Day 12 – Vernon River to Charlottetown – 44 km (27.4 miles)

We were so happy to see the bright blue cloudless skies and sunshine this morning. It was a welcome sight after yesterday’s rain. We ate a quick breakfast from the items we’d picked up at the little market yesterday and headed out on the bikes.

The first portion of our ride took us along rural roads. Since I didn’t take any pictures yesterday, I took a bunch today. Knowing this is our last day to ride and see beautiful Prince Edward Island, I tried to capture it all!

We connected to the Confederation Trail after a few miles and I took in all the views, knowing this would be the last day on this memorable trail. Below is just a small sampling of the photos I took.

It was a beautiful section of trail and a beautiful day. There were so many wild strawberries along the path in this particular area.

We once again we left the trail as we neared Charlottetown and rode the coastal roads. The view of the farm fields with the bright blue sky and backdrop of the water was gorgeous.

Still in a rural agricultural area, we saw some cute farm stands right on the road selling their produce. They were operated on the honor system.

As we neared Charlottetown, we had a portion of bike lane, the rest was on the shoulder of the road shared with cars. We also got into some hills! We pressed on though and my personal goal was to not walk my bike up any hills. I was very tempted on this particular stretch, but didn’t give in! We crossed a bridge from Stratford over to Charlottetown. It carried a lot of traffic and I was glad we had a separate bike lane.

We were ready for lunch at this point, and ate at a lobster house on the wharf with beautiful views of the water. I ordered a burger and fries and Jimmy went with fish and chips.

We explored the Charlottetown waterfront after we ate. It’s beautiful with little shops and restaurants. I love the colorful floating homes in the harbor.

With the return to Charlottetown, that completed our Tip-to-Tip ride of Prince Edward Island. When all was said and done, we’d been on the bike for 10 days and ridden 324 miles (522 km).

We only had one day that was a complete rain out, only riding about 5 miles that day. We lodged at 9 different establishments from historic inns to a little farm cabin. I would stay at each place again. We met some wonderful people and found the residents of PEI to be very kind and welcoming.

The weather and the views were beautiful in late June/early July. We’d been told the island was flat, and we’d been told the island was hilly. It can be both, and some of that depends on your perspective. If you live in the Rocky Mountains, you’d say it was flat. If you lived in Kansas, you would say it’s hilly. It depends on where you are riding. The Confederation Trail, being a converted railway, is flat with not more than a 2% grade. Some of the coastal roads we biked were hilly, but not horrible. At least the route we took. There are more serious hills toward the center of the island I think. But I never had to get off my bike and walk, though at times I was tempted. We did a combination of the Confederation Trail and coastal roads. If you just stay on the trail, you miss all the beautiful shoreline, and charming little harbors. We felt safe on the roadways. Most have wide shoulders and little traffic. We found the drivers to be very courteous as they are accustomed to bikes on the roads here.

There are mosquitoes and lots of them. They did not bother us while we were in motion on the bikes, but in many areas, as soon as we stopped, we were swarmed with them. We had Off towelettes in our bike bag and those worked well to keep them away.

We reached out to George Larter with PEI Guide and Drive Service when we began to plan the trip in earnest. It was originally planned for the summer of 2020, but Covid-19 put that plan on hold. George develops itineraries for folks visiting the island, and provides a number of services. He made all of our lodging reservations for us, with the exception of the one we had already made at the Fairholm Inn in Charlottetown. He also picked us up a time or two to take us to different areas on the island so we could get everything in that we wanted to see with the time we had. He also transferred our luggage for us each day. All we had to do was leave it in the room when we left on the bikes in the morning, and it would be waiting for us that evening at the next place. He also went grocery shopping for us when he knew we would be staying at an inn with no dinner options. Of course he came to our rescue on the day it rained for 12 hours, lol, picking us up early so we didn’t have to ride in the rain. He was great to work with.

It was a great trip, one we will always remember. And what a blessing to have shared it together!

Lodging List

Mill River Resort

Prince County Guesthouse

Heritage Classic Inn

Fairholm Inn

Bishops Rest

Points East Coastal Inn

Georgetown Historic Inn

Cliffside Inn

Do Duck Inn