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After doing much research around the walk and realizing we (3 women friends and 1 husband) only had a few days we decided to make our main departure point, Fortune Bay in Souris, and we rented a beautiful home there and researched the different points we could walk from there. We veered off the Island …

My friend Judi Gosbee wanted to mark entering her 50th year and suggested completing the Island Walk. I jumped on board and agreed to do it with her. We started our first section 29-30 on January 1, 2022. The start point for this section is right near Judi’s house and seemed like a logical place …

by karengeterdone, karengeterdone.com It’s called an adventure for a reason. The unusual, exciting, potentially hazardous experience of taking on grand initiatives can be filled with the unexpected. Day 17 – Bayview to Cymbria – 28km We were on a major high after such an amazing day yesterday hitting the halfway point, both in such a great spot …

Fifteen minutes into a 3-day, 63-km long-distance walk, a pungent, overripe, fruity scent brought me to a halt.  What was that familiar aroma? A quick visual scan revealed the source—a cluster of wild apple trees, covered in ripe apples, lined the roadside!  This abundance of wild apples became a recurring theme on my recent Island …

By karengeterdone blog The last post had us arriving in Summerside finishing Day 4 of The Island Walk. Very happy to say we hit the Halfway Point yesterday! It was a celebration at the Waypoint sign 16 with 364 km completed of the 700km circumnavigation of PEI. To this point we’ve had to deal with a lot of …

As soon as I saw an article about The Island Walk, I knew it was a walk I (we) wanted to take. After two years of lockdowns and vaccines, a long walk to regroup and re-energize seemed to be just the ticket. I reached out to Bryson Guptill, bought his book, and started thinking about …

After many bicycle trips in Europe, my husband and I were looking for a tour in Canada. We heard about this walk in PEI that some people had done by bicycle. We decided to try it as it seemed to fit the bill. In preparation for the walk we: decided how far we would like …

Why does anyone decide to step away from their life for a month and walk 700kms? A time-out? An opportunity for reflection? A spiritual pilgrimage? Slow tourism? For me, all were reasons. Two weeks into the pandemic my middle son who lived with significant disabilities died from complications of non-COVID pneumonia. In the early months …

I returned home in June 2021 from Toronto where I received a single left lung transplant. I was in Toronto from September 24th, 2020, through June 9th, 2021. I bought an e-bike and rode various trails in Nova Scotia to raise funds for Canadian Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation thru their Hope Breathes Here program. My most …

Anyone who has ever done a long distance walk knows how easy it is to plan. Basically you just plan to get to your starting point….and that’s it! You know that for the next 30 days or so all you have to do is get up and start walking…..and nowhere is the infrastructure better than …

My 250 km Island Walk adventure didn’t start when I arrived in Charlottetown last October 2021. It began 8 years earlier when I set out from the town of St Jean Pied de Port to start the Camino Frances, the first of many caminos. I had hoped to walk again in the spring of 2020 …

On September 3rd, 2021, I began The Island Walk, travelling the spectacular beaches and charming byways of Prince Edward Island. On October 3, I completed 714 kilometres. The tad more distance than the official 700km route was due to a slight detour, specifically a visit to Lennon House in Rustico. I raised funds during my …

While Islanders will be watching fishermen set their lobster traps this May, there will be new activity to see along PEI’s coastline this year.  From Charlottetown to Miminegash, Seacow Pond to Gaspereaux, Islanders will be seeing hikers (and cyclists) on red dirt roads, secondary roads and the Confederation Trail.  These long-distance trail enthusiasts will be …

Submitted by Pauline Suppa Having walked the Portuguese Camino from Lisbon, Portugal to Santiago, Spain in 2019, my sister and I developed a real craving for long distance walks. We made plans to walk the Camino Frances in 2020 then sadly Covid 19 reared its ugly head so we turned our planning to 2021.    Throughout the …

Submitted by Susan Doucette How the journey began. 2021 marked our 15th wedding anniversary. As we were travelling across Canada my husband Bob, told me that he would like to go back to PEI and cycle all around the Island. When he first mentioned this I thought he was a bit crazy because we know …

Submitted by Bryson Guptill Yes, we were the first four who did the Island Walk. Nora, Marian, Danny and me. Lots of people thought we were crazy – walk for a month? In October? Will anything be open? Well, we did it, and it was wonderful. So many great ocean views. So many interesting back …

Submitted by Bernie Brunino I needed to get out of the house. The on again / off again Covid restrictions were really taking their toll. The hiking plans that I’d laboured over in the early stages of the pandemic went for naught when health uncertainty in Europe just didn’t give me the comfy feeling I …

Submitted by Alasdair Veitch I got the idea of coming to PEI to do the Island Walk after hearing an interview on CBC radio. I checked out the web page after the interview, joined the Facebook group, and ordered the guide. I have done many long-distance expedition hikes (up to 53 days and nights) and …

Submitted by Karen MacLeod-Wilkie Phil Cousineau* describes pilgrimage as a powerful metaphor “for any journey with the purpose of finding something that matters deeply to the traveler.” When I completed the Camino de Santiago in the fall of 2016, it revealed something that mattered deeply to me – an old dream to become an author. …

Submitted by Bryson Guptill, Island Walk Ambassador After months of thinking, designing, and coordinating, directional signs for the Island Walk are now popping up all over the Island. The signs are being installed by highway crews from the PEI Department of Transportation and they conform all with all applicable signage laws and regulations. In addition …

Sporting Intentions is celebrating the grand opening of their new location at 190 Minna Jane Drive, Charlottetown, PE, this October 2020 and we wanted to celebrate with them by sharing the top 5 hiking gear products that you can pick up at Sporting Intentions!

By Nora Wotton In general, everyone who decides to do a long distance walk, does some training.  We increase the length of our training walks and try to incorporate different terrain, such as hills.  We want to avoid having to abandon our walk due to lack of conditioning.  We also want to break in our …

By Nora Wotton I’ve done four long distance, multi-week walks, so I often get asked, Why?  You think that after the first time, I’d have a good answer, but I can’t say that I do.  I’m really not sure why I like doing these relatively arduous walks. They’re hard. I’ve pretty well always carried all …

By Bryson Guptill, Island Walk Ambassador When we walked the Island Walk in October we were especially excited about walking along the shore in the PEI National Park.   Our official route stayed on the main road, but our preference would have been to detour into Cavendish Grove at 2.17 km (right across the road from …

Written by Bryson Guptill, Island Walk Ambassador When we completed our Island Walk in October, 2019, one of our favorite walks was our beach walk to East Point, PEI along the Northside beach.  Beach walks are always special – sand dunes, marram grass, and ocean waves crashing at your feet. The Northside beach is especially …