Prince Edward Island gave us confederation when the original plan for our country was conceived in 1864, and now it’s setting the standard for blazing a trail in cycling infrastructure with the Confederation Trail.

It’s more than 400 kilometres of path that runs the length of P.E.I., with several branches to different parts of the island. It’s a joy to ride, for the most part, and other provinces would do well to imitate it.

Typically me, a bicycle and gravel don’t make a threesome. But this is an exception, although I’m not sure what I’ve done on the trail’s gravel surface the last few days on the Kona Sutra I’d have attempted on my precious carbon-fibre bike.

When we crossed the Confederation Bridge by shuttle last Thursday, one of the trail’s branches began right behind our campground. There was no need for its builders to carve paths out of the woods because they used abandoned railway rights of way. The beauty of that is railways can’t have more than a two per cent grade, so there’s no steep hills to climb. That’s not the case in the rest of Prince Edward Island where the highways all have no shoulders and lots of little hills to climb.

The Trail is wide and, most importantly, free of motorized vehicular traffic. You’re out there on your own, the only sound being the churning away of the pedals while you enjoy the beautiful scenery as it winds through farm fields and tiny towns. And it’s well cared for by a large corps of volunteers who mow the grass that grows in the middle of the trail and on both sides of the well-treed trail.

A big feature is every few kilometres there’s a clean, stable picnic table – usually sheltered – for bikers to rest or lunch at. There’s even the occasional washroom en route.

If there’s one complaint, it’s they’ve tried to make it too aesthetically pleasing by putting down pea gravel and levelling the path out. That slows down bicycles forcing riders to plow their way through it. I got to the point where I was thrilled to see the grass growing down the middle because that meant riding on the basic old railway path with its hard-packed surface.

The low-grade inclines, though, meant it’s possible to maintain consistent speeds.

It’s actually part of the Trans-Canada Trail and P.E.I. is the first province to complete its contribution. Granted, the province is puny compared to all the others, but they could take a lesson from the Islanders and build similar infrastructure. Quebec is off the hook in that regard, though. It has oodles of cycling infrastructure with its La Route Verte with a network of roads and paths spanning more than 5,000 kilometres and has lots of quiet highways with good shoulders. But Prince Edward Island, despite the birth of the Confederation Trail, isn’t off the hook for its network of highways with no shoulders.

• After spending Friday and Saturday nights at Prince Edward Island National Park’s Stanhope Campground, Clive wanted to go to a church at least once this trip. From a trip in 2010 with Cheryl, he knew there was an Anglican church in downtown Charlottetown. We assumed the service was at 10 a.m., but we also knew it was close to 40 kilometres away.

Even though we got up early, we didn’t take off until a few minutes after 8 o’clock. Time was tight. Most of the trip was over the Confederation Trail, but we pedalled hard through the gravel and up the inclines. (We weren’t singing Get Me To The Church On Time from My Fair Lady, but it did cross our minds.) It was a good cardio workout and we made it, a little bit smelly in our armpits, with about 10 minutes to spare.

Clive was asked by the pastor to talk about the trip to the congregation, and then afterward he, Brody and I – even though of the two of us didn’t attend the service – were invited by two church members to lunch at their lovely waterfront home in downtown Charlottetown. Many thanks to Bea and John for the lovely lunch. (The date cake was to die for!)

• While Clive and Brody took a break Saturday, I decided to do a round trip ride to Cavendish. It’s where the national park has its Anne of Green Gables site. I saw it during a band trip in 1973, so wasn’t interested in a return visit. Not my cup of tea, so to speak. I opted instead for a lobster roll at Razzy’s Beachhouse before heading back to Stanhope.

• Kudos to Clive for being the only one of to reach the top of Vista Bay campground hill just east of Charlottetown without getting off his bike.

We camped there for two bug-infested nights. To get there involved a climb up a long, steep – we’re guessing about 12-15 per cent grade – slope on a track of rock, gravel and P.E.I. red clay. There was no question the first night we would have to walk at least a portion because our bikes were laden with heavy panniers. I made it about two-thirds of the way up before succumbing.

With only one saddle bag on the second night, I thought I was going to make it, but I got about 80 per cent of the way before hitting a soft patch where I couldn’t generate any traction and had to walk the bike for about 30 metres.

Later, I went back to witness Clive’s attempt. He hit the same soft spot but made it through and then made it all the way to the top. If you’d seen the treacherous track you’d realize what an accomplishment it was.

Conversely, the first ride down was scary. I passed few bricks through my bowels as we dodged the obstacles. So when we left the next morning with our bikes bogged down by weight we opted to walk all the way down.

• Being in the Maritimes, and particularly P.E.I., I wanted to sample the local flavour, especially the seafood. Maybe I didn’t go to the right places because for the most part they were average. The one exception was the Gahan Brewery Pub in Charlottetown where I had a delicious seafood jambalaya and chowder.

The fries, on the other hand, were almost universally good at every spot. I don’t normally order that many fries, but this was P.E.I., and it’s supposed to grow the best potatoes in Canada. They might be right.

• Keeping in the culinary vein, there’s a little island ice cream franchise called Cows that claims it’s been named the best in the world. I don’t usually buy into such hype, but, again, they might be right. I indulged twice with two flavours each time. The best just might have been one called PEI Apple Crisp. Yum! I almost succumb a third time since they had a Cows outlet on the ferry between P.E.I. and Nova Scotia. Fortunately the lines were too long and I wasn’t willing to stand around that long. But if I did I’m sure it would have been worth it.

Kilometre count

Day 80: Sightseeing and shopping in Charlottetown. Did not record mileage

Day 81: Charlottetown/Vista Bay Campground to Caribou, N.S., 65 km; Total: 6,878

Day 82: Caribou, N.S., to Shubenacadie, N.S., 116 km; Total: 6,993