Day 10 Tip to Tip

Alex & Charlottetowm Mayor Clifford Lee

Alex & Jamie Mutch

Alex & Mrs. Blackman in York

Day 10

Alex
7:00 morning at Charlotettown. A foggy and hazzy longest day on trail. Meet Mayor of Charlottetown for check and James Mutch ran 4km at UPEI, CBC Station and highways. Mrs. Blackman meet and break at York. That route for half marathon started at Bedford in 2004 and full marathon halfway mark. Cows crossing, trailside campground, bikers and walkers along on trail. Ran fifth marathon from North Cape.

jypsy
We were greeted this morning, not by a hot sunny day, but by a foggy 17 degree day. A nice cool way to start our longest day. Charlottetown Mayor Clifford Lee saw us off with a donation. Pat Coady from the ACL was on hand as well as fellow RoadRunner, Jamie Mutch. Jamie ran with Alex on the trail through town, behind the CBC & RCMP buildings on University Avenue (where Alex & I had done our radio interview), past the Market and UPEI, out behind Zellers Mall and out of town. Jamie left us on the edge of town at the bypass highway and ran back.

We soon met up with the main trail and were on our way east. We had seen more people on the trail from the market to the bypass than we probably saw all together so far. Walkers, runners, bikers, dog walkers..... It was a 3 bunny day, saw a couple of chipmunks and heard a lot of birds. Again the trail was lined with wildflowers, daisies and Brown-Eyed-Susans mostly. More forest, more fields (many more potatoes), pasture land and every now and then a glimpse of civilization as we cross a road. Alex has run this trail before in the 2004 PEI Half Marathon.

Very pretty wetlands again around York. Mrs. Blackman, one of Alex's high school TA's welcomed us in York where we sat, ate lunch, and chatted about how the run was going. 10:00 now, the sun had burned the fog off and the day was starting to heat up. It was a beautiful trip from just before York to Tracadie where we ended our lay. Lots of diversity, lots of sounds. We passed quite a few Oak trees, not Red Oaks (like on PEI's flag) but really nice and very plentiful. The last road we crossed today was in Bedford, the starting point of the 2004 PEI Half Marathon and the midway point of the (Brackley Beach to Charlottetown) PEI Marathon. When I first got my bike 2 years ago Alex & I trained on this bit of trail a couple of times. (and if you had told me then that in 2 years I'd bike the trail tip to tip I *never* would have believed you!)

Just past Bedford was a nice little bog. It didn't have the little pink flowers I'd seen in the bogs up west. Between Bedford & Tracadie was a neat little B&B/campground with a sign advertising a canteen & washrooms. We didn't stop but it looks like a nice place for trail riders to stay. They had a massive bike rack so it must be a popular spot.

Although the day turned out to be just 27.88K, it still proved to be our longest day (beating Day 4's 27.54). I'm thinking I might adjust our Friday & Saturday plans to make Friday (our shortest day, 15.5K) longer and Saturday (our last day, 23.8K) shorter. I'll adjust the schedule page if I do.

Kilometres traveled - 228.94 or 142.26 miles

Day 10 Photos Here