Biking Martha’s Vineyard and Cape Cod

The first week of May, a pack of my cycling friends descended on our place in Chatham for a week of riding. Ruth took this photo with Jesse, Brian, myself, Doug and Paula behind. Brian, who was on the 2023 Cross Country trip, drove up from North Carolina. Paula, who was on both the 2019 and the 2023 Cross Country trips flew in from California. Jesse and Ruth drove in from Connecticut and Doug from New Hampshire. I like this picture since it captures the joy that seemed ever present throughout the week.

Our week had two big rides. The first was cycling around Martha’s Vineyard on Tuesday morning. Here we are getting tickets for the Falmouth ferry to Vineyard Haven. We had originally planned on riding from the house in Chatham to the Hyannis ferry, but the winds were so strong, the high speed passenger ferry from Hyannis was cancelled for the day. Instead, we drove to Falmouth for the shorter crossing on the more stable car ferry.

While the day was very windy, it was nonetheless beautiful weather. This photo was taken perhaps a mile from the Vineyard Haven ferry terminal at the beginning of our counter clockwise ride around the island.

This is a photo of the Swordfish Harpooner sculpture created by Jay Lagemann in 1994 in honor of the island’s local fishing heritage.

In the morning, we fought our way through the southwest headwinds to the western most tip of Martha’s Vineyard. This is a photo of the Gay Head Lighthouse above the Gay Head Cliffs at the western tip of the island.

The early afternoon was spent cycling east with the wind mostly behind us. Above is a photo of Brian and Ruth chatting as we rode along Atlantic Drive on the southern edge of the island west of Edgartown.

Once we hit Edgartown, we curled around and headed northwest. The southwest crosswinds were gusting at well over 40 mph, jerking our bicycles to the side as we rode. Shortly after this photo, our faces were scoured by sand caught in the wind. In the far distance is the “Jaws Bridge” where Chief Brody’s son was attacked by the shark in the movie Jaws.

Once we reached the East Chop Lighthouse in Oak Bluffs, we knew our circumnavigation of Martha’s Vineyard was almost done. After a short ride to Vineyard Haven, we took the ferry back across to Falmouth, cycled the final few miles to our parked cars and returned home. All told, we rode about 80 miles.

On Wednesday, we rode from our house in Chatham to Provincetown. The route started by going back west along the Chatham extension of the bike path away from Provincetown. After 8 miles, we turned to the northeast towards Provincetown as we connected with the Cape Cod Rail Trail in Harwich. This initial backtracking meant that we could avoid riding on busy roads which have no shoulders.

Shortly after turning onto the Cape Cod Rail Trail, there are some big cranberry bogs on the left.

At about mile 16, our route took us through Nickerson State Park in Brewster MA. The park is named after very distant relatives of mine. The original homestead in what is now Chatham was settled by William Nickerson in 1664. William Nickerson had 10 children, 7 of which were boys. Over the years, the Nickerson name became one of the primary Cape Cod family names. I am in the 13th generation of descendants from William Nickerson. However, my branch left Cape Cod a very long time ago. With the exception of my siblings, all of the Nickersons living on the cape are only extremely distant relatives of mine.

Like the previous day, the wind remained extremely strong as this photo of Provincetown bay shows.

From Provincetown, we headed that last bit north towards Races Point Beach.

By the time we arrived at Races Point Beach, the clouds had moved in. The return trip from Provincetown to Chatham was considerably harder than the outgoing trip. We largely had a tailwind riding from Chatham but returning we faced 54 miles of mostly headwinds. Nonetheless, we managed to complete our 108 mile ride without being caught in the rain nor becoming too exhausted. On Thursday, after the rain cleared, we did a relaxed 30 mile afternoon ride to Hyannis and back. All told, it was a fabulous week cycling with friends.