Dave and I decided back in mid-winter, to take our 25th Anniversary Trip to Cape Cod. We are staying in this quaint, touristy village and are very excited as it has been many years since we were this far out on the Cape. Chatham is actually considered to be in the "elbow" of the cape. We are taking our bikes (as is our teenager) and plan on biking much of the Cape Cod National Seashore. Claire will be joining us after 4 days of being by ourselves. She will stay with Dave's folks and our oldest daughter is going to pick her up and bring her out on the cape for us. Both girls will be with us for a couple of nights. We hope to renew our vows on the beach and have Courtney record it for us with her amazing camera.
Because Dave and I like to stay active, I took out this small book from our town library to check out some easy hiking. There are MANY trails on the Cape.
This book is non-fiction and the edition I read was the 3rd edition.
It was copyrighted in 1988 so I am hoping much of the information is the same. I couldn't find a more recent edition.
The book is divided into two sections: Cape Cod, Martha's Vineyard.
Our plan, depending on weather, is to get out to Monomoy National Wildlife Refuge, which is on Monomoy Island, to view the seals and walk the trails. I found it odd that this book didn't include Monomoy!!
What I liked about the book was the trail descriptions. The authors did a very good job in describing the directions on how to reach the trail-heads, and their description of the various sights (flora, fauna, historical landmarks, etc) were excellent. They also included round trip hiking milages.
What I disliked was that the book is in black and white. I think a colored version would be most excellent!
I did like that the authors included almost all of the town halls, chamber of commerce, and conservation office addresses and phone numbers for contact information. This will be helpful seeing as the wifi will be spotty where we are renting.
Something that really got my attention was the fact that they included a bit of history in most of the trail descriptions. I really like knowing the history of places I visit/hike. It makes the trip so much more interesting, in my opinion.
This book has given me quite a few ideas of places to check out. Because we are not spending EVERY moment on the beach :)
I plan on visiting Harding's Beach Trail for a couple of reasons: it is only about a mile from where the cottage we are renting; it is a beach that the locals say we MUST see at sunset; and it is the place where it's an easy 2 mile hike that we can follow up with a swim.
I'm also hoping we can check out these trails:
- FORT HILL TRAIL (because it is part of the Cape Cod National Seashore Trail and I want to see the Whalebone Archway!)
- BUTTONBUSH TRAIL (because, again, it is part of the National Seashore and is a super short loop past a freshwater pond). This is a trail that was designed for blind people so that should be interesting. It is also near a visitor's center which is always handy for gleaning more information about upcoming events in the Cape Cod towns.
- GREAT ISLAND TRAIL: I would love to do this mainly because it appears to be the most challenging trail on Cape Cod due to length (8.4 miles). The book says to get an early start to the heat of the mid-day sun. Apparently this trail is right out in the open and is very long. It leads through tidal pools, into pitch-pine woods, and out in open areas and up bluffs where one can see the Pilgrim Monument in Provincetown on a clear day. Not sure we will get to do this but it's on the bucket list!
There are many good trails in this book so I may just get my self to our local bookstore and pick up my own copy.
In my opinion, this book is appropriate for ages 12 and older.
On a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the highest, I rate this a 9.
2 comments:
Sounds great! I would love to go hiking on Cape Cod!
Oh it sounds likes it's going to be a lovely holiday, Faith! So much of your kinds of things to do.
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