Prince Edward Island, the Idaho of Canada

We liked St. John, we really did but... I can't say that, after one false start and 5 days in the garage workshop, we were not happy to go on to the next town. We chose to go to St. Martins. It is a lovely town just 45 km from St. John. It is home to Sea Caves which are natural caves carved into 250 million-year-old rocks by the powerful Bay of Fundy tides. The Bay has the largest tidal fluctuation in the world. It is also a UNESCO world heritage site, in the Province of New Brunswick. You can see Mike walking over the pebble beach to see the largest cave.

The cave is very deep, and the tide carves it deeper still twice a day. You can see that there is moss on the ceilings, and seaweed on the walls and floor. Also, just outside the front of the cave there is a freshwater spring that feeds onto the Bay of Fundy.

To see the caves you need to go when the tide is at least 3/4 of the way out. If not, you risk getting hurt. Also you can't see it in this photo but there has been tremendous geologic uplift in the area. Many of the rocks are beautifully stratified and turned on the diagonal. What you can see here is the Bay looking back towards the town of St. Martins.

St. Martins is also known for its covered bridges. There are two nearly identical within 300m of the road. Below is the Beaver Lodge going through one. We are lucky that we are short in length and height so most bridges, covered or otherwise, work for us.

St. Martins is a village that thrives on the sea. Many people make their living fishing, crabbing or working lobster pots. Some do commercial charters, make handcrafts or go to St. John for work but as you can see in the photo below, it is a town that thrives around the wharf. On this one we saw a 4kg lobster for sale. It was a monster!!

On the way out of town we spotted this...

Thanks to my Aunt Mary for giving me books to take on the trip. The first one was re-homed here, with an entry about her ownership and mine noted in the front. Thanks for giving me this fun book; it is in the top left, facing out. Hope someone picks it up who likes it as much as I did.

Now we are on to Prince Edward Island (PEI). This is Confederation Bridge. It is an amazing 13km (8 mile) bridge from New Brunswick to PEI. It is lovely to look out over the Northumberland Strait. When you come into PEI you see that it is a very flat, very green island. In Canada, PEI is known for their potatoes, kind of like Idaho is in America. Also there are 33+ lighthouses.

Here is the first one that we saw. It is iconic because of its black stripes and square shape. It is called West Point Lighthouse and is on a wonderful beach with the most beautifully striped rocks. Also, if you are into lighthouses you can also stay in this one overnight. It had a few lovely forest walks but there was so much poison ivy we decided to skip it.

As we continued down the western shore of PEI we began to see the red cliffs that this section of the island is known for. Also you can start to see how much of the land is wrapped up in farmland.

When we got to the Northwestern-most point, we were shocked to find that it is an experimental wind farm. You can see some of the display and test sites above.

Also there was a 5km loop walk on the premises. It took you past the North Point lighthouse, gave you history about how this area was the site of a failed U-boat rescue during WWII, and let you get crazy-close to the wind turbines. As you all know, I could never have taken this picture in the US. There is no safety fence at all, so that one can get a better idea of how big the turbines are. See a longer description on YouTube .

Now you might think that the turbines were excitement enough, but there is more. It seems that a lot of the site is also covered with a bog. This land is amazingly biodiverse and Mike and I spent an hour looking, photographing and making a video of this landscape. The turf was so spongy and sphagnum-filled. In several million years this area will be a new coal bed. In fact you can see the peat feet-thick in certain areas.

After our walk Mike and I built this Cairn. It is a very special experience for hikers to do this as it gives you a moment to work with the natural land and make a wish when you put the last stone on. Think of it as hikers' meditation/art.

Next we moved on to Profitts Point. We got lucky because it is not easily accessible by beach or overland walking except through a pay campground. We met several really nice people who were staying at the campground and told us we could walk in with them as if we stayed there too... The one woman was even nice enough to walk us to the beach. She had a Great Dane that loved to drink salt water so she stayed on the boardwalk. You can see me with what her grandson called the ice cream cone.

In the tidal pools we spotted this red jellyfish. It is the lion's mane jellyfish, Cyanea capillata. They primarily live in these cold, salty, boreal, ocean waters above 45° North latitude. They wash up on the beach in the hundreds. This one is lucky as it is in a tidal pool and will get a second chance at ocean life next high tide. It has a beautiful swimming style, but best to avoid its stinging tentacles.

This picture is very common on PEI. Five minutes outside the main city, development goes directly to farming and fishing villages. When we first got to the island I asked about hiking trails. The girl at the visitors center pointed out the center section as the hilly section that was to be avoided for hiking... I laughed thinking that she was joking... Mike poked me under the desk to tell me she was serious... so as a way of apology I stammered, "Thanks, but I thought your island was flat..." Mike just put his face into the palm of his hand while saying "Way to make friends with the locals..."

Now seriously, I downloaded these from google. They are from all over the island... You find me the hilly section...

One of the things that I really wanted to do on the island was to see the properties that inspired L.M. Montgomery's "Anne of Green Gables" series. Here is the house, which is in the Prince Edward Island Cavendish National Historic Site. It is the house that inspired Green Gables in the book. When you visit you can see the bedrooms of all the main characters, walk down Lovers Lane and the Haunted Woods. It was very cool.

They also incorporated lots of local history into the tour. From the Apple ladder in the barn to this item above that was in the parlor of the Gables home. I won't make you guess what it is because I was unaware that this was a popular trend in the late 1800's. It is a hair wreath. When a member of the family dies a lock of hair is cut, fashioned into a shape, and added to a wreath... creepy but cool.

Also there was a buggy. I dressed as Marilla Cuthbert; she is one of the Anne of Green Gables main characters.

Here is a shot from another walk that we did. You can see that we love our red cliff beach walks. Also there are constantly Swifts about. They make their homes in the softer sections of the cliffs and bicker with each other as we walk past.

We then moved on to the Brackley-Dalvay section of the park. It was a cool loop hike or bike that you can take. It goes through the forest and then out to the beach where you can see Great Blue Heron feeding in the bay. Also It has local history about the culture that used to be on Robinsons Island, which is now no longer an island but more of a peninsula. It also has a very creative bike path with obstacles to go over such as teeter-totters, rock/logs to jump, and embankments to skirt. Any American National Park would get sued for having such challenging obstacles... I love non-litigious societies.

Then there is this little guy....

This little Red Fox, Vulpes vulpes, came out of the forest and procedeed to parade around the parking area begging for snacks. He just lay down by the van and looked up at Mike. He then went over to a car that drove up and did the same to that driver and passenger. It should not be possible to get such good pictures of a wild fox with a cell phone. You can see a video of this little guy on our YouTube channel if you want to see him in action around the Beaver Lodge.

We ended the day in Charlottetown. We stopped at Up Street Brewing to see what it was about, and were treated to some very fine beer and one of the best charcuterie boards we have ever had. Hats off to Up Street for having a phenomenal business!

This hike rounded out our visit to the three main sections of the PEI National Park. This one is in the Greenwich area and really brought together three amazing hikes. The first was a loop around a meadow where we saw and heard so many different warblers, finches and blackbirds. We also saw butterflies, rodents and beetles. Next we crossed a long floating boardwalk that was over a freshwater pond. It was amazing because only the parabolic dunes kept the salt spray and sea out of this fragile ecosystem.

Here you can see the parabolic dunes with park chairs on top. You can sit here and watch the gulls, cormorants and swifts on the beach side and the warblers, Red Winged blackbirds and Song sparrows on the pond side.

Here is a 180° view of the pond side. You can see the pond and boardwalk on the left, the parabolic dunes in the middle and the newer sand dunes on the right. This is yet another type of ecosystem that I had only read about in books. So glad that I was able to see it before the rising tides put the ocean over the dunes and make this area a common salt marsh forever. PEI is at great danger as sea levels rise due to global climate change. You can see how flat and close to sea level the majority of the island is in the collage above.

This lighthouse has a cool story. It is the one that first received the distress call from the sinking Titanic. I know it seems odd... There are places to pick up the signal that are much closer to the Titanic's original call, but this is the one that got it.

This is another lighthouse and the last one that we saw on PEI. This is the oldest lighthouse. It is on Point Prim and was built in 1845. One of the big backers of this Lighthouse was Charles Cunard.... last name ring any bells?... There is still a Cunard shipping line today. They have the famous Queen Mary 2 ship that does the Transatlantic crossing that I hope to do some day.

This tree was on our way out of the oldest lighthouse on the island. We have only seen a few of them on the island but think they are very cool. Clearly this family collects buoys that washed up on shore from the crabbing, lobster, clamming industry that is so prevalent here.

This is us in the Walmart parking lot… Can you imagine the looks that we got sitting on a grass island doing this! But whatever these were, they are the best oysters I've ever had! Shout out to my Mom and her black-lipped Australian variety. Ours were not so big but just as fresh!! Unfortunately our victory was short-lived, as just after dinner, when we were brushing teeth for bed, I realised that I had left my hiking shoes 1 hour and 45 minutes across the island... Needless to say we went for them... amazingly they were there waiting for me, not even rained on, right where I left them.

Luckily we are good at making lemonade from lemons so we camped at the beach where I left them and had a relaxing AM on the beach. This was a first for the trip as we seem to always be on to the next place. Mike got to write his journal and I got to read my new book that we picked up at a brewery that had a lending library. I chose the Poisonwood Bible, a book I've always meant to finish.

After spending a few hours watching the tide come in we moved on, back across the bridge towards New Brunswick and eventually Nova Scotia. We also hit three quick Geocaches on our way.