THE NEW YORK TIMES / USA TIMES – September 8, 2023
by Elaine Glusac
Never underestimate the difficulty of a flat trail over a great distance. After my first five-hour day following the Island Walk, a new 435-mile trail that rings Prince Edward Island, in Canada’s smallest province, I limped into Points East Coastal Inn in bayside St. Peter’s Bay with a blister cooking on my right sole and a paralyzing need to rest barefoot until checkout the next morning.
A veteran of the Camino de Santiago, the long-distance pilgrimage trail through northern Spain, I had done this sort of thing before. But like all travel-related hassles that I relegate to the trash bin of my memory — flight delays, security searches, sand flies at the beach — I had forgotten about the relentless demands of walking when your feet throb and the scenery barely changes in the course of a day. I had forgotten what a walking meditation feels like.