PEI Island Walk - May 31, 2023 Day 15 Mount Stewart to St. Peters

Daily Information 

Distance:    27.2 Kms   [452.0 Kms]

Walking time:   5h 03m [83h 57m]

Doddling time:   47m  [9h 44m]

% Doddling time:  11.5% [10.5%]

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

Elevation G/L meters: 39(36)  [1,267:(1,326)]

Total Daily Steps: 40,650 [689,110]

% of Walking Days Complete (24): 62.5%

Y% of Total Kms (estimate 703): 64.3%

% of Shuttle Rides (estimate 17): 70.6%

% Come on get a Wiggle on Days (>40 km): 57.1% [80.0%]

An absolutely beautiful walking day on the Confederation Trail 24C at 2:30pm light winds 20 kph.  Left late at 6:40am…walking well but kind of ambling along…no road walking 😊…27 km which without any elevation G/L is perfect.

Felt good…feet seemed to have settled down and simply accepted they must keep moving forward 😂. Injury report… nothing new!

Needed to shake things up a bit as I think my 8h Spotify playlist has gone through an estimated 8 times already 🥹 So I moved to podcasts… briefly 

 - Strong Sense of Place Couple pick a country or a theme…theme was Theatre and 5 books which have a focus on the theme are reviewed. Most interesting…learn a lot…great book tips.

- Daily NYTimes podcast on various topics…this episode was on AI and the current concerns about how quickly it has been developing and the risks associated with this. Fascinating and scary at the same time!

- What’s Your Problem - My favourite podcast where entrepreneurs who are breaking new ground in many endeavours are interviewed. So much to learn! This episode was on switching planes to hydrogen fuel cells from current jet fuel. Here is a link to this episode if interested in this type of podcast…you will not be disappointed!

Building a plane to save the world

Back to last night which will be one of the highlights of the Island Walk. People, food, adventures/misadventures and the odd dangerous animal encounter…that’s what I remember most about my long walks. Must see museums, churches etc while they can be interesting…tend to fade quickly in the background.

It’s quite late…almost comatose…7:30pm and I receive an email from George the owner who had already communicated with me a couple of times yesterday 

“ Hi Guy,

I just want to make sure you have checked in okay, and if you have any questions. I will be back in Mount Stewart around 8pm.”

 Chain of responses summarized “All good…may be asleep by then 😂”…”Ok won’t bother you …rest up”…”Just joking knock on the door”

Well I was sort of joking…almost 37kms…feet whining pathetically…but a little voice said “George has been super so far…meeting people like him is what this is all about”

George shows up…all smiles…before long he invites me downstairs to his restaurant for a beer and oysters.

A long chat ensued…George born in Taiwan moved to Canada in his teens. Has 3 kids 10, 12, 14

who will be moving to PEI in two weeks…his family have been coming to PEI for 5 years…love the area…bought Bao Shack (has 4 rooms) 3 years ago….have a restaurant where he serves Thai food once a week.

He and his brother in law Martin who lives in Vancouver, are now restoring a 100 year old house in Stanhope just down the way. George’s family lives in St. Catherine’s Ontario.

Interestingly George walked the Camino Frances from St. Jean Pied de Port to Santiago de Compostela in 2021…as soon as possible after COVID. The first night after walking the Napoleon route (Paulo that’s the route non Brazilians walk 😂…little joke between us as Paulo walked the Valcarlos route as he was scared 😱 of fog!) George arrived at Roncesvalles to find out it was full. Every second bunk was empty due to COVID precautions.

So they had to walk 3 extra kms to Burguete 🥲…very tough after a full day of climbing!

George wants to return to walk a Camino but only for a couple of weeks…debating between Camino Portuguese from Porto or Camino Primitivo. Having done both my vote is easy the Camino Primitivo is an amazing walk!

Very kind offer…thoroughly enjoyed myself…huge late night…in bed at 9:45pm 😱

Shucking oysters…amazing!

Martin - L George - R

Thaï curry with beef, rice and potatoes 😊

The first 16kms were  pleasant walking…a few people were out and about the trail… 

Cherry Hill my room

Bao Shack 

27kms to go!

Beaver Dam 

An interesting Discovery! 

I came upon two huge fields on both sides of the trail with hundreds of these white boxes on the ground! Pinch photo to enlarge it to better see boxes!

???

Walking along the only thing that came to mind was that these were beehives…but why the weird setup like this?

A older fellow was walking towards me and I stopped and asked him if he knew anything about these boxes.

“Sure those fields you saw are blueberry fields and those boxes are beehives brought in to pollinate the fields. There is a large processing plant close to here”

So I asked him if someone collected honey from these hives?

“Well that’s what bees do…I think a local fellow picks the boxes up and likely gets honey from them”

I told him that I always see beehives stacked up not like this and he told me later in the season they are stacked up.🤔

I knew that bringing in bees to fertilize crops is big business in areas like California so this makes sense. He didn’t seem as sure about the honey production part…so I did a very little research…

Cut and paste from PEI Google info.

“Bumblebees are becoming important workhorses among wild blueberry pollinators, helping P.E.I. to near record production levels in 2022. “

“While both (honeybees and bumblebees) produce honey, bumblebees do not produce a surplus of honey like honeybees. Therefore, beekeepers do not collect bumblebee honey for consumption.”

My conclusion is the boxes contain pollinating bees however the jury is out as to whether these are honeybees (honey) or bumblebees (no honey)…if I had to bet these are bumblebees (no honey)

Shortly thereafter arrived in Morell and WOW a Coop food store! Incredible…very few towns have such food stores on the Island Walk!

The last 12 kms to St. Peter’s were quite scenic…put the earbuds away and listened to the birds chirping away. Someday I will take a course or join a group to learn more about bird songs and recognizing birds…intrigued!

Very narrow bridge!

Staying at Points East Coastal Inn…a very nice place. Sarah and Rodger who run it bought the house a few months before COVID…then Hurricane Fiona hit! Rodger a contractor by trade says they spent $$$ renovating…all their own labour!

Tomorrow 7:00 am breakfast followed by 33 kms to New Zealand + 10kms all on the Confederation Trail!

Well unfortunately rain is back in the forecast (Charlottetown) in a big way…June 2 - 6 rain every day. Total expected 52 - 63 mm ugh 😩 Not much one can do! Packa and few photos likely…hope forecasters are wrong! Hope no mud roads 🙏

Finally just a few other pictures from the day…

Huge white church in background

Ken does this church look crooked to you?

My best shot at a Selfie 😂 I know beard looks terrible…glasses a little
cockeyed 😱 Overall a very bad look 😂

Oh and this picture reminds me that the Clooney’s (sunglasses) have not been used during the day…so far not a big deal but now it’s sunny. 

I use my phone a lot during the walk…photos, Wikiloc, Spotify etc AND no matter what brightness setting I use I cannot see my phone with the Clooney’s. Maybe it’s the tint of the Clooney’s?