PEI Island Walk - May 21, 2023 Day 5 Wellington to O’Leary

Daily Information 

Distance:    46.4 Kms   [153.3Kms]

Walking time:   8h 33m [28h 21m]

Doddling time:    28m [146m]

% Doddling time:  5.3% [8.6%]

Avg walking speed:   5.4 Kms/hr  [5.4 Kms/hr]

Elevation G/L meters: 86:(96)  [544:(609)]

Total Daily Steps: 63,508 [238,536]

% of Walking Days Complete (24): 20.8%

% of Total Kms (estimate 703): 21.8%

% of Shuttle Rides (estimate 17): 29.4%

First my profound apologies for a gross error yesterday in reporting Shuttle Rides at 25.8% when it should have been 17.6%. I know how important these stats are to EVERYONE…my bad…so very sorry 😢😉.

Comparing % of Walking Days Complete at 20.8% vs % of Total Kms at 21.8% indicates walking so far is essentially keeping pace with the overall Island Walk average.

I should mention that the % Total kms and % Total Shuttles are two numbers that will almost certainly be < or > 100% when all is said and done!

Today is a day I will remember for many things…broke my distance record and walked 46.4 kms…felt strong throughout the day. Packa was used for the first time…yes it rained off and on throughout the day. Met 3 Island Walkers and survived the morning pre-walk chaos!

Back to yesterday’s supper…getting tired of restaurants…no vegetables since my nice Charlottetown welcome supper. So went to gas station and they had a whole section on M&M frozen foods…never have these at home but why not in PEI…microwave in hotel room 😊. Tasted quite good and had a few veggies…miss my veggies!

M&M Chicken Teriyaki

This morning starting at 4:30 am got off to a pretty rough…really lousy start 😢 First when I went to setup today’s blog I saw this …OMG what the h*l* has happened? Then I noticed a button that said View…this folks is the HTML view!!!😱. Can you believe this gibberish? Some readers of the blog can actually make sense of this! I then hit the compose view and all was good 👍,

HTML view who understands this?

Next fun with showers - same shower as yesterday  pushed and pulled every stupid lever in every combination possible but NO water. Simply gave up knowing I would be walking in rain all day…let the front desk know…offered me another room to shower in but cab came rolling in.

Cab message “your cab has arrived” but no cab! Phoned cab company…they sent cab to another hotel…no big deal it worked out in the end. Wasn’t too surprised as the previous day’s dispatcher said “buddy” every 3rd word…that did not inspire confidence 😳

Finally MailChimp sent me a message that blog has been sent but NO blog posting email. Sure enough it is in my Junk folder 😂. Oh my what a strong message… does MailChimp use AI technology to rate blog quality 🤔. If so I failed the test badly yesterday!!! Maybe I should use Chatgpt!

However once I began walking one of the first songs on my Spotify list was What a Wonderful World by Louis Armstrong. One of my all time favourites…what a great way to start the long walk in a positive way!

I started the day’s walk just before 6 am in the rain having setup the Packa in advance!

The first attempt was a failure as I had reversed the

Packa and it was inside out…of course I only noticed this when I tried it on 🤔. Honestly I do this quite frequently ie shirt inside out in morning etc. I just want to get going and well simply don’t pay attention…in the end it always works out however must admit help is instrumental in sorting me out…here I must do it all by myself 🙄.

Finally I was good and the day started!

Looking real sharp!

Packa Rating

Drumroll please…with one exception I was very pleased with the Packa. It rained maybe half the day sometimes medium strength and it was great to simply leave the Packa on throughout…no on and off with raingear. Rachael Kiwi-Family aka Packa Lady…you were 100% right about this advantage!

The Packa did not get tested covering the backpack and deploying it on the fly however I already have a blog with a video demonstrating how well I have mastered this already 😂.

Ok…the issue…and one which I suspected but did NOT TEST before today. I really like my Gossamer Gear backpack as it has deep side pockets for water bottles which are reachable while walking. You would be very surprised that the design on many backpacks is poor in this regard.

So with my right arm I reached back and man it’s tough to get the water bottle as you have to scrounge under the cord which is holding the backpack within the Packa…I managed. Then I tried to replace the water bottle and could not do it 😢…twice the water bottle fell on the trail. Finally I took the whole Packa off…replaced the water bottle and put the Packa back on.

The air around me turned a little blue…some famous family stories involving a car top carrier

and a Christmas tree will long be remembered by my daughters. Sometimes a little lack of perspective happens…it usually doesn’t last too long.

So I went into solution mode…water bladder…tried that before and did not like it…belt pouch for water…possible but another piece of equipment. Ditch the Packa on the trail and pretend I did so as part of a dangerous animal defence…immature 🙄

So I just kept walking and thinking 🤔…ok try left

arm. It finally worked… basically have to really reach back harder under the cord holding the Packa in place before finagling the water bottle in place.

I did this 3 times so I know it can be done…conclusion must simply practice! Packa back in good graces!

People encounters 

While I am an introvert…put me in a formal setting in a crowd and well 🙄…I really like to meet and talk to people. Find something in common and the conversation flows from there.

Prior to today I had not met a single Island Walker however today I met 3.

On the trail in the distance I could see 2 walkers so I picked up my pace to try and catch them. The distance was closing quite fast…I then realized they were walking towards me. Marika and Joanne

from BC were in their 13 day walking with a plan to walk a little more than half the Island Walk.

Both were clearly experienced walkers…Joanne had a number of questions about the HOKA’s and appeared to be quite taken by them…maybe the colour! I always speak highly of HOKA’s…wish I could get Finder’s fees on the many pairs vouched for!

Upon arrival in O’Leary I phoned Lilly’s Garden Air B&B and was redirected to Vinny’s Restaurant where I met Ron and also had the incredible scallops dinner shown below and maybe the fudge as well!

Scallop dinner - so good!

A little bit of fudge 😊

Ron is from Maine and has walked every major trail in the US ..Appalachian…Pacific Crest to name a few. He is 76 years old and has backpacked

17,000 miles or over 28,000 kms. When this walk is over my total will be 4,100 kms…holy moly I am in the little leagues!

Ron has a tent and wild camps wherever…however tonight due to being soaked today he is staying at Lilly’s as well. I suspect we will see each other again as he is also completing the walk…I may well have a new friend 😊.

As mentioned staying at Lilly’s Garden Air B&B…have a huge room with private bathroom for a very reasonable price…for PEI… Clayton 81 and Lilly are both delightful to chat with…highly recommend! Oh and Clayton provides free shuttle service as they live 5 kms outside O’Leary.

Tomorrow a short day to Miminegash…weather looks good…body holding up well so far ☺️.

Finally some pictures from the day…

The only biffy seen to date - essentially the biffies are wherever you need them 😉