Prince Edward Island (PEI)

The Birthplace of the Canadian Confederation is what the 8 mile long bridge is named to get here from Nova Scotia, as well as the license plate, and the major rail-trail, just to name a few accolades. It was built in 1997 and is the longest bridge to traverse ice-covered waters, although locals say bodies of water don’t freeze like they used to. There are no mountains on PEI but some big rolling hills in spots here and there. The lack of traffic even around the tourist areas is refreshing although it is the very end of August and the tourist buzz is dying.

First stop was the Silver Fox Entertainment Center restaurant with a gorgeous harbor sunset, that was after a quick stop at the not impressive tourist based Lone Oak Brewing right over the bridge.

Linkletter Provincial Park, Summerside

We scored a waterfront spot and had lovely weather except for this last night where it was really blowing in through the morning and it is supposed start sprinkling in the area all day. Didn’t stop a windsurfer in the milk chocolate waves form having at it. Big tide on this extremely gradual incline red clay beach. We’re at the water’s edge and then few hours later you can walk out onto the red clay muck for 150 meters. This means that the water in general is milk chocolate brown much of the time unless it is calm and high tide, not ideal for in the water sports unless the red clay is supposed to be a mud pack for skin radiance, but my thought is that it would just dry it out. Double Bonus: since in Canada, I have had no dry cracked heal problems and that’s because there is little dirt around most campground have luscious grass to sooth my tired feet. I would be very cautious about red clay treatments. We have to say that Canadians seem to like grass as there are large yards everywhere. Seems like a headache to do all that mowing as it grows quickly, I’m sure in this climate of rainy days. The Clam, our instant up screen room was donated to the Salvation Army Thrift store here in PEI. We have been carrying that thing around trying to keep it dry and have used it less than a half a dozen times. If it is rainy, we just open the door and put up our screen and awning for ventilation. When it rains, it is so humid outside that bringing instruments or even chairs leaves everything damp. If we need to wait out a day or so, the inside van is doable and we can drive to beer, museums, coffee, food (not necessarily in that order) to get out of the tormenting weather whatever that may be.

Cavendish National Park

Luckily the red clay soil seems to absorb the rain pretty well and on our first excursion to the National Park to Cavendish Beach to bike ride the trail to the campground there was a great downpour and we stopped at the Outdoor Shopping place called the Boardwalk to get a Cows Ice Cream of PEI. The downpour was hard and about 20 minutes long and I decided to put on my bathing suit in the asphalt qaparking lot with 1/2 inch of running red water to give Vinny a good scrub town with my magic pole and bug scrubber pad. Lots of commentary from people standing on the covered deck of the shopping area about the spots I missed as they waited out the downpour and I got totally soping but Vinny got squeaky clean.

The sky cleared and we walked the boardwalk and dunes path along Cavendish Beach where the color scheme was much like iron red clay of Sedona in contrast to the Hemlock Green. Here the rolling grassy dunes on the coast contrast to the red clay eroded beach cliffs, but there also is the bonus of water in the mix here at PEI.

A bike path to Cavendish Campground, a little over a mile from the Cavendish Beach Parking lot was enjoyed on this lovely gravel path with only 2 or 3 small puddles despite the 20 minute “Vinny Scouring” downpour that had occurred only a few hours earlier. We had been deciding to abandon our camping reservations at Cavendish for next week as there was too much music and talking to strangers on bar stools to pursue in towns.

Also, the campground was a bit scruffy as it had been battered by Hurricane Fiona two years ago. Although the Ocean was a close walk from the campground, not optimal for paddling and we are not such ocean swimming enthusiasts, and can it get rough out there. We had heard there are less touristy places on PEI than being involved with the whole Anne of Green Gables thing that is everywhere here.

The Confederation Bike Trail was about 1 mile from the Linkletter Campground, and we decided to brave the roadways including Route 11 with no shoulders to hop on it. We went blinking and safety green clad down the road and had an easy bike along the gravel path past Miscouche. Later we would turn around and go into town and get fresh baked bread and apples at the Cook’s Corner farm/bakery/convenience store down the road from the trail.

There was even the Prince County Guest House and Village Pub across from the St John’s Catholic Church. What a way to spend a Sunday ! Mass at 10 am, bike ride, a bit of fresh fruit and cookies and then off to the Village Pub. I wonder if they have a cycling tour along the trail so that your overnight items could be delivered to the next place, and cyclers go ride on this very easy remote rail to trail path.

Twin Shores Camping Village

At the recommendation of a barstool comerrade, it was off to see Twin Shores Camping complex with hundred of neatly packed sites both mostly on the ocean side but some on the Darnley Basin side as well. This is supposed to be an excellent 3 km walking in sand beach and most sites have large green evergreens making them surprisingly private between the named gravel streets that neatly go back and forth. A tremendous playground area, general store, café, golf cart rental, a newspaper and bus pickup to take all the stuff you have down to the beach. This is like a little village that looks like A+ in the upkeep, facilities and organization department. The downside is that sites are $80 a night range whereas the Cabot Bay Provincial Park down the road is about $30 a night where there is little tree cover and small beach area. In general the Cabot Bay PP looks very scruffy and I would pay the extra for Twin Shores where the Minnehaha’s Wooden Mast stands proudly Twin Shores Village. The Minnehaha’s story first came to us in the Lennie Gallant song and his explanation of how Kristen, a South African, won the 2023 Golden Globe SailBoat Race around the world with no modern navigation technology. Darren, one of the Twin Shore Owners, helped facilitate the 10 month long retrofit of the boat for Kristen to leave PEI, and she gifted him this mast as she replaced with a stronger aluminum version. The Darren at Twin Shores and is the reason it flies the South African Flag and has a page in the Twin Shores Village Newspaper. We love that song and now we know even more of the story.

Thunder Cove

Thunder Cove Beach, a lovely beach that lost its place as the most photographed place on PEI because the tea cup (natures beautiful sandstone structure) got knocked down by Hurricane Fiona in 2022. It seems to be a is a lovely beach but windy/cold/rain made us too wimpy to go down and see for ourselves. But it seems if you have Twin Shores Village Beach, you wouldn’t need Thunder Cove since it is so very close. Luckily we had already experienced this on really a more grander scale in New Brunswick at Hopewell Rocks in the Bay of Fundy.

Ladies of the Canyon, Harmony House

Ladies of the Canyon, a musical journey through the 1960’s musicians in Laurel Canyon, was on the top of both of ours best concerts of all time. The story was told using excerpts from those famous songwriters of that era, and the musicianship and the original arrangement of so many songs were incredible as the four women switched back and forth between guitars, bass, drums, violins, flute piano and their vocal harmonies. My favorite was when they did the Joni Mitchell song “We are Stardust” and while the single played and sang, the others did a vocal harmony thing that seemed to emulate a synthesizer that was so cool. Evidently Joni didn’t make it to Woodstock because of a logistic glitch and she wrote this song, feeling that this beautiful, peaceful gathering was somehow spiritual. Just listened to Joni’s version and boy did our Ladies of the Canyon rock this song way better. The Harmony House, 140 seat venue, a bit out in the country, with great acoustics and now a basement, and deck lounge/restaurant ideal for dinner/show/drink. They have themed shows for a month or two or three with local musicians, as well special guest appearances. John’s favorite was “People Are Strange” again doing this vocal harmony background of singing “Your Strange” made it so interesting. The show was packed with great musicianship and we learned that the Manson Murders put a halt to the era or peace, love and rock n roll as the troubadours were anxious about strangers now. Harmony House is a place for local PEI musicians to work locally, and a place we will need to return.

Charlottetown

Charlottetown is a humming place filled with restaurants, pubs, music venues but still not so overwhelming crowded maybe except for when the cruise ships come in which is probably 5 times a week in the season (usually gone by suppertime) Our first stop had been the Founders Market, a railway station conversion to booths of food and one pub with Sidney Street Stout Beer for John.

Montague

We would return for that favorite beer again, lucky to not have been towed away because we didn’t see the far off sign the first time. Of course, this was after we stopped at the quaint town of Montague where we had to check out the Copper Bottom Brewery that had a huge tree in the middle of its deck.

Not that we could sit out there because it was one of those blustery days and when the sun went behind the gray clouds it was just too cold. We had hoped to do a bike ride along the coastal trail near Stanhope Campground, but decided blowing off into the shrubs could be a distinctive possibility, so decided to take a car tour a bit inland instead. We had to miss the Copper Bottom DJ show baskets full of vinyl and turntables were being set up. That is a Thursday night special at Copper Bottom, so hipster not classic rock playing, but they had a nice view down to the harbor. There was also a Lucky Bean Coffee Shop which had local talent on the weekends, not to mention a second bigger brewery, the Bogside which we would harvest host in later. Just a nice town also on the Confederation Bike trail.

Ross Family Ceilidh, Charlottetown

Our show for the night, was the Ross Family Cielidh in Charlottetown at the College Performance Hall where every seat was excellent. Well these three siblings could entertain and gave us a brief history of PEI as they performed traditional Celtic/Scottish music and went into Snowbird by Anne Murray. Evidently this popular tune was written by a PEI native Gene MacLellan and Elvis even rang him up to get permission to record the song. The best part of this show was the amazing dancing even while fiddling! The two sisters tore it up and then special guest, 70-year old mom, came out to dance with the daughters as her dance group was in the audience for this evening. The old keyboard brother can do stuff too.

Our favorite Beer Garden was closed as it was just too cold and blustery. We had such a memorable time on our first trip to the Beer Garden. Not only did we meet another German couple (Susanne and Ralf) who were RVing in the US for many months, but also as luck would have we ran into another young couple (Lhea and Nathan) who we had met at the Silver Fox as we rolled into town after the 6 hour drive from Digby. And here they were again two days later, so we took this as a sign that we must further our casual acquaintance and find out more details about their life. Oh, to be 22 and 23 again!!

Stanhope Beach

This first full day of wind and puffy clouds.

Finally, the perfect PEI day was upon us and we decided to stay put and enjoy the natural PEI coast. We took a hike down the lovely sand beach right across the street from our Stanhope campground while it was low tide to the Covehead Harbour Lighthouse.

Lunch, rest, and it was a 5-mile bike ride on a lovely dedicated path to Robinson’s Island where we did a two mile loop hike. It has a few pretty nice wooded tree sections.

The Robinson’s Loop was also a one-way bike trail that had many pull-off for the biker to jump over various obstacles or ride very dangerously on thin boards. It is always handy to see the bikes coming at you since this was a shared trail where hikers and bikers were explicitly told to traverse opposite ways. Generally, the coast has been very ravaged by the latest hurricanes with many of the trees dead and laying horizontal.

Not quite the picturesque beach scene, but this is National Park and after making it safe, lets nature take over which after hurricanes can be quite a lengthy recovery. We met Joye from Stanfest and she said that Stanhope Campground used to be all wooded and now trees are relatively minimal due to the hurricanes of the last years.

The protected dunes are the best storm defense and there are only official paths and parking areas to enter the beach, so most of the time when your ride/hike there is no ocean view, just dunes and scrub bushes, unless you pass through a protected wharf area which is where you see fishing boats and more of the landscape and even luxury houses.

Greenwich National Park

Another perfect day in a row here at PEI, this time to do the Dunes Hike from Greenwich National Park.

It is August 31 and our Canada NP pass expires, but the St Peter’s Bay Visitor Center says after Labor Day, Canadian National Parks in the area close down, but you can still get in. This was my favorite PEI hike, and we did about 7 miles because the hike on the floating boardwalk through the dunes presented a lovely walk on the beach, taking advantage of this sunny breezy day.

St Peters Park Campground

An overnight with only a 1 kilometer bike to the St Peter Courthouse Music Hall to see the PEI performer of the year, Lawrence Maxwell. Another quaint little place with great sound for our listening ears. He has some great songs and especially intriguing lyrics that had me veer our week of no reservations to this spot.

Great show and here I sit at the St. Peter’s Visitor Center parked quietly on the Bay while John naps and I catch up using their great WiFi while I sit with electricity on their quiet porch wondering if it will really rain. A local woman told me that this spot on the St Peters Bay Confederation Trail to Morrell was the most scenic.

We got a bit of a late start to do the whole thing, but we did a good 6 miles of it and back, getting some much needed exercise.

Basin Head Provincial Park

Well the Singing Sands Beach which I’m sorry to say we really never heard singing or even squeaking as we walked, but we had a lovely 3 mile walk on the Basin Head Beach and I even had a lovely dip into the relatively warm ocean.

I am a baby and it was wonderfully refreshing. I was the only one in the water and John the only one standing on the beach.. We had to look up the technical details of what a basin vice a lagoon, or bay was and we found out that it was just the shape of a basin and not the technical attributes of a body of water that feeds into the ocean. Bothwell Beach a mile or so further down was also recommended as a best beach in PEI, but the closest camping area was

Red Point Provincial Park

Red Point Provincial Park which lay right on the cliffs of the ocean about 4 kilometers down and had no access to the beach. We found a quiet site at the end in the middle of the night when we arrived from our show in Georgetown and a kit fox was there to greet us.

There were spots where you were right on the crashing waves had almost no trees and were exposed to the winds of which most days were significant. We liked our protected spot in the pines even though the mosquitos were intense at dusk. The facilities were excellent and people friendly with a Wifi Code that provided better than usual internet.

East Point Lighthouse

We were trying to find something to do on a very windy beach day. Finding some red chairs for the view.

Why not go to East Point lighthouse. Here at the point, there was major wave confusion, but the view was beautiful and we climbed up to the top of the lighthouse.

Kings Theater, Georgetown

We attended the “Two Sayer” event in which there were two old guys in their 60’s who told stories about their growing up on PEI while presenting a bit of history and musical breaks with Ceilidh sessions. It was so sweet and natural and we learned about Who-hers, the original Gap store and being tinker tied in the hospital.

It was a simple heartwarming experience at the Kings Theater in Georgetown and the lovely gardens and in contrast to the French Acadian Culture that has been more predominant in our travels here.

As I look over the Soybean field and forest here at the Harvest Host Double Hill Cidery, how peaceful than to be at the Fiddling Fisherman Outlook Right before the Bridge is Souris where the action is. Unfortunately there was no music happening on this first week in September at the Fiddling Fisherman Lookout Restaurant in Souris, but it looks delightful overlooking the Harbor.

North Harbor, Tuna Capitol

While at the King Theater, a woman had informed me that one should go to North Harbor, the Tuna Fish Capital of the Land. You hang out at the harbor and can ask the harbor master if a boat is coming in to see the huge fish for yourself.

No dice on the first day we just saw the headless carcass loading into the humungo ice chest for shipment. Second day we got lucky and a boat with a 600 pounder was gonna hit the dock any minute.

There is a whole procedure for measuring, stringing up to weigh and then chain sawing the head off spilling the guts onto the dock. That’s when John and I decided time to go ! But we had never seen a fish that big up close. They said that this one was caught after about 60 hours of fishing during this tuna season and that between 4 – 8 boats come in with a big fish each day. The women at the lighthouse said they used to be much larger. There are so many fishing harbors in PEI ! So much of the fish is fried and we are getting a bit weary of this prep. Who knows when the next time we will eat fish after this presentation. Or maybe we just need to stop hanging out on barstools to eat.

Double Hill Cidery Harvest Host in Caledonia

I think we were at the highest point on the island, but quite inland on the most southern side of PEI. The most beautiful view of a soybean field, and then there was green forest as far as the eye could see. This was so beautiful and quiet and there was Wifi and we had planned it before heading up to the Twin Shores Beach Resort for a few days. Well, plans changed and the rain was coming for a few days and we decided to head to Maine two days early since sun was forecasted for Acadia NP.

Bogside Brewery, Harvest Host Montague

But first another 12 mile bike ride on the Confederation Trail to “earn” calorically that is, our beer for the night. Here we met fellow camper Chris. He got us playing after the scheduled Bogside musician, out of the back of his truck camper as we were parked just next to us. Enthusiastic novice musician who wanted to hear my original songs as he shared his too. We all slept in as it was raining in the morning and what is a camper supposed to do. After running the generator for a bit, it all of a sudden died, and we realized we were out of propane. Soon the frig started blinking with no LPG, thank goodness I had already made coffee!

Our final concert in PEI, at the Under the Spire Church near Kensington and what better than a Gordon Lightfoot Tribute. Under the Spire was one of the most acoustically perfect concerts we have experienced in this and not brewery or left to decay.

Under the Spire with Gordon Lightfoot

Under the Spire is a beautiful 120 year old French Gothic Catholic church turned Music Venue in the middle of farm country near Kensington. We had heard that the acoustics were supposed to be phenomenal and since we are Gordon Lightfoot fans it made sense to do so despite the rain. Evidently one of the main musicians was down with Strep, so four other guest musicians were commandeered at the last minute. The only thing that could be better was if Irish Mythen had been one of the special guests, but two of the guests who were called in were Joce Reyome and Brielle Ansems, both who were two of the Ladies of the Canyon performers. We had not recognized the main Emcee performer as Alicia Toner who was also in our favorite Ladies of the Canyon Concert. It was really cool being able to see them all again. The tribute band even had Nick Doneff who we had been told by a barstool musician is the best singer songwriter in PEI. All very talented and such a beautifully sounding concert in that old church with padded benches. Alicia did a really interesting singing style in the Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald. Carefree Highway was the final song and we decided to sleep in the parking lot of Spire next to the graveyard before heading out of PEI.

Summary

PEI is the place for music ! We loved all the small repurposed churches, courthouses, and other buildings that were made into music venues and seemed like each major town had one.

PEI has been noticeably tormented by two hurricanes and there are many downed trees at the beach and along many of the Confederation Bike Trails that run all over the island. Evidently PEI invested heavily in railroads in the day and of course we haven’t heard a single whistle or steel wheel since we have been here.. They have turned the rails into trails and this bike/walking gravel trail is all over the entire island. The most scenic area is between St Peters Bay and Morrell evidently which we rode, but it seems very consistent and we have done sections near Cavendish, Summerside, Montague, St Peter, Morrell and Murray Harbor which is just a tiny portion to the entirety. All over PEI, if you just need a bit of exercise, just hope on your bike and ride a bit. All very flat the Confederation Trail crosses roadways here and there and some have parking areas which seem like you could boondock I would guess.

Stanhope and Cavendish National Park Campgrounds were a ravished by the storms and one had to search out areas that were free of ocean greens for swimming, but they were nice for walking. Twin Shores Beach RV Campground looked like a really nice place to hangout for a couple days or more, being a bit resort style with eateries and things to do right on site.

People were super friendly, but the scenic aspects of the island were a bit average unless you like farm country and harbors. Some harbors were quite cute like Monatgue and Souris but others were strictly fish work based with lots of old standing equipment around. We like hiking with some hills/mountains and rocks and didn’t seem to find this although we were pretty focused on finding the tunes while here. Music is why we would come back to PEI. The Buzz PEI is a website that has quite the complete list of what is up on PEI. Charlottetown with its cruise ship entry docks is quite a buzz at times and there is a lot going on in this largest PEI city. We were sad not to find anything at the Trailside Hall because all the shows of these Canadian artists were sold out during convenient times for us. Oh well, Maine here we come!