September 15: The Road to Montague 47.2km

With the sun slowly rising over the bay and clouds meandering across the sky, the group of eager riders descended on the the park in front of Founder's Hall at the harbor of Charlottetown for a group picture in the "2015" sculpture before heading out into the countryside and off to the small village of Orwell and the Orwell Corner Historical Village. Situated 18 km west of Montague, just off the Trans Canada Highway, the village is a restored PEI community of 1890s. Most of the buildings are on their original site, including the school house, where one of the local guides attended as a child.

After a guided tour and lunch the pedaling continued down the road to Montague skirting by several farm fields with rows upon rows of potato plants. PEI is known for two major exports: potatoes and blue mussels. PEI is the largest potato-producing province in Canada, growing one-quarter of the potatoes in the country. The rich red soil is perfect for the industry. McDonalds and Wendy's both purchase a great deal of the produce for their long french fries This has resulted in the farmers converting to almost exclusively growing the large potatoes and reducing the volume of new or smaller varieties. This mono-crop choice could have serious ramifications down the road, but today's market demand has the farmers looking the other way. In the past a greater variety was grown allowing for the soil to replenish itself.