PEI east side

Today was the day to explore the east side of the island. First I met with Andrea at a local conservation area that is popular with dog walkers. She and Chris were taking their 3 dog entourage to romp in the fields of a 60 acre park. It was great to meet Chris and to catch up with Andrea. Chris kindly recommended several locations that are popular with the locals, so I set out to the Dunes, right beside the Brackley provincial park, accessible by dirt road (with free access). It's clear that beach is one of the words that must be used to define PEI. This is one spot of many that has beautiful sand and almost no one there. One item of note is the purple bottomed jelly fish are in the water and washed up on shore. Not sure if this is a permanent condition, but I wouldn't want to brush up on one while swimming. A local said that they do sting a bit but it's not that painful.

Another facilitating fact: This beach has "singing sand" Singing sand is defined as sand that emits a sound when walking on it. There is a beach on the west side that is advertised as singing sands, but I couldn't find it while driving on that part of the beach, but then hey, I experienced it first hand, un promoted, on the local beach.


Next runs were up the coastal highway. The day was very sunny - and would stay that way all day long, and starting to get hot. This is when ATGATT (All the gear, All the time) is a difficult model to follow from a heat perspective, however, this leg of the tour included many dirt roads, so the potential of picking stones out of raw skin made the decision to go full gear easy. Loved those roads.
Today, it was clear that something was different at the harbours. There were lots of people hanging around, drinking a pop or beer, music and general party mood. Also noticeable, were the piles of lobster traps. I later found out from an old timer, while having lunch at the local restaurant at Naufrage harbour, that today is the last day of the lobster season. It seems that the bounty was plentiful and the fisherman took in one of the larger catches. That's probably good for the local economy. That motivated me to go out and get my own lobster for dinner.

I visited several beaches and light houses. From a biking perspective, this felt just like riding along the shores of Lake Erie. The road winds in and about the water, close enough but only visible on occasion, fairly flat terrain and cliffs that drop down to a beach. A nice ride to do, but not a motorcycle destination. The fun comes from the dirt roads, which is great for a GS, but not a regular road bike. Summerside hosted a big Atlanticade motorcycle event that draws 10,000 bikers from all over north america from June 28 to July 2. That explains why there was no accommodation on that side of the island. Summerside is near the North Cape and ironically, while the weather was hot and sunny on the east side, big thunder clouds were visible in the north. Andrea advises me that the Mellencamp concert was delayed due to rain and lightning. My choice of sequencing the ride worked well this time.

Thinking of all those lobsters in the record catch, make me hungry for a pet lobster. Got this cutie as a take home pet, but the guy at the store gave it a hot bath and it got a sun burn. So much for the pet, yummy for the meal.

PEI is a shallow island. Most of my coastal rides in the North were near sea level. The east side has "cliffs" that rise 20 to 30 feet from the sea. These are mostly made up of the red sand that makes farming so productive on the island. Erosion must be a problem here. With all the shallow sections, I can't help but wonder about the impact of global warming and rising seas. There is no doubt in my mind that PEI will loose a lot of land to rising seas. Only time will tell.