Writer's Notebook - James Rafferty Blog

Back on the Cape Cod Rail Trail

Over this past weekend, I got re-acquainted with the Cape Cod Rail Trail, which is one of the premier bike trails on the east coast. My family first explored the trail in the Nineties, but it's changed a lot in the time since with a variety of expansions and new trail segments. After a couple of warmup runs, I decided to head from Eastham south toward Orleans and see how far I could get in a one hour round trip.  

Much of this portion of the trail runs through wooded areas, which makes riding comfortable even on a sunny day. Here's a portion of the trail in one of those wooded stretches:  

One aspect I like about bike trails converted from rail lines is the variety of the surroundings. As I rode through Eastham, on one side I passed an abandoned golf range, complete with overgrown fields and the remnants of yardage markers, interspersed amidst the backsides of local hotels, various types of construction businesses, a large workout facility and more. A half mile up the road, I recognized the local transfer station on the other side of the trail; the landfill portion has now been augmented by the addition of many solar panel arrays, which look a bit like alien invaders who decided to alight upon these manmade hills.  

A little further on, I passed a local landmark restaurant, Arnold's, which is known for its fried seafood, though other options are also available. The parking lot was packed on a Friday evening, but mostly deserted on Saturday morning.  Next, the path crosses under Route 6 and the views get more rustic as the trail veers into residential areas, but also passes by several gorgeous lakes. Here's a glimpse of a lake that visible on the left as one passes through a mix of water and wooded areas that also feature jack rabbits, chipmunks and birds flying by. 

As I got closer to Orleans, the terrain changed and miles of wetlands were visible to our right and in some cases we could see all the way to the inner coastline on the bay side of Cape Cod. Here an earthy mix of fragrances emerged from fields that sometimes get bathed in sea waters during high tides. We had learned about this phenomenon during a visit on the prior day to the Wellfleet Audubon sanctuary a few miles further north. Other fields were drier, but still extended out in undeveloped areas toward the coast.  

Eventually I came upon a portion of the path which I didn't remember from my earlier trips. At one time, as one left Eastham, the next stop on the trail was Rock Harbor, but in order to get there, bikers had to go along the side of the road. Now, the trail continues and extends over a bridge which rises above the roadways below and connects the Eastham side of the trail directly into Orleans. In Orleans, we formerly would have needed to follow roads to pick up the trail again, but now the trail is set aside from the road -- akin to a broad paved sidewalk -- and after a few stop signs and road crossings, the uninterrupted portions of the trail resume. Soon after that, I'd reached the halfway point of my trip, as my stopwatch indicated I'd been riding for a little over thirty minutes. But I felt really good to have reached Orleans and connected with this new portion of the path.  

I turned around and after a short break, resumed my ride for the return trip. I decided to lighten up the pace and kept my eye out for scenes to photograph, some of which I've shown here. I also discovered that the path to Rock Harbor was still available, but was now off of the main bike path.  

By the time I returned to my starting point in Eastham, I'd been riding for just over an hour. I decided to go just a little bit further north. At one time, trains from Boston actually ran on the tracks which have now been replaced by the trail. Here is the stone that marks the one hundred mile distance from Boston.   

The Cape Cod Rail Trail has changed some over the years, but still provides an incomparable view of Cape Cod's many and varied terrains as one rides from mile to mile upon this paved path.  

Writer's Notebook: On the Trail

Yesterday, I wrote about 1400 words on my latest novel. Today, I woke up and decided that it was time to explore a new -- to me -- bike path.  I'm on vacation, so these are the kinds of choices I've been facing each day.  As noted in my last post, I'm in New Hampshire, in the Lakes Region, and we've been fortunate enough to have good weather.  In fact, one-third of my words yesterday were written during a rainstorm in late afternoon and the progress I made inspired me to continue and eventually to finish the chapter that was in progress.   

I've been a bit sore lately, so I chose an easy way out:  I drove to my preferred starting point.   The Cotton Valley Trail was extended about three miles since I last rode it, so I wanted to see this new stretch.  About five minutes into the trip, the path looked like this:  

  

I continued on and was delighted to find I was the only one riding this portion of the trail.  Around me, there were woods of maple, silver and white birch and old growth pines.  As shown above, much of the trail followed the original rail bed, but from time to time, a wooden platform signaled a transition to a path that paralleled the tracks.  The last time scheduled trains ran on these tracks was over twenty years ago, but the tracks have been retained on most sections and converted into a multi-use trail.  Biking is the most common use, but there are also rail hobbyists who run very small train cars on these same tracks, especially on the weekends.  

Later, I encountered a stretch of overturned roots and broken trees -- perhaps a micro-cell had wreaked this havoc in some recent year.  Eventually, I hit an area where the path ran adjacent to a flooded area, which looked like this: 

 

From here, it was only a short ride to the trail's end, where I finally encountered other bicyclists.   Here is the shot from that point.  

As you can see, the weather was outstanding, a great day for biking.  I turned around and really let loose on the way back, riding at a much faster clip than I had on the way out.   The rest of the day?   Swimming, kayaking and helping my son try out water skiing.  Later on, a neighbor dropped by with a margarita by the beach.   Not a bad way to close out our vacation.  Goodbye, New Hampshire, until the next time.