Having thankfully cut our day short the day before, this day was looking like it should be pretty relaxed. We were only due to ride about 32km (21mi) to get to Wood Islands and the weather forecast was also calling for clearing skies and warming temperatures.
Staying at the inn, we were able to head downstairs for breakfast and meet the other folks staying with us. It turns out it was a couple from the Netherlands who were spending two weeks touring PEI and Nova Scotia. They were actually making their third trip to explore Canada. When I mentioned that I was originally from Ottawa, they were excited to tell us how much they’d like Ottawa. When I mentioned that I had moved to San Francisco they were puzzled. “Why would you do that?” they asked. When I told them I worked in software development, it made a lot more sense to them.
After some more chit-chat, we went our separate ways with Chris and I packing our bikes up. The weather still looked a bit grey as we got started, but at least it finally wasn’t raining! As we left Montague, we jumped onto Wood Islands road and headed south for our last of the four corner lighthouses of Prince Edward Island.
As we continued down the road, the weather improved, getting sunnier and warmer. Before we knew it we were seeing views of the sea again, and it was all downhill to Wood Islands.
We were able to get to Northumberland Provincial Park, just a couple kilometers (a mile) down the highway from the Wood Islands ferry terminal, by 11:00am. We checked in, and setup camp by the water.
After a quick camp lunch, it was actually starting to feel nice and warm in the sunshine, so we took a nap in the tent to revel in the great weather and our free time. By mid-afternoon, we decided to hop on our un-laden bicycles and make our way over to the Wood Islands Provincial Park and lighthouse.
With our final lighthouse in sight, it really started to hit me that our trip was drawing near its end. It had been a tough, but fun adventure, one that I was so happy to have shared with my brother. We pulled our bikes up to the marquee sign for a gratuitous bike shot at our destination and then went up to the lighthouse.
We signed up for a tour of the lighthouse and a trip to the top. The lighthouse had a cool museum inside documenting the importance of the Wood Islands area to Prince Edward Island as the original ferry location to the mainland. With the construction of the Confederation Bridge in the 1990s, Wood Islands is the only remaining ferry service to the mainland.
After our tour was complete, we hopped back on our bikes and grabbed some dinner at the restaurant along the way. Soon afterwards, we headed back to camp and bought some firewood so we could enjoy a nice, relaxed campfire.
We settled into camp and tried everything to get our campfire going, but the firewood had likely been left out in the past week of rain, so nothing could get it burning! If it hadn’t been for the generousity of our neighbours giving us some firewood they’d bought at a gas station, we probably wouldn’t have got any campfire going for more than five minutes! Instead, we ended up with a roaring fire and had a nice night tending to it and thinking about how nice it was to be out under the stars in the nice weather again.
Tomorrow would be our last on the road. It was only about 55km (35mi) from Wood Islands to Charlottetown and the end of our trip. I was feeling pretty melancholy about the trip coming to an end. Proud that we’d been able to pull it off, especially despite the weather, but also sad to know that soon I’d have to say goodbye to my brother for several months and head back to San Francisco.