Lunch on the trail

Our weather has been cold and wet with an occasional fine day. My husband and I take every opportunity we can to ride our bikes and we’ve been on the trail recently, enjoying every minute.

We take our picnic lunch with us on the new bike racks we received last autumn, replacements for two which were ill fitting. It is great to be able to stop at any of the picnic sites around the island for lunch. The National Park has lots of tables and the Confederation Trail has tables positioned at regular intervals across the island.

Meanwhile, we rode to nearby Wellington for a picnic one day, stopping at a table by a river.

The sound of the water flowing by as we had lunch was like a dream after this past pandemic year. Nearby, noisy and nosy Common Grackles were chatting it up on a wire overlooking the scene. 

Our most recent outing was from O’Leary to Elmsdale along the Confederation Trail. Along the way we passed several locations where peepers and other frogs sang happily. One area had these cattails which looked as if they had cotton tops.

Near river banks now, Coltsfoot is in bloom, the first flower we’ve seen in our travels this spring. This type of daisy is a welcome addition to the greys of early spring on the island.

Butterflies are also busy. Despite several efforts, I was unable to photograph any as they flitted around us along the trail. 

We had lunch at Elmsdale in an area where the trail runs parallel to the highway. The traffic on the road was light at that time of day.

Back at the car in O’Leary, Rock Pigeons watched us from a nearby roof as we loaded the bikes on the rack. While there are pigeons in downtown Summerside, we have never seen them around the areas we frequent.

It has stopped raining so we are headed out on our bikes again today! Yay!

   

Notes from the isle

Yay! My husband and I rode our bicycles one more time. It was only 3 C but without a breath of wind, it was pleasant enough to take out the bikes. We drove around our area mid-morning so the traffic was light and we could stay close to home in case it was too cold. It was great to be back on the bike again.

Meanwhile we purchased a new recumbent bike so we can continue cycling on some level. Changing the tension on the bike really provides a good workout too.

People were curious about the thistle on the steeple of the Free Church of Scotland in my previous post. I am including a photo of the finial from the peiheritagebuildings.blogspot.com.

If we ever wondered why Jeff Bezos was the richest person in the world, the pandemic has resolved it. There are nine houses at the top of our street. With the Covid restrictions keeping us at home, my husband and I see the various delivery trucks stopping in our area. Purolator, FedEx and UPS stop at some of these houses every day, including weekends this time of year. You can almost set your clock by the various deliveries. If nine houses generate this number of deliveries and even if a fraction are from Amazon, no wonder the man has so much money.

One of these days, someone will invent a mask which doesn’t cause your glasses to steam up, especially if you are having a hot flash! Just wishing!

The Atlantic bubble burst after cases of Corona virus occurred which weren’t travel related. It means travel between the four Atlantic provinces requires two weeks isolation again. The outbreak on Prince Edward Island involved young people. The Chief Public Health Officer asked 20-29 year olds to be tested and brought in more restrictions until December 21st, such as take-out only from restaurants. The good news is we have been six days without any new cases and the response from the young people at the testing centres was overwhelming. The latest news is the restrictions may be lifted earlier than the 21st. Thank you to our young men and women for their response!  We live in a wonderful place!

It’s cold outside

Picture it, a sunny day with wind gusting to 40 kilometres an hour and a temperature of 3 Celsius. Two seniors were determined to ride their bikes and layers of clothes were required.

She wore long underwear, a hoodie and lined pants under a winter jacket. The hood was thin enough to fit under her helmet. A fleece face shield, a pair of gloves, sneakers and wool socks completed the outfit. Warmth not fashion was her concern. On the way, she opened the window in the car. Riding the trail was a colder experience.

Normally among the trees it would have been warm enough with less clothes but the air was frigid. Many of the trees had lost their leaves and there wasn’t as much protection from the wind gusts. 

Winter had arrived with a “feels like” temperature of -2 C but the couple stayed warm.

She and her husband rode on, through the splashes of colour remaining in protected areas. 

At one point, they headed off the main trail through a stand of deciduous trees with fallen leaves over a root-covered trail.

She looked back at one point to see her husband fall over and the bike fall on top of him. He was fine except for bruised pride. They decided to stick to the main trail.

The only part of her which became cold was her left thumb. Funny how cold can invade the digits, leading to frostbite. Not today. She adjusted the thumb, placing it under the other fingers and it warmed nicely.

A few people walked the trail too but there weren’t any other bikers. No wonder. These two are reluctant to give up cycling but the reality of its necessity is clear. It took them hours to warm up when they arrived home. The bikes will be stored until next spring. 

There are a few 10 C days in the forecast however. Maybe...

Cycling seniors

Last week we rode 88 kilometres on our bikes with our longest ride 25 kilometres. We are enjoying cycling, the countryside, the weather, the picnics and the people we meet along the way. It became colder over the week but we’ve had the right clothing and a cup of hot tea at the end of the ride always hits the spot.

Our final ride last week took us from Ellerslie to Portage and back. In Ellerslie at the beginning of the trip, we met a woman waiting for her husband who was riding west from Richmond. They are in their eighties. They cycled together previously but she has problems with balance now so she doesn’t ride any more. Instead she drops her husband at his starting location and waits for him at the next stop. He goes as far as he can on a particular day. She enjoys driving to the locations and talking to people she meets. Cycling is still a sport they continue to enjoy together.

At the end of the ride we met another couple riding the trail, completing their Tip to Tip for this year. It is a bike ride on the Confederation Trail, from one tip of the island to the other, a total of 449 kilometres. This couple completed the venture last year and was busy doing one of the last sections for this year. They take turns driving to the next meeting point or riding the trail. They were in their seventies.

Meeting these cyclers encouraged my husband and I to continue the sport. As it stands now, we both ride a section of trail and back to the car. We would like to do the Tip to Tip plus return next year. We’ll see what the next six months bring.

P.S.

I hope you have a better day than this poor woman we saw recently in Emerald.

Happy Hallowe’en!

Uphill both ways

For one of our recent cycling experiences, my husband and I went to the Confederation Trail in the central part of the island, a bit further from home. The trail is on the old rail bed which was left after the track was removed when the trains stopped running in 1989.

The track ran through the center of the island rather than along the coast. At the various stops along the way potatoes from the farms were loaded into boxcars to be shipped to markets through Borden along the South coast of the island.

Though the island is relatively flat, it doesn’t feel like it when you’re cycling. There are long grades with a gentle climb which don’t feel particularly downhill on the way back when you are tired. To this person new to cycling, the trail feels uphill both ways. But fun!

We went further again this time which is our goal with each outing. We passed fields of wheat 

and potatoes ready for harvest, crossed two rivers 

we had never seen before and fields with irrigation equipment.

Around one bend the light through the trees shining on the birch trunks caught us by surprise. We stopped for photos. The green on the path with the strips of red earth, shadows dancing over them and the stately highlighted birches, made us want to stay and watch. However the trail urged us on to see more of its beauty.

Along the way, lots of pale green butterflies lifted into the air as we rode by and in several areas small brown grasshoppers hopped around us as we passed. Even though you ride by quickly, you can notice the little things when there’s just you and the bike in nature.

Every now and then we see birds, such as robins, among the trees or on the trail. By the time you stop, they are gone of course. You can hear them among the trees sometimes and familiar ones like blue jays or chickadees are easily recognizable. I like the idea of the countryside around us filled with the unseen avians though I would like to photograph them. However, the beauty of the trail and the countryside suffice.

On another outing closer to home, we watched as a crew harvested a potato field. Never ones to miss a scavenging opportunity, dozens of gulls staked out places in the newly ploughed earth. They don’t miss much going on in the area.

Question and answer:

Red at http://hiawathahouse.blogspot.com/  who cycled himself until he was eighty, asked if we wear helmets.

My husband and I both wear helmets. Neither of us would dream of cycling without them. We were like children at the store trying on helmets and selecting our favourite colours.