Had a great ride on Thursday. My brother and I left from my mom's in East Harwich at 8 a.m. and picked up the Cape Cod Rail Trail (CCRT) in Brewster off Long Pond Road. I am no fan of riding at speed on MUPs but my brother is extremely nervous about riding in traffic so I acceded to his route demands. It was early and chilly enough (55º or so) that we pretty much had the thing to ourselves starting out.
With the sun shining and a light northerly wind, we pedaled briskly under a canopy of trees along the path. My brother, sporting his weeks-old C'dale Six13, I on my LeMond Alpe D'Huez. For a short time, we rode along with a woman who was on her ride, headed back to her vacation getaway in Wellfeet and happened to live Lexington.
The CCRT road surface is well maintained and smooth and a great route for getting across quite a bit of the Cape without car traffic. One gripe is that when they cut the grass and brush that borders the trail, they shoot the debris ONTO the trail, so be wary if you take a blind turn with speed. There are only a couple of places where you get views of salt marshes and perhaps the chance to see an osprey or other wildlife, otherwise it's mostly overhanging trees that provide dappled shade. There are two tunnels that take you under Rte. 6, one of which has very sharp turns on entry and exit, so beware.
There are some fairly frequent road crossings and you really should be prepared to unclip as many of the drivers don't stop for you as they should. Often enough we could get to a crossing and just track stand for a moment as the cars stopped to let us pass. There are also extended stretches of the trail where you can pedal along unimpeded by crossings. Again, for serious roadies looking to make good time, this is not the way to go, although it would make for a good recovery/spin route if you are riding hard elsewhere on the Cape.
As the morning drew on, more and more grannies/families/rollerbladers appeared and, as expected, we had to temper our speed more frequently. We got to the end of the RT in Wellfleet where it ends without much notice at large parking lot. We took a right turn on LeCount Hollow Road and made our way to Ocean View Road to pedal along the Atlantic Ocean for a while. Actually, we had only occasional views of the ocean provided by gaps between houses and dunes.
At this point, which might surprise some who've not biked on the Cape, we started to encounter some decent short climbs.
We turned west on Cahoon Hollow Road and made our way across Rte. 6 to ride through Wellfleet Center and out of town via West Main Street, Pole Dike Road and Bound Brook Island Road where we picked up Old County Road. All of these miles were very picturesque with characteristically weather-worn cottages, harbor views, small roller, fun S-curves and occaisional views of Cape Cod bay.
Old County Road led us into south Truro where we got on Rte 6 for a while. Although it's a fairly high volume roadway, there is (for New England) a generous and clean shoulder about 5 ft wide. This next stretch is pretty hilly (again a surprise for so far out on the Cape where you'd think it would be flatter) and we began to pass a number of cyclists laboring their way up. The grade was not torturous (we were able to maintain at least 17mph on the ascents) and the hills were about 3/4 to of a mile long each. I'd say from where we got on Rte. 6 to where we turned on to 6A (Shore Road), there were maybe 4 of these climbs.
The turn from 6 to 6A involves either showing some confidence and signaling your intention to get to the left lane on a downhill section with the traffic following along at 50 mph or going all the way to the intersection, stopping and walking your bike across Rte. 6. I put out my left arm and a kind driver immediately let us drift left so we could cruise onto 6A.
From here all the way into Provincetown, we pedaled along the Bay-side shore or just one row of houses/motels/hotels away from it. Flat. And windy. At this point we were knifing our way through a 10-15 knot northerly wind, swapping lead duty every 30 seconds or so.
Once we were in Ptown, our progress slowed to a near-walking pace: there were to be some parades later in the day and all the car traffic was just poking along and the many other cyclists in town further clogged the streets. We rode to Pilgrim Tower and then found a shady place to sit, refill our water bottles and have a PowerBar.
We began our return trip, grateful that the wind was now at our backs. We agreed to keep the pace down a bit to allow our legs to warm up again but the tailwind encouraged us to go faster. We found ourselves out of Truro and back on Rte. 6 before we knew it.
My brother agreed to stay on Rte. 6 until we could pick up the CCRT again further south of where we left it, to save some time and take advantage of the tailwind. Traffic heading up to Ptown was at a dead stop for miles and many of the stranded drivers amused us with comments of encouragement, derision, whistles and many unidentifiable war hoots and cat calls.
We finally tired of all the near-right crosses, unexplainable braking and other bad car behavior exhibited by the tourist traffic on Rte. 6, so we picked up the CCRT somewhere in Orleans. At this point, it was nearing 11:30 a.m. and the trail was now in full family mode. Our desire and ability for speed had flagged significantly anyways so we poked along, passing the various groups without great urgency.
My brother, who navigated for the trip and lives in Chatham, spaced out and forgot to point out where I could jump off the trail and get back to my mom's in East Harwich, so I ended up all the way down in Harwich Center before turning back NE to my mom's via Rte. 137.
After a little bass fishing that afternoon in White Pond in Chatham, we rewarded ourselves with a lobster/corn-on-the-cob dinner.
Total miles: 85
Avg speed: 19 (a surprise, considering all the CCRT crossings and slowdowns)
Approx 2800 ft of total climb