Boat Meadow Beach

August 2010:

Cape Cod is the perfect environment for bike riding. Not only is there the really terrific Cape Cod Rail Trail (which provides about 20 miles of

bike trails on the Outer Cape), but the terrain is generally flat. Consequently, riding on the roads is easy on the legs.

My favorite time to

ride my bike is in the early morning. I like to leave the house by 7:00 a.m. At that time of day, there is very little traffic either on the roads or on the bike trails. Additionally, the sun is not yet out in full force and so the air temperature is usually very comfortable.

One of my favorite short rides is to Boat Meadow Beach. Boat Meadow Beach is the closest bay

side beach to our house. It's just over a mile away. It is also the

smallest beach in our area. The parking lot probably holds no more than a dozen cars, and it's so small that it is not normally "policed" for parking stickers. There is no beach attendant or life guard during the day. Essentially, it is very quiet. But it's a very pretty little beach.

It is located just around the corner from Rock Harbor, and if you get there between 7:00 a.m. and 7:30 a.m., you can see the parade of deep sea fishing boats (for hire) departing Rock Harbor in a single file. There are usually between 6 and 12 boats (or more) heading out.

The beach area is very small and it merges into a marsh area, which makes for interesting bird watching as well. Occasionally, you will see a kayak or two moving around in the marsh and heading for the channel that runs under the bridge on Bridge Road. On the morning that Karen and I rode to Boat Meadow Beach, we saw a blue heron wading in the marsh -- before it took off into the sky.

There are also a few small boats that anchor here, and they are a pretty addition to the landscape at any time of the day.