Ride Across Canada – Day 12

Day’s distance / Total distance – 451 miles / 3,934 miles

The day’s temperatures ranged from 38 to 76 and was sunny with the exception of some fog in the first hour of the ride. Another beautiful day!

One of the benefits of traveling this time of year is to see the leaves change color. This morning, as I was waiting for the sun to rise and the temperatures to warm, I had to remind myself they change color because of the short days and cold nights and to not be a baby about the cold temperatures.

Here’s what I saw when I first pulled out onto the highway this morning.

Honestly, within the first two hours, the temperatures were in the mid 50s and climbed into the high 60s before noon.

The Trans-Canada Highway in this part of Canada mostly looks like any interstate in the US – perhaps a bit more scenic.

I left the hotel at 7:30, as soon as I felt it was light enough to see animals that might still be out on the roadway. My first destination was the Confederation Bridge, the link between Prince Edward Island and mainland New Brunswick, Canada.

I stayed focused and made the first 250 miles before noon. At a fuel stop, I met a couple of Americans. They were from Pennsylvania and Maine.

It was at this stop that I decided to take the ferry off of Prince Edward Island instead of backtracking over the bridge, my backup plan if I didn’t have time to cross the island and take the ferry.

My friend Will made reservations for me from Seattle while I took off leaving my Amercian friends to eat their sandwiches. I had another 90 miles or so to reach the bridge and the timetable to the ferry was tight.

I arrived at the bridge just before 2pm and grabbed a photo before crossing it.

The Confederation Bridge is an 8-mile box-girder bridge (concrete piers support rectangular steel and concrete girders holding the roadway).

Travelers pay a toll to get off the island, whether you get to the island by bridge or ferry. I would take the bridge on and the ferry off today.

It was a fun trip over the bridge and seemed to take about 15 minutes to cross.

I guess I was spoiled by the drama of my 2016 crossing of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge on Day 24 of my Northern States Tour. It was windy and rainy on that day the the Bay Bridge is both bridge and tunnel.

Anyway, my first stop was the Lobster Shop for my first lobster roll since that 2016 trip.

Yum.

After the sandwich, I continued across the island towards the Wood Islands ferry terminal. According to the GPS, I had about 20 minutes of “extra time” to stop and take pictures.

The island seemed a mix of rural and city and I was soon caught up in the traffic, especially as I went through Charlottetown in the center of the island. I panicked as my “extra time” quickly disappeared. I switch focus to getting to the ferry terminal on time.

That was made harder by both multiple road construction sites and by the 22nd annual 70-mile yard sale event that was going on this weekend. Yeah, I couldn’t make this up – there were yard sales everywhere. People were parked along my route throughout the town!

I did make it, only 3 minutes after I was suppose to arrive and was priority boarded towards the front of the boat.

As I was strapping down the bike, a woman walked up to me and asked me a question about the ferry. At first I said this was my first time and didn’t know the answer. I then realized that because I wear a yellow vest and black outfit, she thought I worked on the ferry.

We laughed over that, and ended up chatting the whole two hours. Deane travels in her van with her dog and we shared travel stories.

I couldn’t resist taking a few lighthouse photos while on the ferry. The first was the Wood Islands Lighthouse.

The next was the Caribou Lighthouse in Pictou (pronouced “pic two”).

It was a long day – lasting almost twelve hours. I backtracked from the ferry to Truro, NS as I had already made a reservation here earlier on the trip.

Tomorrow I head to back east to Cape Breton Island and the Cabot Trail for my penultimate day in Canada.