PEI 4 - Tourist or Cyclist?

Day 3
Thursday, July 21, 2016

Bicycle touring. It's a trick to be both a tourist and a cyclist in the same day. When the tourist wins, the cyclist pays.

In the morning, when the day stretches out ahead of you, 50 or 60 miles is no big deal. No hurry to get started, and when you do, why not stop for any tourist attraction that catches your eye? After all, it's summer and the days are long.

Wood Islands Lighthouse

Just a couple miles down the road from where we camped was a historic lighthouse, the Wood Islands Lighthouse. We arrived before it opened at 9:30 and wandered through it at a leisurely pace until 11. Then some fast and smooth riding for about 20 miles. We passed a winery and stopped to taste a couple wines. Rob picked a strawberry wine which we both enjoyed - very light and summery.

Who wouldn't be happy after stopping to try a few wines?

Then it got hot. We arrived at our lunch destination well into the afternoon - King's Castle Provincial Park. The tourism book praised its storybook sculptures scattered throughout the park. I was thinking bronze works of art, but these were really just slapped together replicas of the three pigs, Little Red Riding Hood, and the rest of the crew. I was probably not the audience the creators had in mind. But we did enjoy a swim and a rest under some trees on the lawn. 

And it was free. The wonderful thing about the provincial parks in PEI is that they are all free, so we could pop into any one of them for just a short bit and not have to worry about getting our money's worth. I love Canada.

By late afternoon we arrived at Panmure Island Provincial Park with its beach and campground. The campground looked tempting. So did the beach. But with all our dilly-dallying we'd only ridden 40 miles. We could make another 20 miles or so to the next campground before dark. 

But first we stopped at The Sandbar & Grill, a beachside restaurant with outdoor patio seating. Rob stepped up to the window and ordered beer and fries. Those fries, made with fresh PEI potatoes, had to be the best I've ever had. The beer sure tasted good, too.

A random picture I took that day.
Everything on PEI, even the harbors, are tidy.

We arrived at Brudenhall River Provincial Park just as it was getting dark and the bugs were coming out. We had a campsite in the woods, nothing great. This was more of a resort than a park, with a swimming pool, hotel, and restaurant, as well as walks along the river, but we were too tired to explore any of it. We'd played the tourist all day and now all we wanted was a shower, dinner, and sleep. And, thankfully, the bugs were not as bad as the previous night.

Day 3 - 64 miles averaging 10.87 mph

I do wish we could have stopped for the night at Panmure Island. It would have been fun to set up camp when it was still early enough to go for a long walk along the beach. But when the next day unfolded so seamlessly, we were glad for having ridden those extra miles.