On a beautiful sunny day in late July, Bryson Guptill stands by the roadside in Victoria-by-the-Sea on Prince Edward Island's South Shore, at the spot where hikers doing the Island Walk should see a sign saying they have reached Waypoint #2. But there is no sign here. At some point during the last year, it disappeared.
That happens. Some signs get damaged by snow plows, and sometimes people just take them. "They like them as souvenirs," said Guptill.
"Especially the little signs that are on the Confederation Trail. They're very popular." Guptill is one of the creators of the Island Walk, a popular 700-kilometre hike that connects existing trails and publicly accessible beaches to circle around P.
E.I. He still acts in an advisory capacity to the small volunteer board, and he knows the missing signs are a problem.
They cost thousands of dollars every year to repair and replace — money the board doesn't have. So every year, it applies to the province for funding to keep the trail appropriately marked. Tourism P.
E.I., the province's tourism agency, was very supportive in getting the Island Walk off the ground back in 2019, supplying initial funding for signage and map creation, but Guptill said support has been less reliable since.
The Island Walk was designed by some volunteers from Island Trails who decided that they wanted to walk around P.E.I.
instead of doing the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage route in Spain. This photo shows some of the original walkers in November 2019. (.