9 June 04: Province Lands
Click on the thumbnails to see the full size picture.
The Province Lands bicycle trails provide one of the most unique
bicycling experiences around. The unusual and fragile ecosystems of
the sand dunes of Cape Cod are among my favorites, and they are not
generally accessible other than by foot -- except here.
Race Point is the "knuckle" of Provincetown's "hand" (considering
all of Cape Cod as a bent arm), and the Province Lands trails mostly
go around the Race Point area. The trail layout is pretty simple: one
big loop, with a couple of spurs here and there for the beaches.
It's worth pointing out that these trails can be challenging! There
are sections which are very steep (but short), and I was way down in
granny gear sometimes and still barely able to keep the bike moving.
I did not have to dismount and walk, but I saw a number of other
people who did. I spent about one hour and a half exploring the trail
system, but someone who needed to walk their bike might take a lot
longer. Also, sand on the pavement acts just like lots of tiny ball
bearings, and you can lose traction very suddenly, which can be
dangerous on curves.
Paved trails wind through the dunes, amid the scrub pines, desert
grasses, and lichen beds that make this a unique mini-ecosystem as
well as a starkly beautiful landscape.
I like beach roses, and they're just starting to bloom here. This
one's along the trailside, close to the previous two pictures.
More beach roses, these are at the Herring Cove beach dunes.
Some areas are so sandy and arid that they are almost like moonscapes,
studded with lichen beds (the scruffy light green ground cover) and
the gray bones of tree trunks.
Other areas are verdant beech forests, usually along the edges of
glacial kettle ponds. Lots of birds clamor around the ponds.
Pink ladyslippers along the pond edges. In the beech forests, they
seem to be solitary, I only see one or two at a time.
But in the slightly drier pine glades, when the ladyslippers find a
place they like, they go absolutely nuts. These pictures show a
couple of the more dramatic clusters, dozens all together, but I
stopped taking pictures of them because there were lots and lots more.
Like in my recent hikes in the Middlesex Fells, I've seen more
ladyslippers this year than ever before, by a factor of ten at least.
It's amazing. I don't know exactly why this year has been so good for
them, but it has!
A couple more random views along the trail. The first one shows a
rather nice overlook as you approach the visitor center. The second
one shows a pile of white beach roses behind the visitor center
building.
After biking the loop, I went to Race Point beach to check it out, and
it was very nice but not very inviting for a swimmer (rocky steep
beach with piddly little surf) so I drove my van to Herring Cove beach
(where those beach roses are in the pictures above) where there was a
nice onshore breeze off the bay and good big surf. But the van in the
picture isn't mine, I just liked seeing another VW camper.
Anyway, I made a total fool of myself playing in the waves, body
surfing, losing my glasses (but I found them again). The water was
pretty cold, this early in the year (but still not as cold as Folly
Cove or other places where you swim in the naked Atlantic), and there
were dozens of people on the beach, but as far as I know, I was the
only one swimming. I cooled down nicely and then went to Long Pond in
Wellfleet to wash off the salt, and finally got a sandwich and watched
the setting sun at the Wellfleet marina. It doesn't get much better
than this.
This page maintained by
Wil Howitt
Last updated 9 June 2004
