The Bicycle Adventure Club - Come Ride With Us!

Cape Cod and the Islands

September 8th to September 23rd

Ride Director: Albert Balingit
Ride Co-Director: Jacquolyn Duerr
Ride Driver: Tim Presar
Report by: Susan Drubin

This 2-week ride lived up to the BAC description with “pristine beaches, captivating history, and old-fashioned charm.” Each day’s ride options offered something for everyone - - and most days were pretty easy riding with good roads or bike paths, lovely scenery, random interesting art installations to gaze at and explore, and good company from the group of 21 riders, 2 ride leaders, and one driver who also rode. Riders were from near and far: Ca, Co, DC, Md, Pa, and Wi. And, I am happy to report that the drivers on Cape Cod were exceptionally courteous, with one driver one day sticking his head out of the window and shouting, “we love our cyclists on Cape Cod!” as he stopped to let us make a turn. Except for the last few days, when it was very rainy and very windy, the weather was sunny and clear, perfect riding weather.

The only tricky thing about this ride was for participants who drove their cars because the ride started in Yarmouth, 50 miles from where it ended 2 weeks later in Provincetown. Thus, cars had to be left in Provincetown at the final hotel (after first stopping in Yarmouth to drop off luggage at the first hotel). Some people took the bus from Provincetown to Yarmouth, and others rode bikes back to Yarmouth after identifying a pre-existing route in RideWithGPS. Those of us that rode the 50 scenic miles got a robust start to the trip!

First night in Yarmouth was a very nice full group dinner at a restaurant, walking distance (haha, obviously) from the hotel. We were at the West Yarmouth Hampton Inn, for two nights and it was quite comfy. (All the hotels were comfy with one exception, which was for just one night.) The first official day of riding was a 30 mile ride around Yarmouth and its environs, with some interesting stops along the way including, naturally, some good food such as good coffee and good pie.

Each evening of this trip included a happy hour situated somewhere on the hotel grounds, organized by the leaders and three riders, with the 3-person groups rotating throughout the trip. These happy hours were fun and useful - - we got to chit-chat with all in the group, getting to know each other as we went along, ate yummy food (sometimes enough to be dinner, haha), and the leaders provided us with a summary of ride options and suggested stops for the next day’s ride. We also discovered riders who enjoyed playing games in the evening, such as Bananagrams and Quirkle - - many games were played after dinner over the course of this trip, adding to the enjoyment.

Each day of riding yielded lovely scenery, some along the water, some in woods, and some winding around through beautiful residential areas (some very fancy!), and there’s only so many ways to say “the riding was lovely.” So with that said, I’ll just note highlights along the way.

Of the many rides that skimmed the scenic shores, the ones to and from Woods Hole deserve special mention, including the Shining Sea bike path - - during the three days in Woods Hole most of us got to experience sunrise along this path while riding (some aiming for breakfast in Falmouth), which was a very, very good way to start the day! This was also the hilliest area except for Provincetown.

On Day 5 we ferried over to Martha’s Vineyard, after getting up at the crack of dawn (ugh!) to transport our luggage and bikes to the ferry terminal. The ferry was fun, another chance to chat with all in the group. And anyway, who doesn’t love a good ferry ride over blue water in good weather? (Well, except for the couple of people who were prone to getting queasy on the water, of course.)

Martha’s Vineyard was very interesting with lots of good restaurants and places of interest, including “gingerbread houses,” outdoor art and art galleries, inviting beaches, and lots of “Jaws” paraphernalia around the island (Jaws was filmed on MV). There is the “Jaws bridge,” over Sengekontacket Pond between Oak Bluffs (where we stayed) and Edgartown, from which people often jump into the water, for a thrill, which is a little alarming to witness. But kind of fun as you are cycling over the bridge and people are shouting excitedly while leaping from the railing, waving wildly at you. Edgartown is a lovely old whaling town, and it had a favorite lunch place, Espresso Love offering a large variety of yummy food, baked goods, and coffee, where some in the group stopped all three days of our stay on Martha’s Vineyard.

After three days on MV, we ferried over to Nantucket. Also very lovely but not as interesting as MV except for the Shipwreck Museum, which was excellent and well worth the price of admission. We learned about the many hundreds of shipwrecks, and heroic rescue efforts of the local population, that occurred off of Nantucket on shallow shoals in the 1800s because merchant ships got bigger and heavier to move more goods, and they couldn’t clear the shoals anymore - - but apparently they just kept coming anyway. We were on Nantucket for 3 nights but 2 nights would have been enough to see the whole island and points of interest. The charming town of Nantucket is primarily cobblestones, which made coming and going from our Inn a little complicated. We left Nantucket via ferry in terrible weather - - rainy, very windy, and gusty. Our ferry was the last one allowed out of Nantucket because of the weather. The ferry crew left big piles of barf bags all around, which were used by more than a handful of passengers as the boat caught waves and air over and over during the passage to Yarmouth. From Yarmouth some people in the group cycled in the bad weather to the next hotel in Chatham, and many in the group sent bikes ahead in the van and took taxis. Chatham is a very lovely town even in terrible weather.

Day 12 was also very bad weather but many in the group chose to cycle anyway, heading over to Orleans. The hotel in Orleans was not nearly as nice as the other hotels on the trip, but it was only for one night. Weather was still pretty bad in Orleans the next day, but from there the group headed to Provincetown for the last 2 days where the weather cleared up although it was still pretty windy. Provincetown is much hillier than the rest of Cape Cod, but the hotel was very nice and the town itself is quite nice, with lots of good restaurants, good views, and friendly people. Our ride leaders for this ride, Albert Balingit and Jacquie Duerr, were outstanding. And our driver and “helper” Tim Presar was also outstanding. All in all, this is a great tour and you would not regret doing Cape Cod and the Islands!