Bicycle Tour: Cape Cod 2023, Day One

On Sunday, September 24, 2023, I started a six-day bicycle tour by taking the fast ferry to Provincetown and riding south to Nickerson State Park.

This was my first tour with my Surly Disc Trucker. I had originally planned to leave on Monday, September 18, but it rained heavily on that day. Plus, I was still learning how to adjust and use the Shimano dual control lever combined brake and shifters on my new bike as the cables stretched.

Then I thought I might head out on Thursday, September 21, stopping for a few nights at Dune’s Edge Campground in Provincetown before going on to Nickerson State Park, but the weather forecast predicted rain on Saturday, and I didn’t want to ride to Nickerson in the rain. Unfortunately, that was the last weekend that Dune’s Edge Campground was open.

So my twice revised plan was to take the ferry to Provincetown and ride all the way to Nickerson.

I left my house at 7:15 a.m. and rode 5.93 miles of bicycle lanes in Somerville, Cambridge, and Boston to the ferry terminal in the Seaport district of Boston, arriving at 8:00 a.m. The ferry was not busy, and I easily found a place in the bike racks on the bow to secure my bike. The ferry departed promptly at 8:30 a.m..

The ferry ride was not smooth, and the crew passed out seasick bags and hard candy. Having been seasick before, I sat outside on the upper rear deck where I could breathe fresh air and keep an eye on the horizon. The ferry pitched up and down all the way across to Provincetown. There was a bell on the upper rear deck, and when the ferry descended a wave and began to ascend the next wave, the bell would ring. After a while, I was able to predict the ringing of the bell. The ride was exhilarating (not always in a good way), and I managed to suppress any nausea.

We arrived in Provincetown at 10:15 a.m. When I rolled my bike off the ferry in Provincetown, a woman who was an experienced touring bicyclist struck up a conversation with me, asking where I was headed. When she learned I was riding to Nickerson State Park, she advised me to look for Long Pond Road in Wellfleet to make it easy to cross Route 6.

I rode east through Provincetown on Route 6A until it reached Route 6. There is a good bike lane on the shoulder of Route 6, and I used that to ride all the way into Wellfleet, with high-speed traffic zooming by on my left.

In Wellfleet, I took a right turn off Route 6 onto School Street, my intention being to find Long Pond Road where I could cross Route 6, which at this point was a four-lane highway with narrow shoulders. I rode south to Main Street, where I turned left to go east. But I missed the left turn onto Long Pond Road, and I ended up back at Route 6. Shrugging my shoulders, I resumed riding south on Route 6, looking for an opportunity to cross. When I was across from Designers Road, I waited for a gap in the traffic and walked my bike across the four highway lanes.

Designers Road was an unpaved lane between houses that crossed east to Old Kings Highway. As I rode slowly east, I came upon a large puddle in the road that was maybe twenty feet long. I carefully rode into the puddle, thinking it would not be too bad if I rode slowly, only to have my front wheel drop into a pothole. The water was lapping at the bottoms of my front panniers, and I thought I was going to fall off my bike. But I was able to keep going forward, and I pedaled out of the puddle without getting wet.

I turned right on Old Kings Highway and rode south past Wellfleet Hollow Campground on the left to the intersection with Route 6, where I was less than a mile from the northern terminus of the Cape Cod Rail Trail. But Route 6 at that point had no shoulders at all, and it looked dangerous to try to proceed.

I wasn’t in a hurry, and I knew from my map that I could take the long away around to get to the Cape Cod Rail Trail, so that’s what I did. I reversed direction and rode north on Old Kings Highway all the way to Cahoon Hollow Road, where I turned right and rode northeast past Great Pond to Ocean View Drive across from the Beachcomber restaurant. I turned right on Ocean View Drive and rode south along the shoreline past Whitecrest Beach to LeCount Hollow Road, where I turned west and continued to the Cape Cod Rail Trail. This roundabout loop was five and a half miles long, and my distance so far from Provincetown was 24 miles.

Next to the Cape Cod Rail Trail, I ate lunch at the Wellfleet Chamber of Commerce building, which had a picnic table under an apple tree and a port-a-john. The building was open, so I went in and talked to the woman there; her job on the weekends was to give advice to tourists about what to see in Wellfleet. I bought a Wellfleet mussel sticker.

At 1:50 p.m. I resumed my journey south, riding 11.3 miles on the Cape Cod Rail Trail from the Wellfleet Chamber of Commerce to Nickerson State Park.

Cape Cod Rail Trail

I arrived at my campsite in Area 1 at 3:30 p.m. My total riding distance was 42 miles. After setting up my tent, I walked down to Flax Pond to take a photo.

My campsite at Nickerson State Park

Flax Pond

Later in the afternoon I rode 4.31 miles on the campground roads.

For the second day of this tour, see Cape Cod 2023, Day Two.