Day 11 Tip to Tip

Day 11

Alex
8:00 morning at Tracadie. A mix of sun and cloud on trail. Ran 200km mark of trail from Tignish. Ate breakfast at Trailside Cafe. Wetlands, provincial largest river, leaving Queens County into King County and fields along on trail. Reach $5000 mark at Morell Station and ate chesseburger for dinner.

jypsy
We're in wild rose country now. In full bloom, on both sides of the trail, pretty much the entire day. We finally saw a snake, Scott had asked us way back in Summerside if we'd seen any snakes, this was just a little guy, about a foot long, he slithered away before I got my camera turned on. We traveled along the Hillsborough River on and off, my camera went from being right there in the back pocket of my bike jersey to hanging off my wrist at the ready all day. It had started out overcast but as we approached Mount Stewart the sun came out and the temperature went up.

We stopped for a late breakfast at the Trailside Cafe, a place I've wanted to go to for a while (for years I've been promising myself I'd go there when Ron Hynes is there, they have some really excellent live entertainment there.) As we entered Kings County we began to really be treated like kings. At the RoadRunner AGM in March, I mentioned to the women (the Souris gals) that we were scheming this trip. Joan Lambie immediately offered us her guest house to stay in in Fortune when we're in eastern PEI. The generousity didn't end there. Sara Deveau saw to it that we didn't go hungry - as we got ready to head east I received an email detailing the area restaurants that had offered to feed us, 3 meals a day, every day of this eastern end. Sara & the gals are also putting together the wrap up party in Elmira to celebrate Alex's accomplishment. Sara is also responsible for the article in the Eastern Graphic.

The Trailside Cafe was the first of our most generous hosts. Thank you Doug Deacon and Barb MacDonald. The "bicyclists breakfast" was great - homemade bread, homemade jam.... a pretty little spot, we'll be back.

We left for Morell in the sun. It was looking like we could get baked in the afternoon but, just in time the breeze came up and clouds rolled in and made for a beautiful afternoon. We passed the 200K trail marker and crossed the County line from Queens into Kings County . We saw more wetlands, more woods, lots of diversity and almost always wild roses on both sides. Our day ended at the replica train station in Morell. Supper had been arranged for us at Jonsey's in Morell. Heaping platefulls of food made it hard to fit in their desert (it is a restaurant/deli with fabulous looking deserts), we managed to fit a strawberry tart in though. It was here be got the paper and discovered not only the story I had been told was going to be there but a pretty incredible editorial.

Although we had originally intended to stay in Fortune from Wednesday to Saturday but decided to return home Wednesday night to meet some "friends of (online) friends", Kate and Dan, touring the Maritimes after having been to Autreat. The drive from our house to eastern PEI is through the National Park along the north shore from Brackley Beach to Dalvay, a beautiful drive. The road is quiet in the morning, a car or two, 2 runners and a fox or two. By afternoon cars are lined along the side of the road at the popular beaches along the shore, tourists everywhere.

We're packing up and heading east....

Day 11 Photos Here