sure of the best time and place to turn back.  We had told people along the road that he was going to Halifax, but PEI was also a strong contender for turning back to Maine.  With two days of rain in the offing and at least a week of travel to get back to Maine if he went to Halifax...Skipper decided to return home from PEI.  My aunt and uncle decided to take a trip to Moncton, NB and offered to take Skipper with them.  He accepted, and so would be getting a ride with them part of the way.

And so we had breakfast and discussed his plans for his return home.  We put his bike on my aunt and uncle's car and he was ready to go.

About 5 years ago I hiked The Long Trail in Vermont. I was supposed to be hiking half of the trail with my father but he had hurt his knee and had to stop.  I had seriously considered quitting the hike at that point because I didn't want to hike it alone, but eventually decided to stick with it.  The next day I met Skipper.  We became friends while hiking and would eventually finish the trail together.

Most people only consider the physical difficulty of long distance hiking, and forget that - if you hike it solo - you're on your own for long and intense periods of time.  It's not only the loneliness but the intensity of the experiences you're having, and there is no one there to share them with.  It can sap your morale and leads a lot of people to quit, especially since it wasn't a problem you anticipate having.  And so I was eternally grateful when Skipper and I hit it off and decided to hike together.  Having him there to keep me motivated and share the experience are my best memories of The Long Trail.

And so when he asked to join me on this bike ride, I knew I had to say yes!  It would be a similarly difficult and grinding experience, and to have someone to share the experience with would make it so much more enriching.

And so we conspired to meet and made it happen just outside Hamilton, Ontario.  From there we biked and saw almost 2200km seeing Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, and PEI.  At times I was terrible company.  Fatigue has been setting in more and more since Northern Ontario and despite plenty of stops in Southern Ontario, I remain chronically tired.  I could put it aside when visiting people, but Skipper got to see me at those times when I didn't have the energy to put on a happy face.  It's a testament to his character that he didn't wake up early one morning and just leave me there.  As many of you know, I can be a real curmudgeon...cold and distant.  He stuck with me through these times, and I'm eternally grateful that he did!

To have the opportunity to go on another adventure with someone I knew was good for it -  and to have a fresh pair of eyes through which to view Canada - made the experience so much more meaningful and memorable.  I no longer bike with my head down, but keep a constant eye out for the birds of the area.  I'm going to get frustrated without someone with me to identify those birds, but it might be time for me to start figuring it out on my own!  And finally, I won't have someone there to talk to and bounce ideas off of.  It was wonderful to have someone there to confirm that yes, what we had just witnessed or experienced WAS incredible and/or beautiful!

I hope we don't go another 5 years before going on another adventure.  That hike in Vermont and this ride across Canada have only cemented further in my mind the conviction that all we have in this world is the people that are in our lives.  They are what make the experiences meaningful.  For his insight, knowledge, humour, experience, and ultimately friendship...I'm going to miss my travel companion!

We said our goodbyes, shared a hug, and they drove off.

Thank you for everything Skipper.  Until next time!

I took a few minutes to sit and reflect on the time we'd just spent together.  To keep from too much sadness setting in I went to visit a local coffee shop that I make a point of visiting every time I'm in Summerside.

Samuel's Coffee House is a local institution - at least in my mind - partly because two of my cousins have worked there.  I have memories of visiting it and spending time with all three of them in that place, either doing crossword puzzles with them or visiting them as they worked.  I don't pass through town without making a stop.

Unfortunately I had miscalculated, because it can also be an intensely sad place for me.  I rarely speak of one of these cousins because just the mention of his name brings the sadness welling up inside of me.  He had worked at Samuel's.  But he passed away 10 years ago.  His photo is up on the wall.

They also make a coffee dedicated to him and so it is a place of sad reminders as well as nostalgia.

I grabbed an iced coffee and cheesecake, and sat staring at that photo.

Were he alive today, I'm pretty sure he would have joined me on this bike ride (or at least been intensely jealous of me doing it).

I left and biked back to grab my gear.  Along the way I enjoyed Summerside.

I was heading out of Summerside to the house of another cousin and his family.  I grabbed my gear, loaded up some Stompin' Tom, and set off out of Summerside.

I opted for the highway to leave town.  I was quickly out of Summerside and rolling through farm country.  Constant reminders of that phosiphorous tuber that the island is so well known for!  As well as a giant facility that seems to process and research potatoes.

This is probably the closest thing I have seen to a grain elevator since Saskatchewan.  It used to say "Prince Edward Island" on the side but the maintenance seems to be lacking.  Come on PEI!  Towns of 40 people in Saskatchewan put the work in to maintain those elevators, you can do it too!

I jumped on The Confederation Trail when I reached Kensington (the next town down the road) for a few kilometers.  I'd been warned about this trail by people as far away as British Columbia.  Not because there's anything wrong with it.  In fact just the opposite.  It's a very pleasant and easy ride.  The problem is that it goes through the center of PEI and avoids the coast entirely.  It's mostly green tunnel and farm fields.  Neither of those is bad, but it does miss out on some of the best pieces of the province.  I only spent about 3km on it and enjoyed every moment.

Google sent me back across a local road where I passed through more farm country.

And then Google Maps did what it does best for biking: it sent me down a dirt road that seemed more like a goat path.  It had a street name sign though, so it's officially recognized as a public roadway!  And thankfully it was only a three or four kilometers and offered a nice little taste of the kind of road that John Denver yearned to "take me home."  At times the dirt road turned to sand, and it was liking biking on the beach.  No matter, I didn't have far to go and I bounced along!

Eventually I arrived at my my destination and met up with my cousin.

He'd taken the day off and we hung out, reminisced, and enjoyed the afternoon.  I spent some time blogging, and this is where I'll cut this section short.  Again, it was time with family and you don't get to know everything!  Suffice to say, it was a real homecoming to be surrounded by family I hadn't seen in years and to slip back into that old familiar company.  Home isn't a place with four walls and comfort.  It's a place where know we are loved.  And once again - as with so many of the stops with all of you on this trip - I felt like I was home.