September 8 - 13,
2025
6 Riding Days
215 miles riding
Sherri and I were
joined by Sherri's sister Carol for this beautiful, pleasant ride across
PEI. We used Crossroads Bike Tours for
the room reservations and route maps.
All three of us carried our own great start to finish. This was Carol's first multi-day bike tour
and she did great!
PEI is a bit of well
kept secret for bicycle touring. The
scenery was beautiful, the weather was just about perfect, except for one cold
day. There were great bike trails, and
when on the road the traffic was very light to non-existent at times, and all
the drivers were very polite - as all Canadians are of course.
- September 6
- 7 Charlottetown - The Great
George Hotel
We arrived late on
the 6th, driving from northeast US. We
met up with Carol and got settle into Charlottetown. Took the next day off to both recover for
our long drive and prep our gear and the bikes for the tour start the next day.
- Day 1 -
September 8, Shuttle to North Cape Lighthouse, Ride North Cap to Mill
River Resort, 32 miles
On the shuttle ride
from Charlottetown to North Cape the driver proved a great diversion with much
information on PEI. Two interesting
facts we learned on the shuttle ride. First,
we asked about the donkeys we saw mixed in with the cattle in the open
fields. Our driver told us that there
are coyotes on the island and the donkeys are aggressive and will protect the
cattle. The second interesting fact,
which is closely related to the first, is that the Northumberland Strait
between PEI and mainland froze over in the early 1980s and the coyotes cross
over to the island for the first time in history.
The ride from North
Cape was mostly on isolated roads with some miles of beautiful shoreline. A
wonderful sunny day with cool temps. We
had a nice tailwind most of the way. We stayed
at the Mill River Resort, which is a Golf Resort. Exceptional rooms and food. This was a great start to our trip.
Carol and Sherri at
the North Cape getting ready to ride.
- Day 2 - Mill
River Resort to Summerside, 45 miles
Todays ride was
along a mix of backcountry roads and quite crushed stone bike trails. The terrain was gently rolling and again the
wind was mostly in our favor. We stayed
at the Microtel in Summerside close to the harbor. After laundry was done, we found a great
restaurant across from the hotel where Sherri started her week long course of
seafood soup. When in Rome … After dinner we walked to the harbors edge
seeking an ice cream store. But the ice
cream place was close for the season! So
we had to enjoy sunset at the waters edge.
- Day 3 -
Summerside to Cavendish, 32 miles
With more great
sunny weather it was another great day of riding. Today's route brought the only real hills on
the route. We had some solid
"rollers" over the last 10 miles with one 100ft 10% climb. This kept the riding interesting. The route took us along many small bays and
inlets and beautiful country side. There
were many large homes in this area of PEI.
We stayed a Shaw's
Hotel immediately adjacent to the Green Gable Heritage site. Unfortunately the site was closed for the
season.
- Day 4 -
Cavendish to Brackley Beach, 27 miles
The route took us
from our B&B directly to the beach where we had fantastic ocean views for
the early part of the ride. After
leaving the beach front there were a number gentle rolling hills. And the only busy traffic road on the whole
tour was on highway 6 from Cymbria to our turn onto Portage Road. It was a short day to Shaw's Hotel at
Brackley, so we road on out to Prince Edward Island National Park at the beach.
- Day 5 -
Brackley Beach to Rodd Crowbush Resort, 29 miles
Wow were we ever
spoiled by the near perfect weather we had enjoyed so far. Today was cold and windy! With windchill down to 40F we got out all
that cold weather gear we were wondering why we bothered to carry, and put
every bit on! Still there was a number
of beautiful sites to see. The route
took us past Savage Harbour where we saw large floating oyster farms (as we
learned later exactly what we were seeing).
Apparently Savage Harbour is renowned for its oysters, most famous are
its Savage Blonde oysters.
Another golf resort
for our stay, and we were very happy to
get out of the cold and into our warm rooms and hot showers! Once again great accommodations and dining.
Sherri and Carol
with "everything on" for the cold - but still smiling!
- Day 6 - Rodd
Crowbush Resort to East Point Lighthouse, 47 miles
The morning was
still chilly but the sun was out and promising to warm us up. The first twelve miles, part on roads and
then paved bike path along the bay, took us to St. Peters Bay where we stopped
to warm up with a cup of coffee. From
St Peters Bay the trail turned to crushed stone. The trail run in the forest for 30+ miles
with a few cross roads but no services for the full 30 miles. In fact, there were no services for the last
35 miles until we reached the East Point Lighthouse where there were bathrooms
and refreshments.
From the lighthouse
a shuttle took back to Charlottetown and our van. Our car trip back home would continue from
Charlottetown, but our bike tour of PEI was over. We would definitely ride PEI again if it
were not so far from home.
Carol, Mark, Sherri
at the Finish
Resort
to St Peters Bay
St
Peters Bay to East Point Lighthouse
