Day 23 & 24 – Cape Cod
October 9, 2008
I apologize for not writing yesterday, and there wasn’t even a reason except laziness on my part ;). Right now we’re on Cape Cod, the “arm” that stretches out from southern Massachusetts and has a lot of little towns and beaches. We’re staying in Dennisport for three nights, having seen everything we wanted to there was no reason for us to keep pushing on the last few miles (Boston is only 80 miles from here). Cape Cod is a popular vacation destination, and it’s not hard to guess why. The climate here is still very mild (2 weeks ago but farther nord, in Canada, it was much cooler) and the beaches are white. Driving and hiking through here feels like being somewhere in the Mediterranean (or in southern France) and the few houses you see are either motels, ice-cream shops or privately owned little white vacation homes. And since the distances are relatively short, yet the density of trails (for hiking & biking) is high it’s a good place to spend a few days. If one beach doesn’t suit you it’s not far to the next one (or even the opposite side of the cape). Having said that, you have to admit that prices during season are somewhat higher than right now ($15 for the beach instead of, now, free admission).
After we had arrived yesterday we headed for the beach (1-mile drive) and, german as we are, built ourselves a little sand-wall surrounding our spot, but it was just for wind-cover and there was no one else on the beach in any direction.
Today we drove up further north (towards the tip of the cape) and stopped at the National Seashore Visitor Information (an US National Park institution) where a nice ranger supplied us with maps and tips where to go and what trails to hike. We decided to take the Great Island Trail near Wellfleet which was the longest one we could find (and also supposed to be the most beautiful). The trail was quite different from the kind of trails we had encountered in Acadia or in the Adirondacks. It was at no part hard to hike (you could do it in Flip-Flops), it didn’t have elevations and for the most part you could see where you were going to be half an hour later. To put it short, it was a nice walk around the dunes and the beach, but to people with hiking boots who are looking for some exercise and nice vistas it can be disappointing. Especially the long stretch on the beach was stupid since you can’t really walk in the sand for long distances and, let’s face it, it’s pretty boring too.
Tomorrow we’re gonna go to Provincetown and Hyannis (probably), so stay tuned ;)
