Cavendish

Today we visited the Cavendish section of PEI National Park, and other points west of Dalvay.

The amenities at Cavendish Beach were not yet open for the season, but the Cavendish Dunelands Trail was open. Like the Greenwich Dunes Trail which we hiked yesterday, there was a new floating boardwalk across a pond. The photo below shows the pond to the right of the dunes and the ocean on the left:

Cavendish Beach is west of Rustico Bay. Later in the day, we drove around to the east side of Rustico Bay and hiked some of the trails on Robinsons Island. Below Nancy is relaxing at a lookout over the bay:

From this lookout we saw a pair of bald eagles in the trees, and a raccoon fishing for food in the bay. We also saw a red fox and a snowshoe hare in our travels today. All relatively close.

The Robinsons Island Trail System was unique in our travels. This trail is for both hikers and mountain bikers. It includes 12 technical trail challenges for the latter – rollers, pump tracks, teeter totters, and wood and rock bridges, as well as a bicycle repair station with tethered tools and an air pump. The R.I.T.S., the floating boardwalks, and several of the outlooks on the trails were all new. I would guess that they were built last year.

Today we drove portions of the Central Coastal Drive. This scenic drive is divided into two sections – the Green Gables Shore (north shore) and the Red Sands Shore (south shore). We were on the north shore. The reason it is called the Green Gables Shore is because of this house in Cavendish:

I'll have more to say in a later post about this famous house with green gables.

One of our interesting stops today, outside of PEI National Park, was in Rustico. This town on Rustico Bay is the oldest Acadian settlement on Prince Edward Island, and it is the home of the historic Farmers' Bank of Rustico:

From a sign in front of the building:

A symbol of Acadian survival, The Farmers' Bank of Rustico operated from 1864 to 1894 and was the precursor of the credit union movement in North America.

The building is now a museum, but it was not yet open for the season. The church in the background in the photo above is St. Augustine's Church. From the same sign:

A pro-cathedral built in 1838 by Acadian craftsman, St. Augustine's is the oldest Roman Catholic church still in use on Prince Edward Island. Three tower bells, cast in Sheffield, England, were added during the tenure of Father Belcourt, who also founded The Farmers' Bank of Rustico. Visitors are welcome!

The church was open; there was a funeral in process. We did not visit.

Although we did not tour any buildings, we walked about 200 yards down to the water where we had a close-up view of mussel farming in Rustico Bay: