Prince Edward Island is well known for many things; Anne of Green Gables, the vibrant red soil, potatoes and the birthplace of the Confederation. Canada’s smallest province is just teeming with history and we couldn’t wait to pay the good folks of PEI a visit. We arrived in Charlottetown a day early and met with Luke, a long standing member of the cycling community, who gave us a crash course on the history of cycling on PEI. After experiencing some of the trails first hand we quickly decided where the focus of our visit should be. Getting beginner trails established on the Island.
During our stay we had the opportunity to meet with the head of forestry for the Island, the director and technical delegate of Cycling PEI and two local landowners. At each meeting we offered solutions and insight on how to improve trails and mountain biking on PEI. The most important goal of our visit became providing direction for mountain bike trail development on PEI.
We focused our efforts on the first 5 kilometers of existing trail in Murray River and were delighted to find so much history lying around the forest. Old homesteads, vehicles, and artifacts littered the sides of the trail, which made the trail interesting and unique. However, the trail itself was not spectacular. We designed a new 50 meter section of trail which eliminated fall line, provided better flow to the trail and left the local builders a template to work with. On Saturday after the trail building school we worked with 4 volunteers to create a beautiful bench cut which looked like a piece of red ribbon laying the forest and was so smooth to ride that even the non-mountain biker in the group was able to ride it.
A big thanks to our two hosts Luke and Alison MacDonald, and Paul and Susan Jenkins. Thank you to Cycling PEI for putting us up at the Rodd Hotels and bringing us to the beautiful province of Prince Edward Island.