It was dry, as clean as any outhouse can expected to be, mosquito free, and big enough for both of us. It would, I thought, be a perfectly fine place to spend the night. We could worry about the trail another day. With thoughts like those, my mind reached a new low.

It had been sunny when we left Tignish, the western beginning of the trail. Claire left her jacket with Cynthia, our tour operator, who was taking our luggage to our first night’s stay. “I shall not need a jacket today,” Claire had declared. “It is not going to rain.” And to be sure, rain was not in the forecast.

Cynthia’s van pulled away and we cycled to the next little village before we heard the first claps of thunder, saw the first streaks of lightning, felt the first drops of rain. We huddled on the stone steps of the local library for a bit. Surely it would stop soon. It did not. We had to get back on our bikes.

Storm after storm passed through with scarcely a break between. Buckets of water fell on us. We were soon drenched: hair, clothes, shoes, our feet, our rented bikes, the bike bags, everything in the bags. (Too late we would understand why Cynthia had included large, empty zip-lock bags in both our packs.) 

I wondered if we should fling our bikes aside and lay in a ditch to be safe from the lightning—or were we safer staying on them, considering the rubber tires. I didn’t know; we kept on pedaling. 

As time went by, the crushed stone trail turned into two narrow rivers of water with a bumpy ridge between. We pedaled through the rivers, with dirty water splashing up our legs. 

We hadn’t seen another soul for a long, long time. No doubt everyone else was sensibly, safely inside charming cottages, watching the storms through picture windows.

Minutes before the outhouse, we stopped to look at our maps at a picnic table near the trail. A mistake. Not only did the maps get even wetter, monstrous clouds of mosquitoes rose from the wet shrubs and grass and trees that late  afternoon. Deadly mosquitoes determined to swarm over us and  suck the last drop of blood from our bodies. A scene from the African Queen was playing in my head, a scene in which Humphrey Bogart and Katherine Hepburn venture too close to shore one evening and the bugs swarm over them, almost driving them mad. (Some of you, old like me, will remember that scene.) It was exactly like that. Claire had a bottle of repellant in her pack. (I had left mine somewhere. I didn’t remember where.) As fast as we could, we sprayed and rubbed ourselves with the Skin-So-Soft repellant. It did nothing. We needed industrial strength DEET. Claire is a doctor.  I think medical schools ought to teach their students how to repel killer Canadian mosquitoes.(OK, that’s not rational or fair. But I was way past rational.)

After we’d reached the outhouse and after we’d spent some time there, both Claire and I knew we had to get our wet bodies back on our wet bikes and pedal through those narrow rivers. And we did. We didn’t even bother to complain. We’d save that for another day. Things had to get better. Five more days to go.

When we were planning our trip, I’d admitted to Claire that I might not be a good cycling companion. I hadn’t been on a bicycle in years—in decades, actually. (I had originally hoped to walk the trail instead.) She assured me I would be fine. Now, Claire is a wonderfully confident person. She’d gone on many bike tours before, several in Europe and one that took her from Vermont all the way to Montreal. She regularly takes spin classes at the gym. She is an attractive, athletic, unstoppable woman who looks and acts much, much younger than I. But she isn’t, and we were both very, very slow. 

To be perfectly honest, I was not ready to bike the length of a province, no matter how little that province might be. I had bought a bike and tried to train at home, mostly in the state park near my house. The first day I smashed into a flaming euonymus bush. I hoped my neighbors hadn’t noticed. The next day I learned I couldn’t manage a little hill and a little curve at the same time. I tipped off the trail, scraped my knee, and smashed the light on my bike. After that I was afraid of most everything: narrow paths, rough paths, ditches, hills going up, hills going down, cars, other bikes and pedestrians. I was especially afraid of families walking on the trails near my home, families with several little children wobbling on little bikes, accompanied by rambunctious puppies. They had no way of knowing that I was as wobbly as their little children and as unpredictable as their dogs. Sometimes irrational fears consumed me, and I’d get off my bike and walk awhile. More than once I wobbled out of control into tall grass beside the paths.

After considerable effort I was able to manage slow circles in empty parking lots. It would have to do. I met Claire and we drove to Charlottetown.

That had been a few days ago. Before the trail. Before the rain. Before we finally left the outhouse.

Claire and I rode further down the trail. When the rain had almost stopped, I called Cynthia to ask for directions. It turns out that she had been trying to reach us. Repeatedly. For quite awhile.

“Are you all right? Where are you? I heard you haven’t arrived at Mill River yet.”

I had turned my phone off. I didn’t want it to go dead. I was worried about an emergency—like wobbling into a ditch, falling off my bike, getting all banged up, and having to spend the night on the trail somewhere with a broken leg.

“You have an iphone, right?” Cynthia said.“Tomorrow we’ll stay connected on Find My Friends so I’ll always know where you are. If you ever need help, I can get to you.”

Then she gave me directions: “You’re almost there. Turn left off the trail at  the next road you come to. Ride a couple of kilometers, turn right at the T. You’ll see the sign for the Mill River Resort.” 

Soon enough we saw the sign. A golf cart was parked near it, and someone was sitting in the cart.

I had one fervent wish: “I hope it’s for us.”

Though really, who would be playing golf in a thunder storm? The young man who had been sent to rescue us maneuvered our bikes into the back of the cart and handed us a pile of dry white towels to mop our soggy selves off a bit while he drove down a long, wooded path. We checked in while our bikes were safely put away.

The man at the registration desk smiled broadly while checking us in, “Cynthia wants you to know that dinner is on her.” He paused just a second, “And she wants you to order wine.”

We got cleaned up, ate our dinner, slept. The next morning, it occurred to me that our bikes must be filthy. I should go down and clean them. Cynthia was already there. She’d finished cleaning our bikes and had checked to make sure they were running ok.

“I have an idea,” she said to us, not a trace of guile showing. “Why don’t I drive you to the Potato Museum and let you visit that. You can start from there—it’s a little further down the road.”

Claire spoke up immediately. “Great idea!” And it was a great idea—and a fabulous museum—especially if you like potatoes.

Every morning after that, Cynthia offered us scenic, shorter itineraries, and every morning we happily took her advice.

Now you should know that the Confederation Trail is the safest trail ever. It begins near the western end of the province and ends near the eastern. It’s where the railway used to run, so it’s flat and broad. It’s well-marked and usually in perfect condition.

And on every other day of the trip, the sun shone all day and the temperature was in the seventies. Perfect biking weather. We were never bothered by mosquitoes again. We biked along the ocean, through the woods, past farms and little villages. We ate fresh seafood twice a day, stayed in wonderful places, and met lovely people.

I hope to go again. But next time, I’ll walk. I’ll ask Cynthia to help plan an itinerary.

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If you’re feeling inspired to ride bicycles in PEI, I highly recommend PEI Cycling Tours. Cynthia King is the best: helpful, kind, efficient, and very professional. (And she has a wicked good sense of humor too.) You can reach her at

PEI Cycling Tours – Cynthia King
http://peicyclingtours.ca
902-569-4925

copyright by Margaret French