Island Walk trekkers have more trail access, new accommodations this year

Long-distance trekkers who attempt to complete the Island Walk now have access to more trails, and more places to stay along their journey.

The roughly 700-kilometre round-trip hike around P.E.I. takes many people 30 days or more to finish.

Since its inception five years ago, Island Walk founder Bryson Guptill has seen the number of participants grow. Their options have also expanded as businesses along the route started to cater to walkers' needs.

Guptill said the walk has done a lot for tourism on P.E.I., comparing it to the success of the Canada Winter Games the province hosted in 2023.  

"We had, last year, close to 10,000 bed nights of accommodation. So that's about equivalent to the number of bed nights that were created during the Canada Games," he said. "We now have B&Bs and other accommodations cropping up right on the route."

Guptill said the participants aren't looking for luxury hotels after so many days of walking, so many of the new accommodations are lower-cost options.

The route has also been changed slightly this year to give walkers more trail time. 

"We're trying to maximize the path-walking or the trail-walking," Guptill said. "We're increasing the amount of the Confederation Trail that we actually use as well." 

'Always ready to go'

Guptill said people come from across Canada, the United States, and even places as far-flung as Australia and New Zealand to attempt the walk.

Betty Hope-Gittens travelled from Ottawa to tackle the full route this year, and to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for charity. 

She's 85 years old, and is no stranger to long-distance walks, having completed the famous Camino de Santiago in Spain in 2019.

"I was 80. I was a youngster then," she said. "I raised $225,000 for 13 not-for-profit long-term care homes in Ottawa."

She’s 85, walking solo around P.E.I., grieving her son, and raising funds for charity

6 months ago

Duration 2:35

Betty Hope-Gittens, an 85-year-old from Ottawa, is on P.E.I. to do the Island Walk — a 700-kilometre trek around the Island. She’s fundraising for two causes dear to her, but also grieving her son, who died in February. She tells CBC’s Laura Meader why she’s doing it, and who she's thinking of.

The goal of Hope-Gittens's Island Walk is to raise $200,000 for two charities that help alleviate food insecurity: Parkdale United Church's In From the Cold program, and the Ottawa Mission's food program.

She hit the halfway point of the Island Walk this week after trekking between 20 and 25 kilometres daily since Mother's Day. 

"In the morning, I'm always ready to go," she said.

'It is beautiful here'

Hope-Gittens thinks the Island Walk's route is still a work in progress, but she loves the trail sections and said she will promote the walk to others.

"It is beautiful here. The walk on the trail is fantastic," she said. "There are benches, there are places for old people like me to rest.

"The highway walks are not my favourites because there are no resting spots at all."

The walk is therapeutic for Hope-Gittens. Her son Simon died of cancer on Feb. 19. She thinks of him and her late husband often as she hikes along.

"I could not have picked a nicer place to find this peace, this quiet, and sort of grieving," she said.

While this is her first trip to P.E.I., Hope-Gittens said it definitely won't be her last.

"The people are the nicest people I have ever met," she said. "Everybody has been so gracious, so kind."